Basil - Wilkie Collins - Background Information

[Deborah, Moderator]

Background information should be posted here. Please add anything you find of interest of the author, time period, etc.

[Deborah, Moderator]

Dickens said of this book “I have made Basil’s acquaintance with great gratification, and entertain a high respect for him...the story contains admirable writing...you have a call to this same art of fiction”.

Collins himself said “I have founded the main event out of which this story springs, on a fact within my own knowledge”.

This was Collins second book, written in 1852, (revised by him 10 years later) and put him on the map in suspense melodrama. He was 28 years old. Although not as famous as The Woman in White or The Moonstone, Basil is considered one of his best works. This work has an eerily believable backdrop which is created through strict attention to the Victorian setting.

[Deborah, Moderator]

A brief biography of Collins can be found in A Focus on Our Authors thread.

[Deborah, Moderator]

The book should be readily available. While I had mine of my shelf, many copies were available from Amazon. I also found the ebook using Libby (borrowing from library).

[Deborah, Moderator]

In section 2 there is a reference to Abelard and Heliose.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&r...