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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Spectacular Suspense Thriller - Collins At His Best!!,
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This review is from: Armadale (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
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
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great unsung character,
By
This review is from: Armadale (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
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.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazingly Good Read!,
By
This review is from: Armadale (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
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!
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