No Name (Penguin Classics)

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She then becomes ‘Louisa’, acting as a maid to Admiral Bertram in her quest to locate the Secret Trust. Illegitimacy, with its connotations of allowing no legal inheritance or possession of property, no given social class, no status as a responsible person in the eyes of the law, no legal name, serves here as an evocative and subversive metaphor for the position of all women as non-persons in a patriarchal and patrilineal society. The modern society though cannot condone her conduct, for no decent society can sanction deception, would understand Magdalen better; would appreciate the circumstances that drove her to act as she did. At its heart are two sisters, Norah and the main protagonist Magdalen, who have been brought up in a Somerset country house.

Yet another commendable quality is the consideration Collins’ story raised about moral justice and the cost of self- vindication. Sue Lonoff, Wilkie Collins and his Victorian Readers: A Study in the Rhetoric of Authorship, New York: AMS Press, 1982. A witty, intricately-plotted exploration of a sudden fall from grace, the Penguin Classics edition of Wilkie Collins's No Name is edited with an introduction and notes by Mark Ford. Not for a single moment did I feel disconnected from the story or its characters, so varied and well developed. Norah's and Magdalen's illegitimacy in law and their loss of social status and inheritance rights are all entirely believable.Wragge, his feeble-minded wife whose eccentricities (trapped in the past and perpetually flipping an omelette in her mind) reminded me of Dickens’ Miss Havisham; Mrs. I’m afraid I found this book tedious, filled with unlikeable characters about whom I cared not a jot.

The circumstances of their loss is heartbreaking and the lack of concern for them shown by the uncle who profits from their misfortune is infuriating. I enjoyed the plot, but sometimes felt Wilkie Collins was writing about the wrong characters - the book focuses on one of two sisters, Magdalene, while I wanted to hear about the other sister, Norah.Of course, the supporting cast are fantastic: Mrs LeCount, Noel Vanstone, Admiral Bartram, Mazey the old sailor, Mrs Wragge and my favourite of them all, the arch-swindler, Captain Wragge. Frank leaves his job in China and breaks off his engagement with Magdalen, who goes into a state of shock. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page. With the involvement of Captain Wragge, Noel Vanstone, another marriage, and the appearance of Captain Kirke all help in the mystery of losing ones family fortune, reputation, and name.