Complete Short Stories of Wilkie Collins (Annotated): Enriched Edition. Victorian mystery stories and Gothic tales with multiple narrators, suspense, and social insight

by Wilkie Collins

This carefully crafted "Complete Short Stories of Wilkie Collins" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. His best-known works are The Woman in White, No Name, Armadale, and The Moonstone. Table of After The Dark The Ostler Mr. Wray's Cash Box The Queen of Hearts A House To Let The Haunted House ("The Ghost in the Cupboard Room") My Miscellanies No Thoroughfare Miss or Mrs? "Blow up with the Brig!" The Hidden Cash The Perils of Certain English Prisoners The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices The Last Stage Coachman The Fatal Cradle The Frozen Deep and Other Stories The Captain's Last Love The Dead Hand The Devil's Spectacles The First Officer's Confession Farmer Fairweather Fatal Fortune Fie! Fie! Or The Fair Physician Love's Random Shot The Midnight Mass Nine O'Clock A Passage in the Life of Mr. Perugino Potts The Haunted Hotel My Lady's Money Who Killed Zebedee Little Novels The Poetry Did It A Sad Death and A Brave Life The Twin Sisters Volpurno - Or The Student John Steadiman's Account (The Wreck of The Golden Mary) A Message from The Sea The Seafaring Man The Dead Alive

Genres: Short Stories

3538 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 21, 2015

About the author

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright, best known for The Woman in White (1860), an early sensation novel, and The Moonstone (1868), a pioneering work of detective fiction. Born to landscape painter William Collins and Harriet Geddes, he spent part of his childhood in Italy and France, learning both languages. Initially working as a tea merchant, he later studied law, though he never practiced. His literary career began with Antonina (1850), and a meeting with Charles Dickens in 1851 proved pivotal. The two became close friends and collaborators, with Collins contributing to Dickens' journals and co-writing dramatic works.
Collins' success peaked in the 1860s with novels that combined suspense with social critique, including No Name (1862), Armadale (1864), and The Moonstone, which established key elements of the modern detective story. His personal life was unconventional—he openly opposed marriage and lived with Caroline Graves and her daughter for much of his life, while also maintaining a separate relationship with Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.
Plagued by gout, Collins became addicted to laudanum, which affected both his health and later works. Despite declining quality in his writing, he remained a respected figure, mentoring younger authors and advocating for writers' rights. He died in 1889 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. His legacy endures through his influential novels, which laid the groundwork for both sensation fiction and detective literature.