Customer Reviews

Armadale (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wilkie Collins' suspense thriller "Armadale" contains no less than four main characters, named Allen Armadale - two fathers, each with a single son and heir. Only one Allen Armadale, however, is the rightful owner of the estate, Thorpe-Ambrose, plus a fortune in pounds sterling, and title to land and wealth in Barbados, West Indies. Although the plot sounds convoluted, if only by containing so many characters of the same name, I have to say this is compelling reading at its best, and the narrative is extremely understandable and well paced. The author is a master storyteller.

Allen Armadale, (let's call him #2), makes a death bed confession in 1832, at the Swiss health resort of Wildbad. The only English speaker available to document the dying man's final words is a Scot, Mr. Neal. This shocking written disclosure is then mailed to Armadale's executors to be given to his infant son, (Allen Armadale #3), when he comes of age.

Armadale, (#2), nee Wrentmore, was born in Barbados and upon turning twenty-one he received a surprise inheritance from his godfather, a Mr. Armadale, of Thorpe-Ambrose in Norfolk, England. The young man would become the owner of his godfather's considerable Barbadian estate on the condition that he change his name to match that of his benefactor. It was thus that Allen Wrentmore became Allen Armadale, the largest proprietor and wealthiest man on Barbados. The elder Armadale had just disinherited his own profligate son, Allen Armadale #1. The infamous son, going by the pseudonym Fergus Ingleby, turns up in Barbados shortly thereafter and befriends his distant cousin, the newest addition to the Armadale line. The consequences of this relationship are dire.

Years later, another pair of Armadale men (#3 and #4), both in their early twenties, meet and become the best of friends. Although each has been warned never to come into contact with the other, there is, initially, no way for them to recognize each other's true identities. As with their forefathers, a generation before, a pseudonym is involved here. Unlike their fathers, however, both are totally innocent of malicious intent.

All four Allen Armadales are connected by the most enigmatic, fascinating villainess that I know of in literature, Lydia Gwilt - although her name leaves much to be desired aesthetically. Miss Gwilt, perhaps fiction's first femme fatale, is a beautiful, sensual, flame-haired temptress. She is also a bigamist, dope addict, forger, and murderess....at the very least, and probably the book's most intelligent personage. Her intrigues drive the plot of this gripping drama: a tale of murder, espionage, counter-espionage, criminal fraud, adultery, inescapable destiny, romantic rivalries, confused identities, innumerable secrets and lies. Also included in the storyline is a chilling portrait of an abortionist with a bizarre clinic, which he utilizes with lethal intent. Amazingly, Mr Collins' book was published in 1866...and we complain about too much crime and violence in today's entertainment! A book reviewer of the period wrote of Lydia Gwilt in the "The Athenaeum," (1866), "One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction." I find that none of Collins' characters are all good or all bad, though, and Miss Gwilt certainly earned my sympathy on more than one occasion. The author's three dimensional characters are just one of the many reasons "Armadale" is such an addictive read.

Collins controls complex plots and subplots with seeming ease. He focuses on the question of fate as opposed to free will. Are our destinies predetermined or can they be altered? One of the main characters fights relentlessly against what he is convinced is his fate. At other times, he seems reconciled to it. The novel also introduces the first private detective that I know of in fiction, in the person of Mr. Bashwood - certainly no model for Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade or Mike Hammer.

Wilkie Collins was a close friend of Charles Dickens, and they both serialized their popular fiction, called 'sensation novels' by many. The nineteenth-century Victorian serial novel allowed authors to make a single story last for years, like today's most popular soap operas. This type of fiction was much more topical, and targeted a wider audience than our soaps, however. The history of the serial gives an understanding of how important writers like Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins were to serial publication and how important serial publication was to nineteenth-century readers. Other popular episode writers of the time were Alexander Dumas, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, William M. Thackeray, etc.. Wilkie Collins, called master of the cliff-hanger is famously quoted for saying: "Make 'em cry, make 'em laugh, make 'em wait - exactly in that order."

A recently discovered interview with Wilkie Collins reveals that "Armadale" was his own favorite among his works. I have read both "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" and found them to be exceptional, really great reads. "Armadale" may be the best of the three. I was absolutely riveted. Highly recommended!
JANA

Collins' efforts with his justly famed "The Moonstone" and "The Woman in White" have perhaps overshadowed his very fine work as seen in "Armadale." Lydia Gwilt (don't you love the last name?) is one of the great unsung characters in English (or any western) literature. Collins seems to delight in making her as full-bodied, as attractive to men, and as dangerous as he can without ever losing his grip and falling over the slippery precipice into satire. Given the tenor and social conventions of the time, her quest for revenge on the despicable Alan Armadale seems perfectly in keeping. Lydia Gwilt is like an early, English Scarlett O'Hara without the redeeming humor Scarlett was known to exhibit. All in all, an extraordinarily well-written and three-dimensional character study.

This novel is quite on par with _The Woman In White_, and I think I may even like this novel just a little bit more. I particularly like the fact that in this novel, Collins lets the villain tell a large portion of the story, making her a more sympathetic character than Count Fosco ever was. Throughout the novel, you know full-well that Lydia Gwilt is a wicked woman and that she is out to destroy Alan Armadale, but you can't help wishing her success. (The fact that Alan Armadale is a complete jerk doesn't hurt her case, either!)

Of course, the Most Sympathetic Character Award doesn't go to Lydia; it goes to the ever-suffering Ozias Midwinter. From his birth, this poor guy never gets a chance to be happy, but you'll have to read the book yourself to find out why not.

This book doesn't have the humorous, tension-easing characters of _The Moonstone_ or _The Woman In White_, but, as you might expect from Wilkie Collins, this book is fast-paced, entertaining, and an amazingly good read!

This is my seventh book by Wilkie Collins. He has not yet let me down and certainly did not let me down with this one.

This is considered one of his big 4 along with No Name, The Woman in White and The Moonstone. This is also the 4th of these 4 that I have read. If you have not read any of Wilkie's books, then start with these 4; they are all very very good books. It is difficult for me to rank these 4 books in the order in which I like them best. However, of all of them, The Moonstone is still my favorite but the other 3 run neck and neck and I have no favorite among the other three. If you have read The Moonstone and/or The Women in White, don't stop there. Read this book and No Name; you will enjoy them.

This book is a little confusing in the beginning since there are so many characters with the name of Alan Armadale. However, by the 3rd or 4th chapter it is no longer confusing. This is a very suspensful book right to the very end.

The main characters are Alan Armadale, Ozias Midwinter and Lydia Gwilt. There is little question that Alan is scatterbrained and that he would not get along without Midwinter. I did not care for Alan but I came to feel for Midwinter. I also very much enjoyed Lydia. She is a villian that compares to the best villian of the age. She uses her good looks and brains to get what she wants. She has a heart of stone but it is not 100% stone. She has a weakness and it does show through in the end. I will not give away the ending but I was kept in suspense until the very end of the story.

If you enjoy classic literature or have enjoyed Wilkie Collins before, you need to read this book. It is very good and will keep your interest up to the end. The book I read was 676 pages and I read it in just two weeks. Again, read this book; it will not disappoint you.

"Armadale" was published between "No Name" and "The Moonstone". It is an interesting and very well written story, about human wills against fate and against each other. As with the case of the major works of Collins, there are many themes, scenes and morales that would be selected as their favorites, by different readers. My assessment is that this fine book boils down to the story of Miss Gwilt. From the pages of her diary, you explore the mind of a sophisticated, audacious and long-suffering beauty, of magnetic attraction. It is amazing how Collins could switch personalities and have written those diary pages as if he were actually inside Miss Gwilt's mind. There are many other characters and descriptions, so realistic that you wonder if all the story really happened. And Collins' eye is so keen and his writing so effective, that in some cases even very minor characters get alive in your mind. For instance, the scene where the nurse of Mrs. Milroy (an invalid who can't leave her bed) asks for an special handkerchief of her patient, as a bribe, before opening for her an envelope adressed to other person and then close it and give it back. The operation is carried out by the nurse efficiently and silently. As those little extortions we see, with so many people! Miss Gwilt has 2 very clever allies, in different parts of the story, but they don't have strong opponents (as in "No Name", also reviewed by me). Their fight is mainly against fate and Miss Gwilt tortured soul. This is an excellent book, but not so memorable as its 3 famous brothers ("The Woman in White", "No name" and "The Moonstone") as to re-read it. I'm planning to go over those 3 master pieces again, in the near future.

The back of the Penguin edition labels this book as a "sensation novel", serialized stories that were a main form of entertainment in the 19th century. I mention this because reading Armadale feels like you are watching an amazing season of a great soap--albeit this requires much more intelligence than an OC DVD.

"Armadale" starts off with the death of a an affluent man named Allan Armadale, who leaves a horrible secret to tell. I knew this would be a good novel when, unlike many other period novels, the secret still feels shocking. Too many "masterpieces" trump up such huge secrets and you're let down when it turns out to be a minor infidelity or fraud that a modern reader cannot relate to. Anyway, this secret stimulates double identities, lies, extortion, blackmail and--wait for it--murder! The plot takes more twists and turns than a Coney Island rollercoaster, but it never becomes hard to follow. This novel could justifiably be qualified as "convoluted" but it's never incoherent.

But the real reason I recommend this novel is Lydia Gwilt. She's an excellent villainess, making the average film noir femme fatale come off like June Cleaver. But the genius of this novel is how Collins plays with our consciences. Yes as moral readers we want good to triumph over evil. Or do we? One of the heroes comes off as such a moron (you'll know who when you read) that you so just want him to feel pain. After 200 pages of him fopping around, it becomes almost unbearable to read this dribble. Enter Lydia Gwilt to shake things up. LAter on in the book, Gwilt begins fighting with her conscience. While reading these portions, I was frustrated because I really wanted her to be the ultimate ice queen. In retrospect, those sections are excellent mind games that make you decide if you want Gwilt to stand for good or evil.

I completely understand why this book was reviled upon its release: Who wants to relate to the vile Ms. Gwilt? Modern readers should love "Armadale" for the very reasons 19th century readers hated it.

Is this book perfect? Hardly. Midwinter, a main character, comes off as flakey as he has whole solliloquies where he worries about fate and how it could hurt his friends. Lighten up!! Plus, the ending is way too optimistic and seems out of place with the novel. But these are minor qualms. I could go on and on about the fully-realized characters, the elaborate set-pieces and the delightfully witty dialogue (especially when Gwilt starts talking). Clocking in at over 650 pages, it's a long book. But stick with it. By page 200, you'll be thankful that you have so much more to go.

She's the red-haired, shapely and mercurial beauty who forms one of the best character studies ever done on the dynamics of evil in nineteenth century England. In Armadale, she is the tarnished but profound heroine who remains in memory long after you put the novel to rest. Early reviews of the book were savage, decrying the voyeuristic approach of Collins in laying bare the foibles of class as well as the seedy underside of British society. Arguably the most sensational of Collins' novels, it was backed by painstaking research into the scandals and murder trials splashed across the newspapers of the day. If you're looking for attempted murder, espionage, bigamy, double identity, drug addiction, and promiscuity, you've picked up the right book. Much more than pure sensationalism, however, it scrutinizes the role of fate in determining our future, and examines the sinister effects that early decisions can have on our lives.

Although a contemporary and friend of Dickens, Collins adopted a daring and down-to-earth writing style that is much closer to the tastes of modern readers. Departing from straight narrative and dialog, he inserted letters and diary entires throughout the work, giving the reader tremendous personal insights into the leading characters. Considered by T.S. Eliot as one of the top three romances of Wilkie Collins, Armadale is one of those stories that keeps you guessing to the very end.

Wilkie Collins, in his serial novel style, writes of the murderous redheaded villianess, Lidia Gwilt, and her quest for vengeance and discovery of true love- with the man who bears the name of the object of her revenge. Wrapped up in this quest for revenge are disguises, fights, near drowning, and poisonings. Included are the plot twists and usual scores of characters common to this genre. I say that this is the perfect winter day's book, one of my favorite novels to read, over and over.

the central, and most complex female character. I agree with some of the other reviewers here who view this hero as unlike any other figure drawn in literature from other genres. She is unforgettable, and whether viewed as good, evil, or something else altogether...the reader cannot help but identify with at least one facet of her astonishing persona. The tale itself is spellbinding to say the least and in a fast-paced world like today, one would think that a lengthy novel of this sort would be passe'. But you will not be able to put this one down as well as looking forward to picking it up again. Oh - and the cover art is simply spectacular, and most appropriate to the story - especially given its origin from the classic art world. A bargain price for this treasure.

This book by Collins was an unexpected masterpiece. It was better than The Moonstone. I recommend that everyone who is interested in Collins or Victorian sensational novels this is a good read.