No Name by Wilkie Collins

Review by John Gabree

Wilkie Collins was highly regarded as a novelist in the 19th century, and his "The Woman in White" is still read today. He was an ingenious plotter and one of the first great mystery writers.

In "No Name," published in 1862, he displays these talents to the fullest, along with a great deal of wit and an unexpected facility at characterization. Despite a certain amount of 19th century indirection, "No Name" is admirably straightforward if a little long-winded.

Magdalen Vanstone, in pursuit of an inheritance promised by her father, gets in trouble with the police and so, as an amateur actress, assumes number of disguises. She encounters a motley and hilarious collection of persons who might have been invented Dickens himself. Few books make me laugh out loud. "No Name" did. (1978).

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