I'm probably biased but Wilkie Collins' The Law and the Lady was for me a thumping good read. It's considered to be inferior to his better known works, The Moonstone, The Woman in White, Armadale and No Name (this last one I have yet to read and am looking forward to it), but I was still very impressed by it. It seems like some critics dismiss Wilkie Collins' lesser known novels, which I find disconcerting, but as I am no critic I can enjoy what I want unapologetically. The editor of this edition notes that the Victorian era was full of really good literature (he likened it to a "literary pie-shop"), so I suppose there are lots of really good books competing for readers' and critics' attention. Apparently the Victorians felt that theirs was the "age of the novel", and I think I have to concur, since I find so much of the work from this period so very rich and really well done.
Part of the reason I like Wilkie Collins is the way he creates a completely gripping plot and peoples it with interesting characters of breadth and depth. And I love 'sensational' literature (supposedly the precursor to our modern day detective fiction), though The Law and the Lady is less sensational than his other novels. Mostly, though, it was Valeria (our heroine) that drew me so deeply into this story. She's great--feisty and independent and willing to fight for what she loves. I don't think anyone would call her too modern, since Wilkie Collins was a product of his times. Although there are some moments when the reader is reminded she is indeed a woman firmly placed in the 1870s and has her place in Society and in married life (which she fulfills as she is expected to when necessary), she nonetheless had to appear quite ahead of her times to the men in the story who aided her in solving the mystery.
The story opens with the marriage of Valeria Brinton and Eustace Woodville, but there's a sense of foreboding and bad luck right from the start. To begin with neither Eustace's mother nor Valeria's aunt and uncle are pleased with the marriage. Then Valeria commits an ominous mistake by signing her married name rather than maiden name in the marriage register. Her aunt's superstition in the matter puts Valeria on edge and makes her uneasy. It's during their abbreviated honeymoon, Eustace has been called away by a friend before they can set off for the Continent, that Valeria discovers that Eustace has been hiding some sort of secret.
While Valeria is a strong character, I'm afraid I found Eustace rather wishy washy. Since I like Valeria so much, I'll forgive him (and her for falling for him) and assume he does indeed have redeemable qualities, but honesty doesn't appear to be one of them. He has married Valeria under a false name, sure that if she knew the truth about him she would not love or respect him. In a wonderful scene (which I won't detail here, but hope you'll read the book so you can enjoy it firsthand) Valeria uncovers Eustace's secret. He has been tried for the murder, by arsenic poisoning, of his first wife. Tried in Scotland, the jury didn't have enough evidence to convict or to acquit him, so he lives with the ignominy of a verdict of "Not Proven".
First, no worries, I've not given away any of the plot that wasn't already described on the back cover of the book. A 'not proven' verdict is essentially saying that the jury thought the defendant was guilty, but got away with the crime due to lack of evidence. This is unbearable to Eustace who claims he's innocent. I'd never heard of this situation before and find it intriguing and wonder if the verdict is still used. This is the impetus that sends Valeria off on her mission to clear Eustace's good name and determine who really did kill his first wife.
Valeria tells the story. She's actually writing it down, and it has some elements of the epistolary form to it. Imagine this story being serialized in a weekly paper. I would have been on the edge of my seat waiting for each installment! Did I mention that Valeria is probably the first female sleuth (and you might also know that Wilkie Collins is assumed to have written the first detective novel--The Moonstone, though there are some who will argue that honor actually goes to Edgar Allen Poe).
This may be a detective novel of sorts, but there are all sorts of other things at play here as well. I read that Wilkie Collins' work was considered "highly topical". He lived an interesting lifestyle that likely had some influence on how he thought and wrote. He never married, but he kept two separate households (complete with children, though I believe one set wasn't actually his) with two separate women. He was supposedly very sympathetic to the plight of the Victorian woman, especially when it came to marriage and property rights. Another reason I love Wilkie Collins, "he took an unsurpassed interest in women characters, and particularly their intellects and ambitions, and the social restrictions imposed on them." This certainly comes out in The Law and the Lady and I bet in others of his novels as well. David Skilton's introduction to the novel is excellent and I wish I could share more of his ideas here, but I've already made this post far too long.
Wilkie Collins wrote oodles of books and short stories. I'm not sure which novel I'll tackle next, No Name perhaps, or another of his 'lesser known' works. But I do have several more unread books by him waiting for me. Whatever I choose I expect it will be good! By the way this is the fourth and last book I read for Carl's RIP Challenge, so I actually managed to complete one challenge this year--and even before Halloween. Scary.