The heroines are disinherited through no fault of their own - and Collins clearly disapproves of visiting the crime of the parents on to innocent children.

Not only does this make the sisters illegitimate – a shameful thing in itself – but due to a quirk of the law it also prevents them from inheriting their father’s wealth. Through amateur theatricals, Magdalen discovers she is a talented actress and falls in love with Frank Clare, who is also in the play. Moreover, any such arrangement would be legally invalidated by the fact that she marries under a false name – Miss Bygrave – which would render the whole marriage null and void in a court of law.I wanted to get back and re-read No Name and see if it was as good as it was the first time I read it, if it held up after about ten years. For those in quarantine, self-isolating, and in need of a literary diversion or escape, might I suggest a hefty, 800-page sensation novel? I so enjoy the fact that you have always shown a respect and concern for women and you present them, while often flawed, as people you admire and trust.

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. Oftentimes Victorian authors belittle their female protagonists and have inauspicious fates awaiting those who do not walk the Victorian line. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in six episodes, from 24 September to 29 October 1989 and repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra beginning 4 March 2013, and again in October 2019 and September 2021.During the two year span of the story from 1846 to 1848, we see Magdalen change so much, as a consequence of the decisions she makes and the things that happen to her; by the time we get to Scene 4, she's so far removed from the happy young eighteen-year-old girl she was at the novel's start. Touching on a different legal concept, the book takes quite a turn from his more famous work - The Woman in White. Maybe one of the best readings this year, I think this novel should be more valued and that it should be occupying the place it deserves, among the masterpieces to be read and reread over and over again. Collins completed the manuscript of No Name on 24 December 1862, and a three volume edition was published a week later on 31 December 1862 by Sampson Low.