This novel has an amazing set of characters, some true villains, both male and female, and the plot is full of twists and turns, that kept me on the edge of my seat. At least for some of the time. The novel has its flaws IMO, namely the many details and repetitions of various legal documents. They became a bit tedious and I lost interest from time to time, which is why I'm only giving the novel 3 stars. The Woman in White and The Moonstone share an unusual narrative structure, somewhat resembling an epistolary novel, in which different portions of the book have different narrators, each with a distinct narrative voice. Armadale has this to a lesser extent through the correspondence between some characters. Two dispossessed sisters fight for their inheritance, the narrative snaking compellingly around Victorian Britain."— Sunday Times

Magdalen Vanstone – the heroine; a headstrong young woman with dramatic talent, who is determined to regain her family's lost inheritance; aged 18 at the opening of the novelNo Name (1862) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century novel revolving upon the issue of illegitimacy. The story begins in 1846, at Combe-Raven in West Somersetshire, the country residence of the happy Vanstone family. When Andrew Vanstone is killed suddenly in an accident and his wife follows shortly thereafter, it is revealed that they were not married at the time of their daughters' births, making their daughters "Nobody's Children" in the eyes of English law and robbing them of their inheritance. Andrew Vanstone's elder brother Michael gleefully takes possession of his brother's fortune, leaving his nieces to make their own way in the world. Norah, the elder sister, accepts her misfortune gracefully, but the headstrong Magdalen is determined to have her revenge. Using her dramatic talent and assisted by wily swindler Captain Wragge, Magdalen plots to regain her rightful inheritance.

Good fortune came to her during her convalescence. Norah wrote to say that the codicil had been discovered and that by its terms the money bequeathed by Noel Vanstone was legally hers. Captain Wragge appeared to announce that he had grown prosperous through the manufacture of a patent medicine. Mr. Clare wrote to say that Frank had married a wealthy widow. Magdalen felt that Frank’s marriage broke her last tie with her unhappy past. She could look forward to the future as Captain Kirke’s wife. Critical Evaluation: II. Mrs Lecount goes to stay in Zurich. Magdalen is unable to fathom where the Secret Trust might be kept. Dizzyingly readable, with a feminist anti-heroine up to all sorts of deception and skulduggery, cheered along by the reader every step of the way."— Mail on Sunday

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What ensues is a nail-biter. Wilkie Collins puts modern day mystery writers to shame! There are so many twists and turns it makes you dizzy, but every one has a purpose and leads somewhere. I cannot imagine being a Victorian and having to read this in installments. My poor husband is celebrating that I have finished, because by the second half I was scarcely able to break from it long enough to fix his dinner. In 1873–74, Collins toured the United States and Canada, giving readings of his work. The American writers he met included Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and Mark Twain. He began a friendship with photographer Napoleon Sarony, who took several portraits of him. [18]

V. Magdalen and Wragge visit Vanstone, but during the night Mrs Lacount guesses Magdalen’s true identity. On an outing next day Mrs Lecount tries to expose Magdalen by asking her about Miss Garth. No Name is filled with deceit, disguises, death, and, of course, laudunum—tropes you would expect in a sensation novel, but handled here with Collins’s expertise with law at the forefront. The two sisters, Magdalen and Norah, who find themselves illegitimate and therefore cast solely on their own resources, are painted very convincingly, allowing Collins to comment on the social and cultural restrictions for women at that time in daily life as well as in the letter of the law. It is no accident that at this point she has a psychological breakdown. She has been dispossessed of her family, her ’rightful’ inheritance, and the name which establishes her position in society. IV. Norah reveals hoe she discovered the Secret Trust hidden in a bowl of ashes. It leaves half of the inheritance to Magdalen, but she tears up the letter of Trust and accepts Kirke’s offer of marriage. At the beginning of 1863, he travelled with Caroline Graves to German spas and Italy for his health. In 1864, he began work on his novel Armadale, travelling in August to the Norfolk Broads and the village of Winterton-on-Sea to do research for it. It was published serially in The Cornhill Magazine in 1864–1866.No Name is divided into parts as are much of 19th Century novels. In No Name, these parts are called Scenes. Each Scene takes place in a different location and is further divided into chapters. The Scenes, told in third person, are separated by short sections called, appropriately, Between the Scenes. These are groups of letters from/to the various characters. The story is told in strict chronological sequence.