Collins, Wilkie — Man and Wife

Dover Publications First edition, trade softcover. Published NY: Dover, 1983, first printing. Large 8vo. wrappers, 6 1/8" x 9 1/4", 242pp., double column text, illustrated with period engravings. A few sheets have flattened corner creasing. Very good, clean, bright. Man and Wife (1870) combines the fast pace and sensational plot structure of Collins's most famous novels with a biting attack on the inequitable marriage laws in Victorian Britain. At its centre is the plight of a woman who fears that the archaic marriage laws of Scotland and Ireland may have forced her into committing unintentional bigamy. As the novel progresses, the atmosphere grows increasingly sinister when the setting moves from a country house to a London suburb and a world of confinement, plotting, and murder. Very Good No Jacket, As Issued 1st Edition 1st Printing NY 8vo 239