ine, Diana went to find Ms. Smith. She wanted to help her with preparations. Two minutes later, Gregory and Emily noticed Elizabeth, who was walking out of school. She was at a loss. As it turned out, she got to school fifteen minutes earlier than Emily. As no one else was there, she went to the canteen and accidentally fell asleep. It was Ms. Smith who woke her up. The teacher asked her to find Diana, but she was allegedly nowhere. Elizabeth looked scared and upset. When Emily and Gregory asked her what had happened, she almost burst into tears. According to her, she’d just decided to withdraw from the competition, but she didn’t explain her reasons. And then, moments later, they saw Diana, who was coming towards them. She said that Ms. Smith asked her to gather everyone. For some reason, Diana neither greeted Elizabeth, nor looked in her direction. When they reached the assembly hall, they saw Alex saying goodbye to Mr. Green, an English teacher. As it turned out, Alex had gotten to school at eight o’clock in the morning because he had a meeting scheduled with Mr. Green. They spent about an hour discussing his project. When the bell rang, all the participants entered the assembly hall. What they saw, left them shocked. Someone damaged one of the paintings with a knife. The painting belonged to Emily. It was like a nightmare. Ms. Smith decided to call her uncle Jules Maigret. When he came to the crime scene, he immediately solved the crime. Recreate what happened and determine who the criminal was.
Wilkie Collins
One late night, three men were walking down the street when they heard a piercing scream and saw a “young and very beautiful woman dressed in flowing white robes that shone in the moonlight.” As always, according to the laws of the genre, the “brave knight” saved the scared “princess” fleeing from her pursuer. Does this episode ring a bell to you? And if you, dear readers, think that this is а plot of а mystery novel, you are grossly mistaken. If one may believe biographers, this is а real-life story of how the legendary writer met his lady friend. The life of Wilkie Collins was full of controversies and mysteries. And given the iconic writer’s reputation as a master storyteller and an inexhaustible inventor, it was even more difficult to distinguish truth from fiction especially since the author didn’t like to talk publicly about his personal life. Suffice it to recall his unusual last will! This chapter tells a fascinating story of the greatest mystery writer and the “grandfather of the detective novel” Wilkie Collins, while also lifting the veil on his extremely private life. You’ll find out some lesser-known facts that will probably surprise you.
William Wilkie Collins, an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories, was born on January 8, 1824, in a prestigious Marylebone area of London. His father, William Collins, was a well-known landscape artist and a member of the Royal Academy. According to the writer’s memories, he was “uniformly kind and considerate to his children.” His mother, Harriet Geddes, was brought up in genteel poverty. She came from an artistic family: her sister Margaret Carpenter was a talented and successful portrait painter. Harriet was a devoted wife and mother. Their home was always filled with love, care, and joy. According to some resources, Collins’ parents got married against the wishes of his paternal grandmother, which once again proves that it was a marriage of love. Collins was named after his father William and his godfather – the Scottish painter David Wilkie. As a child, he was called William or Willie. However, over time, when the writer gained recognition within the literary circles, he became known as Wilkie to everyone, small and great. The legendary writer was not the only child of his parents as he had a younger brother, Charles, a tall and good-looking red-haired boy with blue eyes. Although they differed in character and appearance, they remained close throughout their lives.
Wilkie Collins was educated at a private school. When he was thirteen, his family moved to Italy, where he enjoyed the spectacular scenery and got acquainted with the paintings of prominent artists. Later, the Collins family settled in France. In my view, travels helped the great writer to understand the meaning of life, to improve as a person, and to find his true vocation. I am sure that this experience greatly influenced his literary work and writing style. What’s more, it opened doors to new opportunities. In addition to getting acquainted with the culture, history, and art of other countries, Wilkie Collins quickly learned two foreign languages: Italian and French. When the family returned to England, Wilkie went to a private boarding school. He did not like to study at school because he was bullied there. His roommate would often wake him up in the middle of the night, and the would-be writer had to tell stories to help him sleep. As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. Collins used to say: “When I left school I continued story telling for my own pleasure.” So, this circumstance helped the writer to discover the talent of storytelling.
At the end of 1840, Collins got hired at the tea-trading company owned by a friend of Wilkie’s father. It wasn’t exactly his dream job. Contrary to the expectations, the writer didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps like his brother Charlie did. He finally decided to devote himself to writing. “An author I was to be, and an author I became in the year 1848,” he would later say. In 1843, while still working at the tea-trading company, Wilkie Collins wrote his debut novel Ioláni; Or, Tahíti as It Was. However, the journey to publishing this book was a long one. The novel was never published in the writer’s lifetime: the first edition appeared only in 1999. In 1846, at his father’s insistence, Collins became a law student at Lincoln’s Inn – one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong. Following graduation, he was called to the Bar though he would never practice law. In 1847, Collins completed the first volume of a classical romance called Antonina; Or, The Fall of Rome. Shortly after that, a huge grief fell on the family: his beloved father died. Wilkie was so traumatized by this event that he decided to put aside the romance and to write a book dedicated to his father. As I see it, writing a biography might have had a healing effect on Wilkie because he could recall the happiest moments of life they had together and have a heart-to-heart talk with him even posthumously. It was in 1848, when he published his first book The Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A. and finally decided to finish his three-volume novel called Antonina; Or, The Fall of Rome. The book came out in 1850 and was an immediate success. Interestingly, to honor his father, Collins also tried his hand at painting and even wrote a picture.
Collins lived a Bohemian lifestyle, and his circle of friends included many prominent figures of the day: artists, actors, playwrights, musicians, publishers, and many others. However, the milestone event of his life was meeting Charles Dickens. By that time, Charles Dickens had been a mature and prominent writer, and Wilkie Collins was taking the first steps of his journey to success. The two literary geniuses of the 19th century became lifelong friends. Together they made an amazing creative union. Though they had different writing styles, they collaborated successfully and co-wrote several short stories and stage plays. The friends shared love for theater, and both of them performed in amateur play productions. However, that’s not all. They traveled a lot together, and Wilkie became a frequent visitor to Dickens’ home. Later, the two legendary writers became almost like a family: Wilkie Collins’ younger brother, Charles, married Dickens’ daughter.
Wilkie Collins never married, but his personal life was far from boring. What most attracts attention is his relationship with an enigmatic girl named Caroline Graves. Over the years, there has been a lot of controversy around the circumstances of their acquaintance. Many admirers of Collins believe that the iconic writer’s own life story became the basis for his novel called The Woman in White. This theory was confirmed by Collins’ brother Charles and the famous artist John Everett Millais. According to their accounts, the two of them witnessed Collins’ first encounter with the original woman in white – Caroline. Collins, like a true gentleman, saved the scared woman from a pursuer who had been keeping her prisoner for unknown reasons and gave this poor thing home. Actually, one of Collins’ biographers doubts Charles and Millais’ account since it was written forty years after the events. There is also an opinion that the book was inspired by a real legal case. According to another theory, Collins lived close to a small shop kept by Caroline, and they probably ran into each other there. Nobody knows what really happened because no correspondence between them survived. Besides, the legendary writer himself didn’t like to talk about his personal life publicly and never revealed the circumstances of their acquaintance. The origin and identity of Caroline was also shrouded in mystery. Some people even thought she was an adventuress since she lied about her age and distorted some facts of her biography. In Caroline’s words, she was the daughter of the gentleman named Courtenay, and her husband was a wealthy person. But in fact, Caroline happened to be the daughter of John Compton, a carpenter, and his wife, Sarah. She was christened Elizabeth. She married early, and her husband was a shorthand writer, the son of a stonemason. Two years later, Caroline became a widow. She lived with her little daughter, Harriet Elizabeth (Collins would call her Carrie), and her mother-in-law. Why she hid the truth remains a mystery. Anyway, this meeting forever changed the life of Wilkie Collins. Caroline would be there for the great writer for the rest of his life, and he would treat her daughter as his own. What may come as a surprise is that Caroline was known as Collins’ “housekeeper,” and she hardly ever accompanied him on his trips or social events. Collins probably had his own idea of the relationship. The great writer was a confirmed bachelor. Most likely, it was for this reason that Caroline decided to split up with Collins and marry another man named Joseph Clow. As they say, the writer was present at the wedding ceremony. To be fair, this marriage didn’t last long, and she returned to Collins.