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laurieb755 's review for:
Wilkie Collins: A Brief Life
by Peter Ackroyd
As a fan of Victorian novels, many years ago I asked a neighbor (also a well-read fan) what novels and which authors she recommended. Without batting an eyelash she said The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I have since read that plus The Moonstone, No Name, The Dead Secret, Miss or Mrs?, The Haunted Hotel, and The Guilty River. I enjoyed each one, with the first two being superb.
So it was that I was eager to read Peter Ackroyd's brief book about Collins, having seen the review of it in an October issue of the New York Times. Ackroyd's book did not disappoint.
Initially, in the early chapters, I had to work through Ackroyd's language. While written in 2012, his use of language reminded me more of a Collins' novel than a contemporary author's. The book is peppered with words new to me, including on page 31: rodomontade.
I included the entire quote so that anyone reading my review can have the benefit of the full sentence to try and figure out the meaning of the word (or perhaps you already knew its meaning?)
Turns out that rodomontade means "boastful talk or behavior" and is a "mass" noun, meaning that it needs to have a unit of measurement to indicate quantity. I ran into several instances of new-to-me vocabulary, each causing me to think of Ackroyd as a modern biographer using Victorian language to write about a Victorian author. Nonetheless, I came to delight in coming upon these words and eventually got into Ackroyd's rhythm of writing.
I smiled to learn that Collins and Dickens were close friends who joined together for traveling, producing and acting in plays, and living according to their own creeds. Collins was not a fan of Victorian mores and had a most unusual romantic life. Ackroyd explains the two women of Collins's life as two misstresses overlapping one another. Ultimately, the first woman because his companion and co-traveler, and the second woman was the mother of his three children. He left his estate equally to the two of them, and there was no question in my mind that he respected both of them.
I had no preconceived notion of Collins as a person other than appreciating him as a story teller. Apparently that was his strength, being a story teller who could conceive of complex twists and turns while poking holes in Victorian life. Critics of the time enjoyed his stories but noted the tales themselves were more robust than his character development. This did not deter the public from enjoying his books and productions, and contributing to his financial independence through their patronage.
Peter Ackroyd's book provides an excellent window into Wilkie Collins, his contemporaries, and Victorian times; almost feels like he was there with them all – writing, suffering through health crises, producing, traveling, and living.
So it was that I was eager to read Peter Ackroyd's brief book about Collins, having seen the review of it in an October issue of the New York Times. Ackroyd's book did not disappoint.
Initially, in the early chapters, I had to work through Ackroyd's language. While written in 2012, his use of language reminded me more of a Collins' novel than a contemporary author's. The book is peppered with words new to me, including on page 31: rodomontade.
His first work is a slight piece of rodomontade entitled "Volpurno"; its existence is only known because it was reprinted in a New York journal, and its first English publication is not recorded.
I included the entire quote so that anyone reading my review can have the benefit of the full sentence to try and figure out the meaning of the word (or perhaps you already knew its meaning?)
Turns out that rodomontade means "boastful talk or behavior" and is a "mass" noun, meaning that it needs to have a unit of measurement to indicate quantity. I ran into several instances of new-to-me vocabulary, each causing me to think of Ackroyd as a modern biographer using Victorian language to write about a Victorian author. Nonetheless, I came to delight in coming upon these words and eventually got into Ackroyd's rhythm of writing.
I smiled to learn that Collins and Dickens were close friends who joined together for traveling, producing and acting in plays, and living according to their own creeds. Collins was not a fan of Victorian mores and had a most unusual romantic life. Ackroyd explains the two women of Collins's life as two misstresses overlapping one another. Ultimately, the first woman because his companion and co-traveler, and the second woman was the mother of his three children. He left his estate equally to the two of them, and there was no question in my mind that he respected both of them.
I had no preconceived notion of Collins as a person other than appreciating him as a story teller. Apparently that was his strength, being a story teller who could conceive of complex twists and turns while poking holes in Victorian life. Critics of the time enjoyed his stories but noted the tales themselves were more robust than his character development. This did not deter the public from enjoying his books and productions, and contributing to his financial independence through their patronage.
Peter Ackroyd's book provides an excellent window into Wilkie Collins, his contemporaries, and Victorian times; almost feels like he was there with them all – writing, suffering through health crises, producing, traveling, and living.