| "The
publication of
this extensive and well-edited collection of letters is
most welcome: a major
event in Collins scholarship and in Victorian studies
generally. It aptly
follows the appearance of the twelfth and final volume of
the Pilgrim Edition
of Dickens's letters and enables us to read the letters of
the two friends
and literary collaborators side by side. Organized
chronologically, The
Public Face of Wilkie Collins transcribes
approximately 2,500 letters
from more than 80 archives and private collections
worldwide, with over 2,100
published in full for the first time. It also cites and
briefly describes,
in their proper chronological positions, all of the
letters included in the
1999 Baker and Clarke collection that are not transcribed
in full in the
four new volumes. Transcribing — or, rather,
re-transcribing — dozens of
letters that were included in an incomplete or summarized
form in Baker and
Clarke, it corrects errors that, at times, substantially
obscured Collins's
meaning and cast doubt on the overall reliability of that
earlier collection.
... The new volumes also correct the dating of many
letters in Baker and
Clarke and revisit and correct a less familiar, annotated
edition of Collins's
letters—those from the University of Texas, transcribed in
William Coleman's
1975 doctoral dissertation. The editorial principles of
the new collection
are well conceived, clearly explained and consistently
applied. Each volume
contains facsimiles of two autograph letters, and useful
appendices in the
last include correspondence written for Collins in his
last days and about
his affairs after his death as well as various publishing
agreements. In
a final 'Addenda' section, the editors provide several
letters made known
to them after the volumes were in proof. ... The extensive
new material in
this collection should influence and inspire Collins
scholarship for years
to come." Lillian Nayder, Bates College, Review in Wilkie Collins Society Journal, NS 8, November 2005 |
| "...
the editors deserve
an accolade for pursuing their enthusiasm to completion
and providing scholars
of the nineteenth-century novel with as much information
as Wilkie Collins
has chosen to bequeath to them." Brian Lake, Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers, Review in Rare Book Review, December 2005 |
| "Anybody seriously interested in Victorian
culture, particularly
literary culture and Collins's place in it, will
appreciate the materials
collected here, which include specimens of Collins's
agreements with publishers
as well as personal and business letters. ...
fascinating topics loom large:
the novel (especially the serialized novel), the
importance of periodicals,
social issues, aspects of Collins's personal life. These
meticulously edited
volumes will serve as a significant supplement to more
recent biographies
of Collins ... Publication of these letters likewise is a
great service to
those interested in Victorian literature in
general--beyond Wilkie Collins--so
these volumes should enjoy a long shelf life." B. F. Fisher, University of Mississippi, Review in Choice, February 2006 |
| "Together with the 500 or so printed in
William Baker and
William M. Clarke's 1999 two-volume edition, we now have
all of Collins's
known letters, some 3,000 in total, in print. Prey to the
inevitable losses
and censorship (Dickens burnt nearly all of Collins's
letters to him, for
example), almost half of those that survive are business
ones, which acknowledge
cheques, correct proofs, and negotiate with translators,
hard evidence of
a lifetime's work with "the printer's devil ...
perpetually at my heel,
lashing me on". Yet this is no dull collection of
leftovers. Editorially,
it is a much better work than its precursor, as Baker is
joined by three
new colleagues, Andrew Gasson, Graham Law and Paul Lewis,
who have markedly
improved both textual reliability and the quality of
annotation, as well
as correcting many mistakes of the earlier edition." John Bowen, University of York, "Champage Moments", Review in TLS, 3 February 2006 |