Wilkie Collins bibliography: Difference between revisions

This is a bibliography of the works of Wilkie Collins.

Novels

• Iolani, or Tahiti As It Was. A Romance (written 1844, published 1999)
• Antonina (1850)
• Basil (1852)
• Hide and Seek (1854)
• The Dead Secret (1857)
• A Rogue’s Life (1856 in Household Words, 1879 in book form)
  Collins delayed book publication because he hoped to greatly expand the novel. In the end, it was published in one volume by Richard Bentley and Son with only “occasional additions and improvements”, as he explains in the 1879 preface.
• The Woman in White (1860)
• No Name (1862)
• Armadale (1866)
• The Moonstone (1868)
• Man and Wife (1870)
• Poor Miss Finch (1872)
• The New Magdalen (1873)
• The Law and the Lady (1875)
• The Two Destinies (1876)
• The Fallen Leaves (1879)
• Jezebel’s Daughter (1880)
  Novelisation of Collins’ play The Red Vial, staged at the Royal Olympic Theatre in 1858.
• The Black Robe (1881)
• Heart and Science (1883)
• I Say No (1884)
• The Evil Genius (1886)
• The Legacy of Cain (1889)
• Blind Love (1890)
  Serial publication was already in progress when Collins died leaving the novel unfinished. Completed by Walter Besant.

Short fiction

Collected short fiction

There is no complete scholarly edition of Collins’ short fiction, but there is a useful starting point:

• Wilkie Collins, The Complete Shorter Fiction, edited by Julian Thompson (London: Robinson, 1995 / New York: Carroll and Graf, 1995)

Editions and collections overseen by Collins

Collins often revised — sometimes drastically — and retitled his periodical short stories for book publication. Modern anthologists usually reproduce the book versions, but occasionally prefer the earlier periodical versions.

• Mr Wray’s Cash Box, or the Mask and the Mystery. A Christmas Sketch (1852)
  A seasonal novella on the model of Charles Dickens‘ Christmas books.
• After Dark (1856)
  The stories are linked by a new narrative called Leaves from Leah’s Diary and given unifying supplementary titles (shown after the date).
  • A Terribly Strange Bed (1852) “The Traveller’s Story”
  • A Stolen Letter (1854) “The Lawyer’s Story”
  • Sister Rose (1855) “The French Governess’s Story”
  • The Lady of Glenwith Grange (1856) “The Angler’s Story”
  • Gabriel’s Marriage (1853) “The Nun’s Story”
  • The Yellow Mask (1855) “The Professor’s Story”
• The Queen of Hearts (1859)
  Repeating the device used in After Dark, the short stories in this collection are embedded in a linking narrative so elaborate that the work is identified in some editions as a novel.
  • The Black Cottage (1857)
  • The Family Secret (1857)
  • The Dream-Woman (1855)
  • Mad Monkton (1855)
  • The Dead Hand (1857)
  • The Biter Bit (1858)
  • The Parson’s Scruple (1859)
  • A Plot in Private Life (1858)
  • Fauntleroy (1858)
  • Anne Rodway (1856)
• Miss or Mrs? and Other Stories in Outline (1873)
  The novella Miss or Mrs? was followed by two short stories in the first edition. A Mad Marriage was added in the new edition of 1875.
  • Miss or Mrs? (1871)
  • Blow Up with the Brig! (1859)
  • The Fatal Cradle (1861)
  • A Mad Marriage (1874)
• The Frozen Deep and Other Stories (1874)
  The Frozen Deep is based on the 1856 play of the same name that Collins wrote with Dickens. The Dream Woman reworks earlier material, including the short stories The Ostler and The Dream-Woman, both from 1855.
• The Haunted Hotel, A Mystery of Modern Venice, to which is added My Lady’s Money (1879)
  Two substantial novellas, with The Haunted Hotel sometimes reissued on its own as a short novel.
• The Guilty River (1886)
  A novella written by the ailing author in a late burst of energy over a few weeks in autumn 1886. Never serialised, it was published as a book (with paper covers) by Ainsworth in time for Christmas, and supported by an advertising campaign that included a hundred sandwich-board men plying the streets of London “with Guilty River all over them”.^[1]
• Little Novels (1887)
  Each short story in this collection of previously published pieces is given a new, formulaic title. Here are the original titles followed by the Little Novels titles, which have not gained universal acceptance:
  • The Ghost’s Touch (1879) = Mrs. Zant and the Ghost
  • How I Married Him (1881) = Miss Morris and the Stranger
  • Your Money or Your Life (1881) = Mr. Cosway and the Landlady
  • Royal Love (1884) = Mr. Medhurst and the Princess
  • She Loves and Lies (1883) = Mr. Lismore and the Widow
  • The Clergyman’s Confession (1875) = Miss Jéromette and the Clergyman
  • A Shocking Story (1878) = Miss Mina and the Groom
  • The Girl at the Gate (1884) = Mr. Lepel and the Housekeeper
  • The Captain’s Last Love (1876) = Mr. Captain and the Nymph
  • The Mystery of Marmaduke (1878) = Mr. Marmaduke and the Minister
  • Percy and the Prophet (1877) = Mr. Percy and the Prophet
  • The Duel in Herne Wood (1877) = Miss Bertha and the Yankee
  • An Old Maid’s Husband (1886) = Miss Dulane and My Lord
  • Who Killed Zebedee? (1881) = Mr. Policeman and the Cook

Collaborations

Collins regularly participated in the collaborative projects Dickens devised for the Christmas editions of his periodicals, contributing short stories, chapters or passages to:

• The Wreck of the Golden Mary (1856)
  A novella by Dickens for Household Words with a segment by Collins (“John Steadiman’s Account”).
• A House to Let (1858)
  A novella for Household Words, written with Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Procter.
• The Haunted House (1859)
  A sequence of short stories for All the Year Round, written with Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Adelaide Anne Proctor, George Sala and Hesba Stretton.
• A Message from the Sea (1860)
  A sequence of short stories for All the Year Round, written with Dickens, Robert Buchanan, Charles Allston Collins, Amelia Edwards and Harriet Parr.

See also:

• The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices. No Thoroughfare. The Perils of Certain English Prisoners (1890)
  First reissue in this configuration of three non-Christmas collaborations with Dickens from Household Words.

Non-fiction

• Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A. (1848)
• Rambles Beyond Railways, or, Notes in Cornwall taken a-foot (1851)
  With illustrations by Henry C. Brandling.
• My Miscellanies (1863)

Plays

• The Frozen Deep, drama in three acts (1856–1866)
  1856 version: Composed by Collins and substantially revised by Dickens for four amateur performances (plus a dress rehearsal) before invited audiences in January 1857. Reconstructed from archival sources by Robert Louis Brannan and published as Under the Management of Mr. Charles Dickens, His Production of The Frozen Deep (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966).
  1866 version: Further revised by Collins for a professional production at the Royal Olympic Theatre in October 1866. The script was printed privately for performance use — and copies of this document survive — but it was never published.
• The Red Vial (1858)
• No Thoroughfare, drama in four or five acts (1867)
  Written in collaboration with Dickens and adapted from their novella of the same name (All the Year Round, 12 December 1867), which is itself divided into an “overture”, four “acts”, and an epilogue called “The Curtain Falls”. Staged at the Adelphi Theatre in December 1867. Revived at the Royal Olympic Theatre in December 1876. The theatrical version was published as a standalone volume by “The Office of All the Year Round” (1867) and by De Witt in New York (De Witt’s Acting Plays nº 14)
• Black and White, drama in three acts (1869)
  Written in collaboration with Charles Fechter and staged at the Adelphi Theatre in March 1869. Printed and registered at Stationers’ Hall in London, apparently for private circulation. Published commercially in New York as nº 296 in the De Witt’s Acting Plays series.
• Miss Gwilt, drama in five acts (1875)
  Adapted from Collins’ novel Armadale and staged at the Alexandra Theatre in December 1875. Never published, although copies of the script printed privately for performance use survive, including this one at the Internet Archive.

Films based on his novels

• Basil (UK 1998)
• The Woman in White (UK 1997)
• The Moonstone (UK 1996)
• Zhenshchina v belom (The Woman In White, Russia 1982)
• The Woman in White (UK, TV, 5 episodes, 1982)
• La donna in bianco (Italy, TV, 1980)
• Lucilla (Poor Miss Finch, Germany, 1979, 2 episodes, directed by Wilhelm Semmelroth)
• Der Monddiamant [de] (The Moonstone, Germany 1974, 2 episodes, directed by Wilhelm Semmelroth)
• Great Mysteries (1 Episode: A Terribly Strange Bed, US 1973)
• Der rote Schal (Armadale, 3 episodes, directed by Wilhelm Semmelroth)
• La pietra di luna (The Moonstone, Italy 1972)
• The Moonstone (UK, 5 episodes, 1972)
• Die Frau in Weiß (The Woman in White, 3 episodes, Germany 1971, directed by Wilhelm Semmelroth)
• The Policeman and the Cook (US 1970)
• La femme en blanc (The Woman in White, France 1970)
• La dama vestida de blanco (The Woman in White, Spain 1967)
• The Woman in White (UK, 6 episodes, 1966)
• A Terribly Strange Bed (US 1991)
• Dow Hour of Great Mysteries: The Woman in White (US 1960)
• The Moonstone (UK, 7 episodes, 1959)
• Hour of Mystery: The Woman in White (UK 1957)
• Sergeant Cuff kann den Mondstein nicht finden (The Moonstone, Germany 1955)
• Suspense: The Moonstone (US 1954)
• Tales Of Adventure: The Moonstone (US 1952, 5 episodes)
• Robert Montgomery Presents: The Moonstone (US 1952)
• The Woman in White (US 1948)
• Crimes at the Dark House (based on The Woman in White, US 1940)
• The Moonstone (1934)
• The Woman in White (1929)
• She Loves and Lies (1920)
• The Twin Pawns (1919)
• The Woman in White (1917)
• Tangled Lives (1917)
• The Moonstone (1915)
• The Quest of the Sacred Jewel (1914)
• The New Magdalen (1914
• The Dream Woman (1914)
• The New Magdalen (1912)
• The Woman in White (1912)
• The New Magdalene (1910)

References