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Poor Miss Finch [with Biographical Introduction]
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Wilkie Collin's intriguing story about a blind girl, Lucilla Finch, and the identical twins who both fall in love with her, has the exciting complications of his better known novels, but it also overturns conventional expectations. Using a background of myth and fairy-tale to expand the boundaries of nineteenth century realist fiction, Collins not only takes a blind person as his central character but also explores the idea of blindness and its implications. His sensitive presentation of the difficulties, disappointments, and occasional delights which follow the recovery of sight by someone blind since infancy is still one of the best accounts in fiction of a problem which continues to intrigue philosophers, psychologists, and the general public, as it has done since it was first discussed by Locke and Berkeley in the eighteenth century.
About the Author
A popular and influential English novelist, dramatist, and short story writer, Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was the son of a famous landscape painter, William Collins. Renowned for his sensational mysteries and romances, he is hailed as the inventor of the detective novel. Collins was a lawyer by training. Among his most famous works are The Woman in White (1860), and The Moonstone (1867), and No Name (1862).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The importance of this novel has been overlooked by critics and readers for a long time but it is a great text. Written soon after 'The Moonstone' it is about a blind girl, Lucilla Finch, who falls in love with a man who - because of his epilepsy - takes medicine that causes his skin to turn blue. When she regains her sight, Lucilla mistakes her lover for his twin brother and almost marries the latter unknowingly. It contains the typical Collinsian treatment of identity as sporadic and has all the twists and cliff-hangers that his more popular novels are famous for. Having a strict purpose of presenting an accurate portrayal of blindness in fiction, though, means that Collins is much more concerned with this 'mission' rather than the rich narrative techniques we get in his earlier novels. Nevertheless, the Gothic atmosphere, the witty characterisations and some decidedly feminist ideas, make this novel a winner for me and definitely a book worthy of the Collins canon. Buy it, read it and appreciate it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The novel's title is ironic; the eponymous heroine is neither poor financially or to be pitied. She is a feisty woman who has a mind of her own; she is also blind and the novel tells of her involvement with twin brothers who both aspire to be her suitor.
However, this being Wilkie Collins, nothing is straightforward and the reader is taken on an exciting journey involving deception and fraud.
The tone of the novel is set by its narrator, Madame Pratolungo, who has a wonderful way of summing up a character or situation in a few pithy words, for example: "Her aunt's 'grand manner' makes me sick. It is nothing (between ourselves) but a hook-nose and a stiff pair of stays" (p330). Her portraits of the pompous vicar and his wife, seemingly always suckling a baby whilst reading a novel, are very entertaining.
One jarring note is the depiction of the German Doctor Grosse who speaks in a cod Germanic style.
'Poor Miss Finch' is an excellent, at times exciting, read which I found hard to put down. For those of you who usually shy away from Victorian novels, I would urge you to give it a go.
However, this being Wilkie Collins, nothing is straightforward and the reader is taken on an exciting journey involving deception and fraud.
The tone of the novel is set by its narrator, Madame Pratolungo, who has a wonderful way of summing up a character or situation in a few pithy words, for example: "Her aunt's 'grand manner' makes me sick. It is nothing (between ourselves) but a hook-nose and a stiff pair of stays" (p330). Her portraits of the pompous vicar and his wife, seemingly always suckling a baby whilst reading a novel, are very entertaining.
One jarring note is the depiction of the German Doctor Grosse who speaks in a cod Germanic style.
'Poor Miss Finch' is an excellent, at times exciting, read which I found hard to put down. For those of you who usually shy away from Victorian novels, I would urge you to give it a go.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed this book very much despite the misleading blurb. It is probably rather easy reading compared to other, more well-known, Wilkie Collins books, but worthwhile nevertheless. I particularly liked the description of the awfulness of being read aloud to (which I also dislike).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Daft As They Come
This novel is really a load of codswallop but it does contain some great characters!
I do not believe in giving the plot away, needless to say it concerns a blind girl, twin... Read more
I do not believe in giving the plot away, needless to say it concerns a blind girl, twin... Read more
Published 16 months ago by music lover
I loved this little-known Wilkie Collins book!
Having read all four of Wilkie Collins' most popular books (The Woman in White, Armadale, No Name and The Moonstone), I am now exploring his less popular novels. Read more
Published 21 months ago by H. Skinner
Not great
I love Wilkie Collin's books and have read nearly all of them. Unfortunately this wasn't one of his best. He might have been a bit long in the tooth when he was writing it.
Published on 15 Dec 2009 by Mr. Nicolas Harris
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