No Name (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Collins, Wilkie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199536732 ISBN 13: 9780199536733

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2008

Synopsis

Magdalen Vanstone and her sister Norah learn the true meaning of social stigma in Victorian England only after the traumatic discovery that their dearly loved parents, whose sudden deaths have left them orphans, were not married at the time of their birth. Disinherited by law and brutally ousted from Combe-Raven, the idyllic country estate which has been their peaceful home since childhood, the two young women are left to fend for themselves. While the submissive Norah follows a path of duty and hardship as a governess, her high-spirited and rebellious younger sister has made other decisions. Determined to regain her rightful inheritance at any cost, Magdalen uses her unconventional beauty and dramatic talent in recklessly pursuing her revenge. Aided by the audacious swindler Captain Wragge, she braves a series of trials leading up to the climactic test: can she trade herself in marriage to the man she loathes?
Written in the early 1860s, between The Woman in White and The Moonstone, No Name was rejected as immoral by critics of its time, but is today regarded as a novel of outstanding social insight, showing Collins at the height of his powers.

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About this title

Review:

"A relatively unknown masterpiece" (The Times)

"Magdalen, a woman who resists the Victorian idea of the angel in the house and proves to be unscrupulous in her fight for survival against poverty and prejudice, employing disguise and deceit to win back what she believes is rightfully hers" (Observer)

"Dizzyingly readable, with a feminist anti-heroine up to all sorts of deception and skulduggery, cheered along by the reader every step of the way" (Mail on Sunday)

"Two dispossessed sisters fight for their inheritance, the narrative snaking compellingly around Victorian Britain" (Sunday Times)

"Collins explores the iniquity of Victorian morality by damning the future of his resourceful heroine at an early stage with the discovery of her own illegitimacy. Deprived of her inheritance and even her name, Magdalen Vanstone sets out with frightening courage to reestablish her fortune and reputation. The ingenuity and guile she employs to achieve her end makes her a rare figure in Victorian literature and one of Collins' most subversive characters" (The Times)

Book Description:

'A very good thriller...I enjoyed it immensely' William Trevor, Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0199536732
• ISBN 13: 9780199536733
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 784
• Editor: Blain Virginia