No Name (Penguin Classics)

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Written in the early 1860s, between The Woman in White and The Moonstone, No Name was rejected as immoral by critics of its time, but is today regarded as a novel of outstanding social insight, showing Collins at the height of his powers. Magdalen gets her father’s permission to marry Frank, but he proposes a probationary waiting period of twelve months. But he doesn’t have either the humour of Dickens’ minor characters nor the truly sinister feeling of Dickens’ villains. But a furious and defiant Magdalen refuses to accept the loss of what she knows is rightfully hers and her sisters.

There's death after death and a revolving-door fortune and so many schemes and setbacks and you KNOW the servant is the Biggest Bad in the tale. The elder sister, Norah, bore her change in fortune with quiet fortitude and became a governess to support herself, leaning on the support of the faithful Vanstone family governess and friend, Miss Garth. Her last resort is to marry Noel Vanstone who came into possession of the family fortune after the death of his father, Michael Vanstone. For those in quarantine, self-isolating, and in need of a literary diversion or escape, might I suggest a hefty, 800-page sensation novel? The Vanstone estate passes in its entirety to their embittered uncle who refuses to recognize the justice of their claim against his brother's wealth.

Pendril, tells Norah and Magdalen that despite appearances their parents had only been married for a few months, and their wedding invalidated the will which left everything to the daughters.

The current Mr and Mrs lived together as husband and wife, finally made legal when the first wife died. In his introduction Mark Ford examines themes of identity and illegitimacy within Victorian society and compares No Name to Collins's more 'sensational' fiction. He’s given little quirks like recording all his swindles as carefully as if they were legitimate business deals, or having certain mannerisms in the way he talks.Both these characters were likable in their own way, but Magdalen was the better heroine for me despite all her sins. Slightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed and Plain Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and highly individual.