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1[[quoteright:209:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wilkie_collins_portrait.png]]
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3William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English writer best known for his novels ''Literature/TheWomanInWhite'' and ''Literature/TheMoonstone'' (arguably the first detective novel in English literature).
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5He was a close friend of Creator/CharlesDickens, and several of his novels were originally serialised in Dickens' magazine ''All the Year Round''.
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7!!Works by Wilkie Collins with their own trope pages include:
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9* ''Literature/TheWomanInWhite''
10* ''Literature/NoName''
11* ''Literature/TheMoonstone''
12* ''Literature/ManAndWife''
13* ''Literature/TheLawAndTheLady''
14----
15!!Other works by Wilkie Collins provide examples of:
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17* AdaptationDeviation: At the end of the BBC Radio adaptation of ''The Haunted Hotel'', the roles of Agnes and Henry are reversed; she is the one who hears the Countess's final confession, and he is left baffled, rather than ''vice versa''.
18* AffluentAscetic: Andrew Treverton in ''The Dead Secret'' is quite well-off, but he doesn't have any interest in comfort or luxury, so he lives an extremely frugal life.
19* AilmentInducedCruelty: In ''Armadale'', Mrs Milroy's chronic illness brought her vicious, jealous qualities to the fore.
20-->Suffering can, and does, develop the latent evil that there is in humanity, as well as the latent good. The good that was in Mrs. Milroy’s nature shrank up, under that subtly deteriorating influence in which the evil grew and flourished. Month by month, as she became the weaker woman physically, she became the worse woman morally. All that was mean, cruel, and false in her expanded in steady proportion to the contraction of all that had once been generous, gentle, and true.
21* AndSomeOtherStuff: The chemicals used to make the poisonous gas in ''Armadale''.
22* BackAlleyDoctor: Dr Downward, a shady doctor in ''Armadale''. In the last part of the book he appears under the alias 'Dr le Doux', running a very suspicious private sanatorium.
23* BastardAngst: The titular "dead secret" in ''The Dead Secret'' is that protagonist Rosamund is actually an illegitimate child passed off as an heiress. This causes much internal and external conflict, as her husband refuses to accept her inheritance.
24* BeardnessProtectionProgram: In ''I Say "No"'', the chief suspect for Mr Brown's murder is a short, clean-shaven man, with short blond hair. Doctor Allday realises the Reverend Mr Mirabel matches the description, except for his long hair and beard, and suspects this trope is in play.
25* BeardOfSorrow: In ''The Dead Secret'', Andrew Treverton let his beard grow when he lost faith in humanity.
26-->In the year eighteen hundred and forty-four, the fact of a man's not shaving was regarded by the enlightened majority of the English nation as a proof of unsoundness of intellect. At the present time Mr. Treverton's beard would only have interfered with his reputation for respectability. Seventeen years ago it was accepted as so much additional evidence in support of the old theory that his intellects were deranged.
27* BigEater: Cecilia Wyvil in ''I Say "No"'' is in her late teens, and still retains a schoolgirl's appetite.
28* BreakTheCutie: Sarah Leeson in ''The Dead Secret'' -- her fiancé died in a mining accident the day after the marriage was arranged, and her life went downhill from there.
29* ClassPrincess: Emily Brown, the protagonist of ''I Say "No"'', is introduced as the 'queen' of her dormitory at school, and is a genuinely charming, likeable girl.
30* CompositeCharacter: In the BBC Radio ''The Haunted Hotel'', Stephen and Francis Westwick are combined into a single character.
31* ContrivedCoincidence:
32** In ''Basil'', Margaret's father's confidential clerk just happens to be someone with a sizeable grudge against Basil's family.
33** In ''Poor Miss Finch'', it's remarkable how Mme Pratolungo keeps getting called away to deal with her troublesome father just when it would be really helpful to have her around.
34* CutShort: ''The Fallen Leaves'' was intended to be the first part of a larger series. Thanks to poor sales, the series went no further.
35* DescendingCeiling: In "A Terribly Strange Bed", some innkeepers murder (in order to rob) their guests by giving them a canopied bed where the canopy can be silently lowered to smother the sleeper.
36* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: In the BBC Radio ''The Haunted Hotel'', Countess Narona takes her own life at the end rather than dying of a stroke.
37* DisposingOfABody: In the last chapters of ''The Haunted Hotel'', it's finally revealed that the victim's body was [[spoiler:dissolved in a vat of acid. All except the head, which for some reason the murderers left until last, and had to dispose of by other means.]]
38* DreadfulMusician: Mr Wyvil in ''I Say "No"'' has played the violin as a hobby for twenty years, despite his complete lack of talent at it.
39* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: In ''The Haunted Hotel'', the first thing anyone who meets her notices about Countess Narona is her complexion, which is of 'corpse-like pallor'.
40* FaintInShock: In ''I Say "No"'', Mr Mirabel faints when Emily asks him to help her find her father's murderer. What she doesn't know (but the reader does) is that he's a remarkably close match to the description of the prime suspect in the case.
41* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: At the start of ''Basil'', Basil's older brother Ralph has spent his whole life being irresponsible, while their sister Clara is a paragon of virtue.
42* GoldDigger: Margaret in ''Basil'', encouraged by her father, is only interested in the money and rank that she can gain from her marriage to Basil. Not that Basil suspects this until it's far too late.
43* HotDrinkCure: In ''The Haunted Hotel'', Lord Montbarry, suffering from a cold, sends out his courier for lemons to make hot lemonade... and unwittingly sets off a chain of events that lead to both men's deaths.
44* IdentificationByDentalRecords: In ''The Haunted Hotel'', the identity of the skull found in the hotel is finally confirmed by identification of the dental plate in its mouth.
45* InTheBlood: ''Armadale'' revolves around this trope; a young man who has (for unrelated reasons) adopted a pseudonym meets another young man who shares his birth name of Allan Armadale. They become fast friends, until the first young man discovers that his father had murdered the father of the other Allan Armadale. He spends much of the rest of the novel haunted by his father's conviction that the sons are destined to repeat the fathers' fatal feud.
46* InnOfNoReturn: In ''A Terribly Strange Bed''.
47* JailBaitWait: The protagonist of ''Basil'' marries his crush Margaret, on the condition that they live apart until she turns eighteen.
48* LawOfInverseFertility: In the backstory of ''The Dead Secret'' -- Mrs Treverton and her husband desperately wanted a child but hadn't been able to conceive one.
49* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: In ''The Fallen Leaves'' one character takes care to make their suicide look like an accidental overdose.
50* MassiveNumberedSiblings: The title character of ''Poor Miss Finch'' has 14 half-siblings, and the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue reveals that the family kept getting bigger after that.
51* MidnightSnack: ''I Say "No"'' opens with a group of schoolgirls having a midnight feast in their dormitory.
52* MurphysBed: In ''A Terribly Strange Bed''.
53* OneDegreeOfSeparation: In ''I Say "No"'', Emily keeps bumping into characters who turn out to have knowledge of her father's mysterious death. It's understandable that her aunt and her aunt's servant would, but more of a ContrivedCoincidence when it comes to the new teacher at her school, the servants at the house where she happens to get a job as a secretary, or the preacher whom her best friend coincidentally meets while on holiday in Switzerland.
54* OneSteveLimit: The aversion is a big plot point in ''Armadale'', which features five different characters named Allan Armadale: the "original" Allan Armadale, uncle of the one, father of the other Allan Armadale of the older generation of Armadales, who disowned the son to make the nephew his heir, starting the feud.
55* TheOphelia: Simple Sally in ''The Fallen Leaves'', though her mental health improves once she's rescued from her life as a prostitute.
56* PoorCommunicationKills: The entire plot of ''I Say "No"'' runs on people not telling Emily the truth about her father's death, only for her to find out anyway and resent them for keeping her in the dark.
57* PrematurelyGreyHaired: Sarah Leeson in ''The Dead Secret'', which we eventually learn was caused by the tragic death of her fiancé.
58* PrivateDetective: Old Sharon in ''My Lady's Money'', a former lawyer who was struck off (we [[NoodleIncident never learn the exact reason]]) and now makes his living finding things (and people) that have disappeared.
59* RelationshipSabotage: In ''I Say "No"'', Francine tries to push Emily and Mirabel apart (combined with [[ShipperOnDeck trying to get Emily and Alban together]]) so she can have Mirabel for herself. Her clumsy efforts end up having the opposite effect.
60* SchmuckBait: In ''The Dead Secret'', Mrs Jazeph warns Rosamond: "When you go to Porthgenna, keep out of the Myrtle Room." Rosamond promptly decides that the moment they find out where the Myrtle Room is, she'll go straight there.
61* SpoiledBrat: Francine in ''I Say "No"'' comes from a well-off family, but her selfish attitude does her no favours.
62* SuddenNameChange: In the Project Gutenberg text of ''The Haunted Hotel'', Lord Montbarry's eldest daughter's name changes from Lucy to Marian between chapters. The same slip is present in the French edition.
63* TakingTheVeil: At the end of ''I Say "No"'', Francine, rejected by her family, has entered a convent, though the characters discussing this are doubtful whether she'll stay there.
64* TapOnTheHead: The aversion is a major plot point in ''Poor Miss Finch'' -- Oscar is left with serious long-term consequences after being knocked out by a gang of burglars.
65* ThirdPersonPerson: Selina "Jicks" Finch in ''Poor Miss Finch'' -- being only three years old, she hasn't yet got the hang of pronouns.
66* ThisIsReality: In ''I Say "No"'', Emily, intent on investigating her father's murder, tries to learn detection by reading every true crime account and detective story she can get hold of. She concludes that if she, an untrained young woman, tried to behave like a professional detective, she'd quickly end up dead or [[FateWorseThanDeath worse]].
67* {{Tomboy}}: Rosamond in ''The Dead Secret'', in her younger days. The vicar's young son describes her as "the only girl I ever saw who was fit to play with boys."
68* TwinSwitch: In ''Poor Miss Finch''. Miss Finch is engaged to Oscar, but his twin brother Nugent poses as Oscar in the hope of marrying her himself.
69* TwinTest: In ''Poor Miss Finch'', the title character Lucilla Finch (who's blind) is challenged to tell the difference between her fiance Oscar and his twin brother Nugent. This becomes a [[ChekhovsGun crucial plot point]] later in the story when Nugent tries to marry Lucilla under the guise that he's actually Oscar. She finds she can do it by holding their hands:
70-->'''Lucilla:''' "When Oscar takes it, a delicious tingle runs from his hand into mine, and steals all over me. I can't describe it any better than that." \
71'''Madame Pratolungo:''' "I understand. And when Nugent takes your hand, what do you feel?" \
72'''Lucilla:''' "Nothing!"
73* VoodooDoll: Francine de Sor in ''I Say "No"'' uses one to try to frighten a confession out of a servant.
74* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: ''Poor Miss Finch'' ends with one, set twelve years later than the main action of the book.
75* WriterOnBoard: A complaint about his later books. As Swinburne put it:
76-->What brought good Wilkie’s genius nigh perdition? \
77Some demon whispered –“Wilkie, have a mission!”
78* XanatosSpeedChess: Collins seems to have been fond of this trope; Lydia Gwilt in ''Armadale'' and Captain Wragge in ''No Name'' are both excellent Xanatos Speed Chess players.

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