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Wilkie Collins was a British writer during the Victorian era best known for pioneering the mystery and detective novel genre with works like *The Moonstone* and *The Woman in White*. His innovative storytelling techniques and complex plots significantly influenced the development of modern crime fiction and made him one of the most popular authors of his time.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 8 Jan 1824
- Died
- 23 Sep 1889
- Works
- 685
Top works
- Chas. Dickens' Christmas story
- Il diamante indiano
- A plot in private life, and other tales
- No name
- The works of Wilkie Collins
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 416
- Total plays
- 6,987
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Works in European collections
12 objects attributed to Wilkie Collins, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
Article
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for The Woman in White (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre.
Born to the London painter William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian and French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After Antonina, his first novel, was published in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became his friend and mentor. Some of Collins' work appeared in Dickens' journals Household Words and All the Year Round. They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s. In the 1870s and 1880s, after becoming addicted to the opium which he took for his gout, the quality of his health declined and, in turn, the reception of his artistic output.
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1824 births1889 deaths19th-century English biographers19th-century English dramatists and playwrights19th-century English essayists19th-century English journalists19th-century English male journalists19th-century English memoirists19th-century English merchants19th-century English novelists19th-century English short story writersBritish expatriates in France