Wilkie Collins author page

Wilkie Collins biography

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright, recognised for his contributions to the development of the detective and sensation novel genres. He published his first novel, Antonina, in 1850. Collins is best known for The Woman in White (1860), which was serialised in All the Year Round and later published as a book. This work is considered one of the earliest mystery novels and achieved significant commercial success.

Collins collaborated with Charles Dickens on several projects, including the play The Frozen Deep (1857). He also contributed stories to Dickens’s periodicals. His novel No Name appeared in 1862, followed by Armadale in 1866. In 1868, Collins published The Moonstone, which is often cited as a pioneering work in the detective fiction genre. The novel introduced the character Sergeant Cuff, regarded as one of the first professional detectives in English literature.

Other notable works by Collins include Man and Wife (1870), Poor Miss Finch (1872), The Law and the Lady (1875), and The Haunted Hotel (1878). Collins’s writing was marked by intricate plotting and the use of multiple narrators. His works were widely read during his lifetime and have remained in print.

Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White and The Moonstone are frequently cited in literary histories for their influence on the development of modern crime and mystery fiction.