Name: The New Magdalen
SKU: 61614328
Price: 976.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Collins, Wilkie
ISBN: 9781545394694

Type

Physical Book

Author

Wilkie Collins

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

354

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x1.9 cm

Weight

0.47 kg.

ISBN13

9781545394694

Synopsis "The New Magdalen"

Novel published in 1873, dedicated to the memory of Charles Allston Collins who died during its composition. One of the most didactic of Wilkie Collins's 'novels with a purpose', treating the then fashionable theme of the 'fallen woman' who attempts to put her past behind her but is repeatedly thwarted by the prejudices of respectable English society. The heroine is not only, conventionally, 'rescued' by a clergyman but, unconventionally, finally married to him. Mercy Merrick has been tricked into the tragic life of a woman of the streets, after a childhood with strolling players and gypsies. She struggles to rehabilitate herself, inspired by a sermon given by a young clergyman, Julian Gray, in the refuge where she was living. Working as a volunteer nurse in the Franco-German war of 1870, she meets Grace Roseberry, a penniless but well-connected and respectable young woman. When Grace is apparently killed by a German shell, Mercy assumes her identity. Armed with a letter of introduction to Grace's relation by marriage, Lady Janet Roy, she is helped to reach England by Horace Holmcroft, a war correspondent and acquaintance of Lady Roy. Mercy is warmly welcomed and becomes her companion and adopted daughter. With Lady Roy's approval, she becomes engaged to Horace. Grace is not dead, however, since her life has been saved by a German brain surgeon. She returns to England and is introduced to Lady Roy by Julian Gray, but lacking the evidence to back up her claim, is rejected as an imposter. Mercy is about to confess but is antagonised by Grace's vengeful, unforgiving nature. Grace is deemed insane and is about to be confined in an asylum when Mercy once more comes under the influence of Julian Gray, who falls in love with her, and she finally admits her deception.

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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