It is finally finished. The last of Wilkie Collins' 'Big Four'. In the next few months, 'The Woman In White' and 'The Moonstone' shall be re-read and reviewed, but right now it is time to think about 'No Name', a novel far superior to its successor 'Armadale'. Yes, 'No Name' is much better, but not quite so good as the two iconic novels.
This post will almost certainly careen all over the place, as two months of erratic literary consumption become condensed down to a few paragraphs on a web page. It's a difficult book about which to come to a firm conclusion, due to a plethora of possible choices of theme. The story is about a young woman called Magdalen Vanstone (and her sister Norah) who is dispossessed of the family fortune after her secretly unmarried parents do marry and unwittingly invalidate their wills. Magdalen, a fiery and unbridled passion, sets out to reclaim the money from hostile 'true' relatives of her parents by fair means or foul, while Norah submits herself to fate and finds a position in life.
Magdalen, a truly progressive female protagonist for the time, takes a turn on the stage, sets out to ensnare the true and somewhat despicable heir into marriage, seeks to overturn a secret trust in her husband's will, goes undercover as a servant, and finally breaks down under the stress and almost succumbs to the grim reaper. Meanwhile, Norah ends up unwittingly marrying the eventual inheritor of the whole shebang by dint of her own virtue, so where does the moral lie? Is it in the fact that Magdalen commits several acts of Dick Dastardly idiocy by ruining situations which would have supported her quite well through her following life, in search of the grand prize, or is it in her submitting to the love in the final instance and settling down with the now ironically named Captain Kirke and accepting the role of submissive wife over the lure of money? Is the final breakdown meant to demonstrate nature protesting against Magdalen's proactive proclivities, or is it a purely moral message from the author on sin and virtue? Is it a progressive novel or a conservative one, seeking to put women in their place? Collins does comment freely and simplictically on the 'nature of women' throughout the whole narrative, but simultaneously headlines five major and distinctive feminine characters: The reliable and steadfast governess Miss Garth, the fiery and self-destructive Magdalen, the noble and submissive Norah, the ruthless housekeeper Mrs Lecount, and the moronic huckster's wife Mrs Wragge. Mr Wragge, by the by, is one of my favourite characters in any of the Big Four.
'No Name' is much easier to read than 'Armadale', being far more consistent and less shattered in form. There is a section where forebodings overshadow the story dismally, but it is far less pronounced and lengthy than in 'Armadale'. You weren't in danger of a depressive episode with this novel! It even dispenses with structure in some way, via the introduction of welcome epistolic summaries of events between the seven 'scenes' which make up the whole novel, abridging various periods in the story of minimal interest. That's something which is always appealing here, and a method commonly used in the serial stories at the Quirky Muffin. (We're not Wilkie Collins, but we do have hidden jewels only accessible to sleepwalkers.) Oh, sleepwalking makes its debut here, and will be revisited in 'The Moonstone'.
The height of 'No Name' is the wonder that is the harvester of money, Captain Horatio Wragge, and the depth is that the central conceit is now utterly obsolete in the modern day, making the whole construction less relateable than, say, 'The Woman In White' or 'The Moonstone'. At least, we can hope that it's an obsolete issue, and that illegitimacy is no longer a barrier to intestate inheritance? It is, isn't it? Yes? Anyway, 'No Name' is a solid classic novel, readable throughout, with some great characterisation, some notable eccentric characters, and a confusing theme. Maybe it wasn't intended to have a theme, though? If you like 'The Woman In White' and 'The Moonstone', then definitely read 'No Name', but in all likelihood you should skip 'Armadale' and 'The Dead Secret'.
O.
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