Wilkie Collins

Stephen Knight studied at Oxford, then at the University of Sydney, where he completed a PhD on Langland’s Piers Plowman. He taught there for two decades and then worked at Melbourne, De Montfort and Cardiff. He has published widely on medieval and modern literature, with a special interest in widely-known modes such as crime fiction, Robin Hood studies and mid-nineteenth century popular fiction.

• PrefaceIntroduction1.Short Stories 1843-611. Towards the Contemporary Short Story2. Tales of Troubled Women3. Problems for Families, Gentry, and Professionals4. Crime and Detection2. The Engagement with Novels – Ioláni to The Woman in White1. First Moves in Long Fiction2. Novels of Family and Mystery3. Extending the Range: Women, France, and Italy4. Crime and Mystery Fiction at Home5. Sensational Success: The Woman in White3. The Confident Novelist1. A Woman in Darkness: No Name2. `… if there is such a thing as chance?’: Armadale3. Into Mystery: The Moonstone4. Marriage and Its Obstacles: Man and Wife, Poor Miss Finch, Miss or Mrs?5. Return to Troubled Heroines: The New Magdalen, The Law and The Lady, The Two Destinies4. The Later Short Stories1. Introduction2. Beyond Crime Fiction3. Love, Loss, and Emotional Outcomes, from the Male Viewpoint4. Pressures and Claims Towards Marriage, from the Female Viewpoint.5.The Final Novels: Crime, Social Politics, Romance and Melodrama 1. Melodrama and Mystery2. Melodrama and Politics3. Romance and the Difficulties It Faces4. Family and Politics: Final Statements5. Conclusion