Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright and short story writer best known for The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). The last has been called the first modern English detective novel. Born to the family of a painter, William Collins, in London, he grew up in Italy and France, learning French and Italian. He began work as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, appeared in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend and mentor. Some of Collins's works appeared first in Dickens's journals All the Year Round and Household Words and they collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins achieved financial stability and an international following with his best known works in the 1860s, but began suffering from gout. Taking opium for the pain grew into an addiction. In the 1870s and 1880s his writing quality declined with his health. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage: he split his time between Caroline Graves and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.

Source: Wilkie Collins on Wikipedia.

• The Moonstone

  
  The Moonstone 1868
• The Woman in White

  
  The Woman in White 1999
• The Haunted Hotel
  The Haunted Hotel 2007
• The Law and the Lady

  
  The Law and the Lady 1875
• The dead secret

  
  The dead secret 1857
• The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time
  The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time 1998
• No name
  No name 1862
• Country House Murders

  
  Country House Murders 1989
• Poor Miss Finch

  
  Poor Miss Finch 1872
• Basil
  Basil 1852
• The Evil Genius. A Domestis Story
  The Evil Genius. A Domestis Story 2001
• The Black Robe
  The Black Robe 1881
• Antonina, or, The fall of Rome

  
  Antonina, or, The fall of Rome 1850
• The Christmas Stories [8 stories]
  The Christmas Stories [8 stories] 2000