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A review by smithel
No Name by Wilkie Collins
5.0
This is a wonderful book. I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked it up, because although I'd loved Woman in White I'd had a hard time getting through the Moonstone. I needn't have worried! It's a fast-moving, engaging plot right from the beginning, and the characters are wonderfully flawed and likable. The heroine, Magdalen, is daring and resolute, and one can't help rooting for her. While reading I tried to imagine the experience of reading it as a serial and having to wait for the next installment, and certainly the plot is broken into episodes, often with a cliff-hanger, that come from the original format of the story.
No Name tells the story of Norah and Magdalen, who have an idyllic childhood, with no reason to doubt their place in the world. After the sudden deaths of their parents, the girls are shocked to discover that their parents had not been married when Norah and Magdalen were born, so that they are not entitled to inherit any portion of their parents' fortune. Norah accepts her lot and decides to gracefully step away from her place in society to become a governess. Magdalen, however, vows revenge on the uncle who inherited their property, and the novel followed her plots to restore the family fortune to her and her sister. The transmutation of Magdalen from a spoiled young girl to a determined con artist as she comes to discover her own abilities and strength are what really make the novel stand out.
No Name tells the story of Norah and Magdalen, who have an idyllic childhood, with no reason to doubt their place in the world. After the sudden deaths of their parents, the girls are shocked to discover that their parents had not been married when Norah and Magdalen were born, so that they are not entitled to inherit any portion of their parents' fortune. Norah accepts her lot and decides to gracefully step away from her place in society to become a governess. Magdalen, however, vows revenge on the uncle who inherited their property, and the novel followed her plots to restore the family fortune to her and her sister. The transmutation of Magdalen from a spoiled young girl to a determined con artist as she comes to discover her own abilities and strength are what really make the novel stand out.