Wilkie Collins. Book 3

Wilkie Collins. Book 3: 1. No Name; 2. The Black Robe; 3. The Two Destinies.


1. No Name

No Name (1862) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century novel revolving around the issue of illegitimacy.

The story begins in 1846, at Combe-Raven in West Somersetshire, the country residence of the happy Vanstone family. When Andrew Vanstone is killed suddenly in an accident and his wife follows shortly thereafter, it is revealed that they were not married at the time of their daughters' births, making their daughters "Nobody's Children" in the eyes of English law and robbing them of their inheritance.


2. The Black Robe

The Black Robe is an 1881 epistolary novel by famed English writer, Wilkie Collins. The book relates the misadventures of Lewis Romayne, and is also noted for a perceived anti-Catholic bias.

As the story begins, Romayne and his friend, Major Hynd, are in Boulogne to visit Romayne's aunt, who is dying. While there, he attends a card game, where he has an argument with a corrupt card sharp, the General, who challenges him to a duel. However, the general doesn't turn up himself but nominates his son, an accurate shot, who should win the duel. Romayne absolutely does not want to fight but is goaded into doing so. Against the odds, he accidentally kills his opponent, and the screams of the man's boy-brother after the death come to haunt Romayne for the rest of his life.

 

3. The Two Destinies

Wilkie Collins's novel was published in 1876 and dedicated to Charles Reade.  Collins explores the themes of 'destined spirits' and supernatural visions.  He acknowledges taking the second idea from a case reported in Robert Dale Owen's Footfalls on the Boundary of another World.  This describes how a ship's captain is convinced to change course after seeing an apparition and saves the passengers of a wrecked ship, including the person in the vision.