The Dead Secret was Wilkie Collins's fourth published novel. Like its predecessor Hide and Seek, the "secret" and the mystery are made clear to the reader, though not to the novel's characters, at an early stage. The obsessed and arguably deranged Sarah prefigures the character of Hester Dethridge in Collins's Man and Wife, and more distantly those of Lydia Gwilt in Armadale and the female protagonist of his late novel, The Haunted Hotel. The blind Leonard is another of Collins's disabled characters. He plays ...
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The Dead Secret was Wilkie Collins's fourth published novel. Like its predecessor Hide and Seek, the "secret" and the mystery are made clear to the reader, though not to the novel's characters, at an early stage. The obsessed and arguably deranged Sarah prefigures the character of Hester Dethridge in Collins's Man and Wife, and more distantly those of Lydia Gwilt in Armadale and the female protagonist of his late novel, The Haunted Hotel. The blind Leonard is another of Collins's disabled characters. He plays only a small part in the novel, but Collins drew another and more significant blind character in Lucilla, the heroine of his 1872 novel Poor Miss Finch. Much of the novel is set in Cornwall, one of Collins's favourite English counties, which also features in his early melodrama Basil. Contemporary critics held mixed opinions, some seeing an advance on Collins's previous Hide and Seek, and some less enthusiastic. Peters regards the handling of the "secret" as a weakness in construction, and does not rate the novel highly within Collins's oeuvre. Nadel's description of it as the last of Collins's "apprentice novels" emphasises the gap between it and Collins's next novel, the acclaimed The Woman in White. Nevertheless it has proved enduringly popular and remains in print. (wikipedia.org)
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I'm a Wilkie Collins fan, so just about any book by Wilkie Collins will be read by me. All his stories though are excellent reads and "Dead Secret" is no different. I recommend it.
adi62
May 28, 2007
excellent
Wilkie Collins is an excellent writer. All of his books I would recommend. They are all the type of books that you can't put down once you start reading them. It only took me a short time to read The dead secret. I also recommend the Woman in White and The Moonstone. and No name all by Wilkie Collins.
