Armadale by Wilkie Collins - 4 stars (added to bookshelf)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

It's been more than 5 years since I read my last Wilkie Collins - far too long to have waited! He is just such good fun. This one has Goodreads members shelving in a variety of ways, from Classics (naturally) to mystery, thriller - and gothic. I looked at these because, in the first 100 pages or so especially, I thought this read like a gothic novel, and sure enough, so did others. It is deliciously dark.

Some last-left instinct of her married life in its earlier and happier time pleaded hard with her to respect the youth and the sex of her child. But jealousy respects nothing; in the heaven above and on the earth beneath, nothing but itself. The slow fire of self-torment, burning night and day in the miserable woman's breast, flashed its deadly light into her eyes, as the next words dropped slowly and venomously from her lips.

And this, I'll tell you, is not about the true villainess. Oh, the real villainess of the novel is such a diabolical woman! What is her scheme, why is she here? I felt as if the reader knew everything - so not as much mystery as one might find elsewhere - except for this why.

Collins prose is wonderful. His characterizations are not quite as fully-fleshed as is my usual want, but this genre doesn't usual provide such and I wasn't too disappointed about it. But the lack drops this from a rousing 5 stars, so that it sits toward the top of the 4-star stack. I was about halfway when I knew I wanted to read more of Collins and purchased the Delphi Complete works. I want to have them all on hand!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I hope you like it. He does his usual different presentations of the story - letters and diary entries in addition to normal third person.

[Karin]

Since you liked The Woman in White better than The Moonstone, I'm going to put this on my tbr and hope I like it. I liked W in W (not as much as you did) but not Moonstone, so I'm going to hope that I will like this one.