WRITER

Wilkie Collins

1824 - 1889

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William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for The Woman in White (1859), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre. Born to the London painter William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian and French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Wilkie Collins has received more than 1,157,937 page views. His biography is available in 50 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 49 in 2019). Wilkie Collins is the 866th most popular writer (up from 886th in 2019), the 655th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 724th in 2019) and the 79th most popular British Writer.

Wilkie Collins is most famous for his novel "The Woman in White" which was published in 1860. It is a mystery novel about a woman who is kidnapped and held prisoner by a man who is obsessed with her.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.2M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.91

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 50

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.27

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.19

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The Haunted Hotel
1878
No name
Fiction
No Name is a 19th-century novel by the master of sensation fiction, Wilkie Collins. A country gentleman is killed in an accident and his wife dies shortly after him. The blow is double for their daughters, who discover that they were born before their parents were married. Their sudden illegitimacy robs them of their inheritance and their accustomed place in society.
18624 / 5
Poor Miss Finch
18724 / 5
Armadale
1866
The Moonstone
East Indians
In the first part of ROBINSON CRUSOE, at page one hundred and twenty-nine, you will find it thus written: Now I saw, though too late, the Folly of beginning a Work before we count the Cost, and before we judge rightly of our own Strength to go through with it. Only yesterday, I opened my ROBINSON CRUSOE at that place. Only this morning (May twenty-first, Eighteen hundred and fifty), came my lady's nephew, Mr. Franklin Blake, and held a short conversation with me, as follows: - Betteredge, says Mr. Franklin, I have been to the lawyer's about some family matters; and, among other things, we have been talking of the loss of the Indian Diamond, in my aunt's house in Yorkshire, two years since. Mr. Bruff thinks as I think, that the whole story ought, in the interests of truth, to be placed on record in writing-and the sooner the better.
1868
The Woman in White
Fiction
'The Woman in White' is a tale of love, greed and insanity. Set in Victorian England, this gothic murder mystery opens to a banging gavel in a London courtroom, where an inquiry into the suspicious death of heiress Laura Fairlie is underway. William Hope stars as the drawing teacher Walter Hartwright and Gina Wilkinson stars as Laura's plain but sensible half-sister Marian in this psychological thriller. Hartwright tells the story of aiding a ghostly woman, dressed all in white, only to be struck by her strange resemblance to the beautiful Laura. Together, he and Marian describe the strange events in the months leading up to Laura's death. Stratford Festival star Douglas Campbell plays the diabolical Count Fosco, while Cedric Smith gives an oily performance as Laura's sinister fiancé, Sir Percival Glyde. Aided by Phyllis Cohen's original musical score, playwright and radio dramatist Beverley Cooper vividly recreates the Victorian age in this suspenseful recording.
18604 / 5

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Wilkie Collins ranks 866 out of 7,302. Before him are John Fante, Ambrose Bierce, Philostratus, Peter Weiss, Frederick Forsyth, and Aziz Nesin. After him are Bernard-Henri Lévy, Zeami Motokiyo, Aubrey Beardsley, Nizar Qabbani, Charles Nodier, and Philip Pullman.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1824, Wilkie Collins ranks 12. Before him are Eugène Boudin, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Maria Alexandrovna, Paul Broca, Pierre Janssen, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. After him are Marie Duplessis, Carl Reinecke, Dayananda Saraswati, Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, Stonewall Jackson, and William Huggins. Among people deceased in 1889, Wilkie Collins ranks 12. Before him are Michel Eugène Chevreul, Alexandre Cabanel, Luís I of Portugal, Mihai Eminescu, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, and Father Damien. After him are Charles III, Prince of Monaco, Marie of Prussia, Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, Wilhelm Tempel, and Giovanni Bottesini.

Others Born in 1824

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Others Deceased in 1889

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Wilkie Collins ranks 655 out of 8,785. Before him are John Flamsteed (1646), Kevin Keegan (1951), Brian Eno (1948), Colin Maclaurin (1698), Richard Arkwright (1732), and Frederick Forsyth (1938). After him are Ian Paice (1948), Aubrey Beardsley (1872), Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902), Patrick Blackett (1897), Bernard Lewis (1916), and Philip Pullman (1946).

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Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Wilkie Collins ranks 79. Before him are Jerome K. Jerome (1859), Edgar Wallace (1875), John Bunyan (1628), Julian Barnes (1946), W. H. Auden (1907), and Frederick Forsyth (1938). After him are Aubrey Beardsley (1872), Philip Pullman (1946), Ben Jonson (1572), Bruce Chatwin (1940), James May (1963), and Ann Radcliffe (1764).

British born Writers

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