Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins

Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins

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Summary

Written in 1870, this work combines the fast pace and tight plotting of Collins most famous novels with a biting attack on the marriage laws of Victorian Britain. At its centre is the plight of a woman who fears that archaic marriage laws may have forced her into committing unintentional bigamy.

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Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins

`This time the fiction is founded upon facts' stated Wilkie Collins in his Preface to Man and Wife (1870). Many Victorian writers responded to contemporary debates on the rights and the legal status of women, and here Collins questions the deeply inequitable marriage laws of his day. Man and Wife examines the plight of a woman who, promised marriage by one man, comes to believe that she may inadvertently have gone through a form of marriage with his friend, as recognized by the archaic laws of Scotland and Ireland. From this starting-point Collins develops a radical critique of the values and conventions of Victorian society. Collins had already developed a reputation as the master of the `sensation novel', and Man and Wife is as fast moving and unpredictable as The Moonstone and The Woman in White . During the novel the atmosphere grows increasingly sinister as the setting moves from a country house to a London suburb and a world of confinement, plotting, and murder. This book is intended for students of English Literature, particularly Victorian Literature, from undergraduate level upwards.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780192831460
ISBN 10 0192831461
Title Man and Wife
Author Wilkie Collins
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Oxford University Press
Year published 1995-03-01
Number of pages 682
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.