No Name
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Description
Wilkie Collins's investigation of illegitimacy and 'the woman question' in No Name (1862) compels with a wholly different order of suspense from that of The Woman in White or The Moonstone. For its family secret - the Vanstone daughters' illegitimacy, their consequent disinheritance and fall from social grace - is revealed early on, and as Magdalen Vanstone struggles to reclaim her identity, the plot uncovers many a moral, social and legal skeleton in the cupboards of Victorian society. Mercurial and unscrupulous, Magdalen is Wilkie Collins's most exhilarating heroine, one of the rare subversives in Victorian fiction and a woman dazzlingly versatile in her powers of self-transformation. Through her, with great comic vigour, No Name exposes how social identity is constructed, and how it can be dismantled, buried, borrowed or invented.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Book Information
Posts
While I already knew that I love Collins' plots and characters, I had my doubts if he could justify filling 600 pages with what sounded like a simple story. Little did I know that the tale of a young, joyful girl that fights for what is rightfully hers would turn into pretty much a story from a villain's POV. The character development is wonderfully intriguing, as are the turns this book takes. While there might be too much descriptions here and there and some dialogs go on a tiny bit too long, I'm convinced the length of the novel absolutely makes sense. There is room to explore the different stages of the story and focus for a while on aspects some books would glance other. The pacing never suffers, though, since some "between the scenes" developments are brought to you in letters. I also love how there is no character I could just 100% get behind (moral ambiguity is always fun) but still rooted for what is basically a terrible person. I was just fascinated and thoroughly entertained throughout.
Description
Wilkie Collins's investigation of illegitimacy and 'the woman question' in No Name (1862) compels with a wholly different order of suspense from that of The Woman in White or The Moonstone. For its family secret - the Vanstone daughters' illegitimacy, their consequent disinheritance and fall from social grace - is revealed early on, and as Magdalen Vanstone struggles to reclaim her identity, the plot uncovers many a moral, social and legal skeleton in the cupboards of Victorian society. Mercurial and unscrupulous, Magdalen is Wilkie Collins's most exhilarating heroine, one of the rare subversives in Victorian fiction and a woman dazzlingly versatile in her powers of self-transformation. Through her, with great comic vigour, No Name exposes how social identity is constructed, and how it can be dismantled, buried, borrowed or invented.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Book Information
Posts
While I already knew that I love Collins' plots and characters, I had my doubts if he could justify filling 600 pages with what sounded like a simple story. Little did I know that the tale of a young, joyful girl that fights for what is rightfully hers would turn into pretty much a story from a villain's POV. The character development is wonderfully intriguing, as are the turns this book takes. While there might be too much descriptions here and there and some dialogs go on a tiny bit too long, I'm convinced the length of the novel absolutely makes sense. There is room to explore the different stages of the story and focus for a while on aspects some books would glance other. The pacing never suffers, though, since some "between the scenes" developments are brought to you in letters. I also love how there is no character I could just 100% get behind (moral ambiguity is always fun) but still rooted for what is basically a terrible person. I was just fascinated and thoroughly entertained throughout.