No Name (Penguin Classics)

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Winifred Hughes, The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. The uncle who had inherited the Vanstone fortune died. Magdalen disguised herself to resemble Miss Garth and went to see his son, Noel Vanstone. He proved to be a weak, miserable creature, as miserly as his father had been. Tamar Heller, Dead Secrets: Wilkie Collins and the Female Gothic, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. receives a dismissive reply from his formidable housekeeper Mrs Lecount. Determined on revenge, she visits Noel in London, disguised as Miss Mr, Mrs and Miss Marrable – a family living in Evergreen Lodge, Clifton, fond of "private theatricals"

Hay dos razones por las que 'Sin nombre' no ha terminado de cuajar conmigo, la primera, el empeño detectivesco de Collins que personalmente me abruma. No me gustan las novelas de detectives, y aunque 'Sin nombre' no es una de ellas, está concebida como si lo fuera, con sus personajes planeando intrigas minuciosamente y llenas de detalles que personalmente no podían interesarme menos. Es lo de siempre, el misterio no es lo mio. I. When Magdalen arrives in York to see Huxstable, she is intercepted by the rogue Captain Wragge, who preys on her vulnerability to divert and (virtually) abduct her. He persuades her to hide from detection in his lodgings. Scene One begins in 1846, at Combe-Raven in West Somerset, the country residence of the wealthy Vanstone family: Andrew Vanstone, his wife, and their two daughters. Norah, age 26, is happy and quiet; Magdalen, 18, is beautiful but volatile and willful. The family lives in peace and contentment, with the girls' former governess, Miss Garth. Written after the great success of THE WOMAN IN WHITE, NO NAME did not follow the formula of the previous novel; NO NAME is suspenseful, but it is in no way a mystery tale. Collins dared to risk his popularity with a theme that was extremely controversial in the middle of the nineteenth century: the injustice of society’s treatment of illegitimate children. Perhaps he was drawn to the subject because of his own three illegitimate children. In any case, the sincerity of the author’s feelings emerges when his characters speak out against the unjust laws of the period. Shall I tell you what a lady is? A lady is a woman who wears a silk gown, and has a sense of her own importance.”XII. Wragge and Vanstone travel to London to arrange for the marriage licence. Mrs Lecount’s warning letter arrives, and Vanstone prevaricates. They all return to Aldborough. IX. Magdalen feels oppressed. They leave for a few days, during which time Mrs Lecount does some snooping. Wragge makes elaborate plans to deceive Mrs Lecount and to get Noel Vanstone away from Aldborough.

Collins enjoyed ten years of success after publishing The Woman in White in 1859. His next novel, No Name combined social commentary – the absurdity of the law as applied to children of unmarried parents (see Illegitimacy in fiction) – with a densely plotted revenge thriller. Armadale, the first and only one of Collins's major novels of the 1860s to be serialised in a magazine other than All the Year Round, provoked strong criticism. Reviewers found its villainess Lydia Gwilt to be transgressive, and were further provoked by Collins's typically confrontational preface. The novel was simultaneously a financial coup for its author and a comparative commercial failure: the sum paid by Cornhill for the serialisation rights was exceptional, eclipsing by a substantial margin the prices paid for the vast majority of similar novels, yet the novel failed to recoup its publisher's investment. The Woman in White was serialised in All the Year Round from November 1859 to August 1860 to great success. The novel was published in book form soon after and reached an eighth edition by November 1860. His rising success as a writer allowed Collins to resign his post with All the Year Round in 1862 and focus on his novels. While planning his next novel, No Name, he continued to suffer from gout, which began to affect his eyes. Serial publication of No Name began in early 1862 and finished in 1863. By that time Collins was having difficulty controlling the amount of laudanum he was taking for his continual gout and became addicted. [15] Miss Garth took Norah and Magdalen with her to her sister’s home for a time. It was decided that the girls should find employment as governesses there. One day, Magdalen suddenly disappeared. Captain Wragge discovered her after a reward had been offered for news of her whereabouts; but instead of claiming the reward, he took her home to Mrs. Wragge, a sad giantess of a woman. Learning of Magdalen’s desire to be an actress, he promised to train her and act as her manager. Before Wilkie Collins became an enormously successful novelist in the mid-nineteenth century, he studied law with the intent of becoming an attorney. Although he completed his studies he never actually practiced. His knowledge and interest in the field is revealed in the plots of many of his novels. No Name is an example of Collins’ training in estate law and the various intricacies of the rules and loopholes during that period in mid 19th century England. She then becomes ‘Louisa’, acting as a maid to Admiral Bertram in her quest to locate the Secret Trust. When her efforts are uncovered by his retainer Mazey she is expelled from the estate – at which point she takes up the name of Mrs Gray in her search for employment in London.

Interestingly, while Magdalen's quest to recover her fortune by any means available was quite understandable and, even to the most establishment bound Victorian reader, somewhat justifiable, she is not a particularly likable heroine. The dubious choices she made were certainly a substantial part of what made NO NAME such a scandalous book in its time and, equally certainly, are part of what makes NO NAME an enduring classic that allows readers to judge for themselves the virtues of what she does in the name of justice. 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. There are heroes and villains, as there are in many of his works as well. I really thought that Magdalen was a complex character who definitely goes against many of the Victorian conventions of her time (which is why some critics of Collins time rejected this novel). Unlike many of the other minor characters, she definitely has a character arc and there is a complexity to her, perhaps more so than any other character. Two other characters who come into play and are key to the plot are Captain Wragge (self-proclaimed scoundrel and scandalized member of the Vanstone family) and Mrs. Lecount, a faithful—and shrewd—governess for Noel Vanstone. Magdalen teams up with Wragge with her pursuits in mind, and probably the most entertaining essence of this novel is the chess match and battle of wits between Captain Wragge and Lecount as they try to outmaneuver each other in various ways through the course of so many shenanigans and deceptions. XI. Mrs Vanstone goes into labour. The lawyer Pendril arrives and urgently requires her signature on a legal document. But she and her baby die the same day.

Norah and Magdalen are so used to living well and overnight everything is gone. The girls are sent away with very few of their belongings. They go to live with Miss Garth in London. Their Uncle's actions leaves the girls disinherited and without a name.Basically the plot a devastating legal issue. Norah and Magdalen parents are not legally married. Mr Vanstone was married before abroad and was unable to divorce. When Michael Vanstone dies the inheritance passes automatically to his son Noel, a feeble, mean, and self-indulgent aesthete who is in thrall to the scheming housekeeper Mrs Lecount. When he marries Magdalen, it looks as if she has secured some re-attachment to an inheritance that she regards as hers by moral right. But there is a factor which neither she nor Wilkie Collins seem to take into account. Secret Trust actually in her hands, she is again frustrated — this time by old Mazey. Like Franklin and his party, she Captain Horatio Wragge – an audacious, self-proclaimed swindler who is also the Vanstone sisters' uncle by their mother VII. Next day Norah reproaches Magdalen for her developing relationship with Frank Clare. They quarrel, and Magdalen is unable to effect a reconciliation.