Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins (e book reader pc .txt) 📕
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Man and Wife is the ninth novel by Wilkie Collins, and was published in serial form in 1870. Like many of his other novels it has a complex plot and tackles social issues, in this case the then-lax state of the marriage laws, particularly in Scotland and Ireland. As always, Collins deals carefully but frankly with human personal behavior. To avoid offending Victorian morals too greatly, much is implied rather than stated outright. Nevertheless, even dealing with such matters at all led to his novels being derided as “sensation fiction” by his critics. By today’s standards, of course, they wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.
In Man and Wife, the main character Anne Silvester has fallen pregnant to a muscular and handsome, but boorish man, Geoffrey Delamayn, to whom she is not married. She is working as a governess at a house in Scotland. Anne arranges to meet Delamayn secretly at a garden party and angrily demands that he fulfill his promise to marry her, that very day. He very reluctantly agrees to a secret, private marriage, knowing that a public marriage would badly affect his inheritance prospects. How is the marriage to be arranged quickly but kept quiet? Anne has a plan based on her understanding of the looseness of the marriage laws in Scotland. Naturally, of course, things go badly wrong with this plan and many complexities arise.
Collins is deeply critical of the state of contemporary marriage laws, both in how loosely they were framed, and in how little power over their own lives they gave to women once they were married, even if married to a brutal man. He also uses this novel to denounce the worship of sporting heroes and the obsession with physical prowess rather than mental superiority as a primary indication of male virtue.
Though not as popular as his novels The Woman in White and The Moonstone, Man and Wife received a good critical reception when it was released and was a commercial success.
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- Author: Wilkie Collins
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By Wilkie Collins.
Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Man and Wife Prologue: The Irish Marriage I: The Villa at Hampstead I II III IV II: The March of Time V VI VII VIII IX The Story First Scene: The Summerhouse I: The Owls II: The Guests III: The Discoveries IV: The Two V: The Plan VI: The Suitor VII: The Debt VIII: The Scandal Second Scene: The Inn IX: Anne X: Mr. Bishopriggs XI: Sir Patrick XII: Arnold XIII: Blanche Third Scene: London XIV: Geoffrey as a Letter-Writer XV: Geoffrey in the Marriage Market XVI: Geoffrey as a Public Character Fourth Scene: Windygates XVII: Near It XVIII: Nearer Still XIX: Close on It XX: Touching It XXI: Done! XXII: Gone XXIII: Traced XXIV: Backward XXV: Forward XXVI: Dropped XXVII: Outwitted XXVIII: Stifled Fifth Scene: Glasgow XXIX: Anne Among the Lawyers XXX: Anne in the Newspapers Sixth Scene: Swanhaven Lodge XXXI: Seeds of the Future (First Sowing) XXXII: Seeds of the Future (Second Sowing) XXXIII: Seeds of the Future (Third Sowing) Seventh Scene: Ham Farm XXXIV: The Night Before XXXV: The Day XXXVI: The Truth at Last XXXVII: The Way Out XXXVIII: The News from Glasgow Eighth Scene: The Pantry XXXIX: Anne Wins a Victory Ninth Scene: The Music-Room XL: Julius Makes Mischief Tenth Scene: The Bedroom XLI: Lady Lundie Does Her Duty Eleventh Scene: Sir Patrick’s House XLII: The Smoking-Room Window XLIII: The Explosion Twelfth Scene: Drury Lane XLIV: The Letter and the Law Thirteenth Scene: Fulham XLV: The Footrace Fourteenth Scene: Portland Place XLVI: A Scotch Marriage Fifteenth Scene: Holchester House XLVII: The Last Chance Sixteenth Scene: The Inn XLVIII: The Place XLIX: The Night L: The Morning LI: The Proposal LII: The Apparition LIII: What Had Happened in the Hours of Darkness? LIV: The Manuscript I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII LV: The Signs of the End LVI: The Means LVII: The End Epilogue I II Endnotes Colophon Uncopyright ImprintThis ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.
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Man and Wife Prologue The Irish Marriage I The Villa at Hampstead IOn a summer’s morning, between thirty and forty years ago, two girls were crying bitterly in the cabin of an East Indian passenger ship, bound outward, from Gravesend to Bombay.
They were both of the same age—eighteen. They had both, from childhood upward, been close and dear friends at the same school. They were now parting for the first time—and parting, it might be, for life.
The name of one was Blanche. The name of the other was Anne.
Both were the children of poor parents, both had been pupil-teachers at the school; and both were destined to earn their own bread. Personally speaking, and socially speaking, these were the only points of resemblance between them.
Blanche was passably attractive and passably intelligent, and no more. Anne was rarely beautiful and rarely endowed. Blanche’s parents were worthy people, whose first consideration was to secure, at any sacrifice, the future well-being of their child. Anne’s parents were heartless and depraved. Their one idea, in connection with their daughter, was to speculate on her beauty, and to turn her abilities to profitable account.
The girls were starting in life under widely different conditions. Blanche was going to India, to be governess in the household of a Judge, under care of the Judge’s wife. Anne was to wait at home until the first opportunity offered of sending her cheaply to Milan. There, among strangers, she was to be perfected in the actress’s and the singer’s art; then to return to England, and make the fortune of her family on the lyric stage.
Such were the prospects of the two as they sat together in the cabin of the Indiaman locked fast in each other’s arms, and crying bitterly. The whispered farewell talk exchanged between them—exaggerated and impulsive as girls’ talk is apt to be—came honestly, in each case, straight from the heart.
“Blanche! you may be married in India. Make your husband bring you back to England.”
“Anne! you may take a dislike to the stage. Come out to India if you do.”
“In England or out of England, married or not married, we will meet, darling—if it’s years hence—with all the old love between us; friends who help each other, sisters who trust each other, for life! Vow it, Blanche!”
“I vow it, Anne!”
“With all your heart and soul?”
“With all my heart and soul!”
The sails were spread to the wind, and the ship began to move in the water. It was necessary
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