{"product_id":"wilkie-collins-9780099287476","title":"Wilkie Collins","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Peter Ackroyd\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: PRH India\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Vintage UK\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Artists, Architects, Photographers\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAckroyd at his best -- gripping short life of the extraordinary Wilkie Collins, author of \u003cb\u003eThe Moonstone\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003cb\u003eThe Woman in White\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShort and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely short-sighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colourful clothes, 'as if playing a certain part in the great general drama of life' Wilkie Collins looked distinctily strange. But he was none the less a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women -- and avidly read by generations of readers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAckroyd follows his hero, 'the sweetest-tempered of all the Victorian novelists', from his childhood as the son of a well-known artist to his struggling beginnings as writer, his years of fame and his life-long friendship with the other great London chronicler, Charles Dickens. A true Londoner, Collins, like Dickens, was fascinated by the secrets and crimes -- the fraud, blackmail and poisonings -- that lay hidden behind the city's respectable facade. He was a fighter, never afraid to point out injustices and shams, or to tackle the establishment head on. As well as his enduring masterpieces, \u003ci\u003eThe Moonstone \u003c\/i\u003e-- often called the first true detective novel -- and the sensational \u003ci\u003eWomen in White\u003c\/i\u003e, he produced an intriguing array of lesser known works. But Collins had his own secrets: he never married, but lived for thirty years with the widowed Caroline Graves, and also had a second liaison, as 'Mr and Mrs Dawson', with a younger mistress, Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children. Both women remained devoted as illness and opium-taking took their toll: he died in 1889, in the middle of writing his last novel -- Blind Love. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTold with Peter Ackroyd's inimitable verve this is a ravishingly entertaining life of a great story-teller, full of surprises, rich in humour and sympathetic understanding.","brand":"PRH India","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46461631692951,"sku":"9780099287476","price":650.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780099287476.webp?v=1769307293","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/wilkie-collins-9780099287476","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}