No Name (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Collins, Wilkie

3.95

9,564 ratings by Goodreads

9780192833884: No Name (Oxford World's Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019283388X ISBN 13: 9780192833884

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 1998

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Condemned by Victorian critics as immoral, but regarded today as a novel of outstanding social insight, No Name shows William Wilkie Collins at the height of his literary powers. It is the story of two sisters, Magdalen and Norah, who discover after the deaths of their dearly beloved parents that their parents were not married at the time of their births. Disinherited and ousted from their estate, they must fend for themselves and either resign themselves to their fate or determine to recover their wealth by whatever means.

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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

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