ABSTRACT
It would be unjust to the memory of Edgar Poe, or perhaps-to look further back still-to Mrs Radcliffe, to style Mr. Wilkie Collins the founder of the sensational school in novels, but he long ago placed himself at its head. He proved, indeed, at so early a period, his skill in the construction of a plot, that he has since been his own most formidable rival. His Basil displayed a more intense concentration than, perhaps, any of his later tales of tragic interest, of however painful a kind, but about one or two characters only; in The Woman in White he evinced that he could preserve the unity and concentration of interest while multiplying his actors and circumstances; and in the present story he has shown himself a master in the art of amalgamating the most unmalleable and inconsistent of facts-fatalism and Hindoo mysticism and devotion, English squirearchy, detectives, and housemaids-and seems to have taken by choice difficulties for his resources.
