Armadale

Armadale (1866)
by Wilkie Collins

Armadale (1866) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century semi epistolary novel. Parts of the novel consists of letters between the various characters, other chapters record the events as the characters perceive them. The novel has a very convoluted plot about two distant cousins both named Allan Armadale. The father of one had murdered the father of the other (also both called Allan Armadale).

152619Armadale1866Wilkie Collins

TO

JOHN FORSTER.

In acknowledgment of the services which he has rendered to the cause of literature by his "Life of Goldsmith;" and in affectionate remembrance of a friendship which is associated with some of the happiest years of my life.

Readers in general—on whose friendly reception experience has given me some reason to rely—will, I venture to hope, appreciate whatever merit there may be in this story without any prefatory pleading for it on my part. They will, I think, see that it has not been hastily meditated or idly wrought out. They will judge it accordingly, and I ask no more.

Readers in particular will, I have some reason to suppose, be here and there disturbed, perhaps even offended, by finding that "Armadale" oversteps, in more than one direction, the narrow limits within which they are disposed to restrict the development of modern fiction—if they can.

Nothing that I could say to these persons here would help me with them as Time will help me if my work lasts. I am not afraid of my design being permanently misunderstood, provided the execution has done it any sort of justice. Estimated by the clap-trap morality of the present day, this may be a very daring book. Judged by the Christian morality which is of all time, it is only a book that is daring enough to speak the truth.

LONDON, April, 1866.

Contents edit

Prologue:

Chapter I: The Travelers
Chapter II: The Solid Side of the Scotch Character
Chapter III: The Wreck of the Timber Ship

Book the First:

Chapter I: The Mystery of Ozias Midwinter
Chapter II: The Man Revealed
Chapter III: Day and Night
Chapter IV: The Shadow of the Past
Chapter V: The Shadow of the Future

Book the Second:

Chapter I: Lurking Mischief
Chapter II: Allan as a Landed Gentleman
Chapter III: The Claims of Society
Chapter IV: The March of Events
Chapter V: Mother Oldershaw on her Guard
Chapter IV: Midwinter in Disguise
Chapter VII: The Plot Thickens
Chapter VIII: The Norfolk Broads
Chapter IX: Fate or Chance?
Chapter X: The House-Maid's Face
Chapter XI: Miss Gwilt Among the Quicksands
Chapter XII: The Clouding of the Sky
Chapter XIII: Exit

Book the Third:

Chapter I: Mrs. Milroy
Chapter II: The Man is Found
Chapter III: The Brink of Discovery
Chapter IV: Allan at Bay
Chapter V: Pedgift's Remedy
Chapter VI: Pedgift's Postscript
Chapter VII: The Martyrdom of Miss Gwilt
Chapter VIII: She Comes Between Them
Chapter IX: She Knows the Truth
Chapter X: Miss Gwilt's Diary
Chapter XI: Love and Law
Chapter XII: A Scandal at the Station
Chapter XIII: An Old Man's Heart
Chapter XIV: Miss Gwilt's Diary
Chapter XV: The Wedding-Day

Book the Fourth:

Chapter I: Miss Gwilt's Diary
Chapter II: The Diary Continued
Chapter III: The Diary Broken Off

Book the Last:

Chapter I: At the Terminus
Chapter II: In the House
Chapter III: The Purple Flask

Epilogue:

Chapter I: News from Norfolk
Chapter II: Midwinter

Appendix

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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