Wilkie Collins. Book 6

Wilkie Collins. Book 6: 1. Antonina, or, The Fall of Rome; 2. After Dark; 3. The Guilty River.


1. Antonina, or, The Fall of Rome 

A romance of the fifth century, in which many of the scenes described in the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ' are reset to suit the purpose of the author. Only two historical personages are introduced into the story,— the Emperor Honorius, and Alaric the Goth; and these attain only a secondary importance. Among the historical incidents used are the arrival of the Goths at the gates of Rome, the Famine, the last efforts of the besieged, the Treaty of Peace, the introduction of the Dragon of Brass, and the collection of the ransom,— most of these accounts being founded on the chronicles of Zosimus. This book does not show the intricacy of plot and clever construction of the author's modern society stories; but it is full of action, vivid in color, and sufficiently close to history to convey a dramatic sense of the Rome of Honorius and the closing-in of the barbarians.


2. After Dark 

After Dark is Wilkie Collins's first collection of six short stories, published in 1856. The book is a series of tales supposed to be told to poor travelling portrait-painter, William Kerby, who is forced to abandon his profession for six months in order to save his sight. The tales are stories of adventure, well varied, and often striking in the incidents, or with thrilling situations; and are as pleasant reading as a novel reader could desire.


3. The Guilty River

Short novel originally published as the 1886 Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual.  Written late in Collins's career, it  incorporates two of the themes often featured in his work:  the psychological effects of physical handicap, in this case deafness, and the love of a middle-class man for an intelligent and independent woman from a lower social stratum.