The Frozen Deep

by Wilkie Collins

Frank Aldersley becomes engaged to Clara Burnham on the eve of his departure on a journey to discover the Northwest Passage. Unbeknownst to him, Richard Wardour, his spurned rival, joins the crew of another ship belonging to the same expedition. When the ships get trapped in the ice and the men are randomly drawn into the same search party, Richard finds himself torn between his desire for revenge and the need for solidarity in the face of adversity. Based on an actual doomed mission to the Arctic captained by Sir John Franklin, and initially written for the stage in collaboration with Dickens - who also acted in the play - The Frozen Deep is an action-packed tale of vengeance and sacrifice

You can't help feeling that Wilkie Collins was more in tune with modernity than his friend Charles Dickens. * The Guardian *

Wilkie Collins remains most famous for his novels The Moonstone and The Woman in White, in which he pioneered a new style of "sensation" writing, the influence of which can still be seen in today's culture in the genres of crime, mystery and suspense. He is also renowned for his close relationship with Charles Dickens, who regarded him as the most talented of his many proteges.