Synopsis "Antonina"

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an early expert on secret and anticipation, composing such works of art as The Moonstone, The Woman in White, and Basil. Antonina, or, The Fall of Rome was the first novel to be distributed, a brilliant story of antiquated Rome. In this work, Collins expressed: "To the imaginary characters alone is committed the undertaking of addressing the soul of the age. The Roman ruler, Honorius, and the Gothic lord, Alaric, blend however little at a personal level and the story just starts showing up on such occasions and acting under such conditions, as the records of history stringently approve- yet definite truth regarding time, spot, and the situation is seen in each chronicled occasion presented in the plot, from the time of the walk of the Gothic intruders over the Alps to the end of the principal savage bar of Rome."

Wilkie Collins

(Author)

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(London 1824-1889) Playwright, novelist, and prolific short story writer. At 17, he started working at a tea trading company while writing Ioláni, or Tahiti as it was (Gothic no. 32), a work that was not published until over a century after his death. He studied Law and, although he never practiced, he did use his legal knowledge in many of his works, and critics consider him one of the fathers of the detective genre. In 1851, he met Charles Dickens, with whom he formed a deep friendship and published his main works in his weekly All the Year Around. After Dickens' death in 1870, his popularity waned. He suffered from rheumatic gout which eventually led to an opium addiction. His tombstone epitaph highlights him as the author of the novel The Woman in White.

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