No Name : Complete And Uncensored

“No Name,” by Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), a friend and oft-collaborator with Charles Dickens, is another splendid novel by a great novelist. Some scholars insist that Wilkie Collins was the man who invented the “detective stories.” I encourage readers – those who enjoy a good story told by a masterful writer - to purchase this volume and, indeed, all of Wilkie Collin’s novels. This is a good book with an attention-getting suspenseful drama, not as good as his “Moonstone” and “Lady in White,” or even “The Hunted Hotel,” all of which are superb dramas that begin with unusual episodes, but it is still good and an enjoyment to read. It is more of a legal and moral story, but it is suspenseful and attention-grapping and holding. The title “no name” describes two very nice girls who because of their parents’ “sin” are deprived of their name and legacy.The year is 1846 and the place England which had a law at that time that children of a couple who are not married to one another could not inherit from their parents. The law also stated that when someone marries his or her prior will loses its validity. The two girls in this story – one of whom is very strong-willed – were born while their father was married to another woman, but left her and lived with their mother. Their father is very rich. He left his estate in a will to his paramour and their two daughters. When he heard that his true wife died, he and his paramour rushed to marry. He died before he could write a new will. As a result of the antiquated English law, the marriage of their parents did not make the children legitimate and “the sins of the parents was visited upon their children,” they could not inherit. Under the law, the huge estate went to a man who hated the dead father and had been seeking revenge against him for what he considered a crime that he committed that affected him.The suspense in the drama focuses on what the two girls do and how their now penniless situation affects the proposed marriage of one of them, a marriage that was supposed to occur shortly.

The thing I enjoy about reading Wilkie Collins books is the twists and turns of the story. He provides great insight kabout society in the mid 1800s A great reat experience.

Everybody knows this Victorian novelist for his ultra-popular The Moonstone and The Woman in White. However, Wilkie Collins's lesser known novels are also worth reading. In my opinion, No Name is a lot better than both of the author's more popular novels, and I wonder why it isn't better known.The greatest achievement of the novel is the protagonist, Magdalen Vanstone. World literature hasn't produced many images of strong, resourceful, intelligent women. This is why rare exceptions such as Collins's heroine are so priceless. Magdalen is a woman with a cause, a plan, a dream that she pursues single-mindedly and without any reservations. Thankfully, this dream does not consist of snagging a rich husband with a big mansion, which makes Magdalen very unlike the insipid protagonists of Austin's novels.No Name has a very complex plot where two powerful, resourceful women scheme against each other. At a first glance, it seems that the object of their scheming is money. However, one soon realizes that it isn't about money at all for either of the heroines. Of course, as women of the comfortable, educated class of society, they need some financial means to maintain an existence that will not be too degrading to their sensibilities. However, their struggle for the inheritance allows them to exercise their intelligence in a way that no other pursuits available to women of their class at the time would be able to do.The ending of the novel is particularly curious. Behind an apparent concession to the patriarchal norms presenting women as pathetic, fragile flowers, the readers can see an alternative vision of reality, one where women remain untamed and undaunted no matter what befalls them.It's interesting how the novels with weak and pathetic female characters survive and preserve their popularity a lot better than novels with powerful and complex female protagonists. Everybody is besotted with the inane, weak and weepy protagonists of Pride and Prejudice Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, etc. but who has heard of Magdalen Vanstone and Aurora Floyd? Bear in mind that the absolute majority of the readership of these novels is and has always been female.

In his introduction to the book, Mr Collins warned that the major mystery of the book would be revealed fairly early on and that the rest would be the telling of the aftermath of that revelation in the various time and situations experienced by the characters. This departure from the accepted norm of novel building was done masterfully. I was a captive to this literary experiment from beginning to end with surprises being delivered to the last pages. I highly recommend this read. May I also say how much I appreciate that such a scope of the human condition could be covered without resorting to being crude, vulgar or profane.

Wilkie Collins writes a good, fast paced story. Even for today's readers, the plot is tense. Set in 19th century England, it will appeal to fans of Dickens and Austin, with drama, intrigue, unexpected twists and heartbreak. The English is clean and sharp.Not wanting to give away any of the plot, I will say only this. I found the characters complex and vivid, and the intensity of their drive or equally extreme lack of purpose, captivating, and maybe a little shocking. I was also struck by the author’s underlying premise about what was true and what was important. You can feel him stretching the principles of the society of his day, challenging them, and in the end, settling them a little differently.I highly recommend it.

Received a copy with a different cover photo. The font is decent. Received on time and in very good condition.

Received

This is the story of two young women, daughters of a wealthy family, who discover through a cruel trick of fate that they have been left penniless after their parents die suddenly. Wholly unwilling to submit to her lot and become a governess, the elder, Magdalen, decides she will obtain her fair share of her father's estate from her estranged relations, regardless of the deceit, plots and subterfuges she must engage in to do this. Wilkie is at the height of his powers here, and has written a real page-turner. I could hardly put it down.

'No name' décrit l'histoire d'une vengeance menée par une jeune fille qui ne veut accepter le destin qui se présente à sa sœur et elle, à cause des lois injustes de l'Angleterre du XIXe siècle. Même si les moyens qu'elle met en œuvre peuvent sembler à nous habitués aux romans et films d'espionnage menés tambours battants avec tout ce que la technologie moderne peut offrir, je me suis délectée du style de l'auteur.Wilkie Collins est souvent décrit comme l'inventeur du roman à suspense et il est vrai qu'il y en a dans ces romans mais ce sont plus ses talents de narrateur qui me font aimé ces livres: la description précise, pleine de réalité des personnages, de leur caractère, de leurs pensées et la belle prose rappelant Alexandre Dumas.

This is a very good book - if you enjoy a leisurely stroll through the past with an excellent cast of characters and a cracking good plot. Collins was a champion of the under-dog in a much less sentimental way than his friend, Dickens, and in this story he takes on the establishment over the laws on illegitimacy and inheritance. The heroines are disinherited through no fault of their own - and Collins clearly disapproves of visiting the crime of the parents on to innocent children. The older sister accepts her fate and sets out to earn her living, the younger sister does the opposite.What I found remarkable in this book is that the main character, Magdalen, although defying convention, is entirely bound by it. She cannot do anything on her own as a woman, she needs a man to support, guide and assist her. She is almost absolutely powerless to act on her own behalf in her society and her only real power is her sex appeal, which she uses remorselessly to marry for revenge. However, everything she does, all her plotting, scheming and subterfuge, gets her absolutely nowhere. She does not succeed in getting back the inheritance she and her sister were cheated out of. Nor does Collins allow his characters any of those amazing leaps of luck, logic or circumstance that aid so many other heroes and heroines in such an unlikely way in so many other novels.I disagree with Virginia Blain who wrote the introduction. I do believe Magdalen is entitled to happiness at the end of the novel. What she does may have been utterly shocking to a Victorian reader, but it all reads as entirely plausible and understandable to a modern reader. She suffers quite enough to satisfy even the most hard hearted of Victorian readers and I was delighted when she achieved happiness almost by accident at the end of the novel.The ending was not a 'cop out', it was perfect.As other reviewers have said, this novel would make a cracking costume drama - where are you, BBC/ITV?!