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How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins The Dead Secret was Wilkie Collins’ fourth published novel.The secret of the title is the parentage of the heroine, Rosamund Treverton, who has been passed off as the daughter of the wealthy former actress Mrs Treverton of Porthgenna Tower, but is in fact the illegitimate child of her servant Sarah Leeson by a local miner (Mrs Treverton’s motive was to provide her husband with a child, being apparently unable to bear children herself). Sarah writes down the details of the secret from the words of the dying Mrs Treverton, and hides the paper bearing the message in an unused room at Porthgenna. The novel then jumps forward some twenty years. Rosamund has married the blind Leonard Frankland, who now owns Porthgenna Tower. Sarah, under an assumed name, obtains a post as servant to the family, and gives Rosamund a cryptic warning to avoid the room in which the Secret is hidden. On a visit to Porthgenna, Rosamund finds the paper detailing the Secret and reveals it to Leonard. Leonard, who was originally deceived into thinking Rosamund was a wealthy heiress, accepts that his wife is illegitimate, but refuses to accept her inheritance. In the course of things, this would now pass to Mrs Treverton’s miserly brother Andrew (whose introduction, together with his villainous servant, provides some comic relief in the novel). But Andrew Treverton, somewhat out of character, refuses to accept the windfall and Rosamund remains the heiress of the Trevertons in the expected happy ending.

Rosamond Treverton lay dying at Porthgenna Tower, the family mansion in Cornwall. Calling her lady's maid to her side she confesses a terrible secret from her past, but dies before she can extract a promise from Sarah to reveal all to her husband. Hiding the written confession in a remote part of the mansion, Sarah carries the burden alone for fifteen years. Worn out by the strain, it is at this point that she is pitched headlong into a chain of events which could lead to discovery by the innocent she is trying to protect. Will the secret be revealed? What lies in store for the young Rosamond, her blind husband and their infant son, heir to Porthgenna?

The Dead Secret was a thriller novel that was written by Wilkie Collins. The story centers around the secret surrounding the parentage of the stories central character, Rosamund Treverton. Wilkie Collins was a prominent English writer in the 19th century. Collins was a close friend of Charles Dickens and his books were often featured in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words. Collins' books still enjoy wide popularity, especially mystery and detective novels such as The Woman in White, The Moonstone, and Armadale.

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale and No Name. Collins was a lifelong friend of Charles Dickens. A number of Collins's works were first published in Dickens's journals All the Year Round and Household Words. The two collaborated on several dramatic and fictional works, and some of Collins's plays were performed by Dickens's acting company. -wikipedia

The Dead Secret was Wilkie Collins’ fourth published novel. The secret of the title is the parentage of the heroine, Rosamund Treverton, who has been passed off as the daughter of the wealthy former actress Mrs Treverton of Porthgenna Tower, but is in fact the illegitimate child of her servant Sarah Leeson by a local miner (Mrs Treverton’s motive was to provide her husband with a child, being apparently unable to bear children herself). Sarah writes down the details of the secret from the words of the dying Mrs Treverton, and hides the paper bearing the message in an unused room at Porthgenna. The novel then jumps forward some twenty years. Rosamund has married the blind Leonard Frankland, who now owns Porthgenna Tower. Sarah, under an assumed name, obtains a post as servant to the family, and gives Rosamund a cryptic warning to avoid the room in which the Secret is hidden. On a visit to Porthgenna, Rosamund finds the paper detailing the Secret and reveals it to Leonard. Leonard, who was originally deceived into thinking Rosamund was a wealthy heiress, accepts that his wife is illegitimate, but refuses to accept her inheritance. In the course of things, this would now pass to Mrs Treverton’s miserly brother Andrew (whose introduction, together with his villainous servant, provides some comic relief in the novel). But Andrew Treverton, somewhat out of character, refuses to accept the windfall and Rosamund remains the heiress of the Trevertons in the expected happy ending. Like its predecessor Hide and Seek, the “secret” and the mystery are made clear to the reader, though not to the novel’s characters, at an early stage. The obsessed and arguably deranged Sarah prefigures the character of Hester Dethridge in Collins’ Man and Wife, and more distantly those of Lydia Gwilt in Armadale and the female protagonist of his late novel, ‘The Haunted Hotel. The blind Leonard is another of Collins’ disabled characters. He plays only a small part in the novel, but Collins drew another and more significant blind character in Lucilla, the heroine of his 1872 novel Poor Miss Finch. Much of the novel is set in Cornwall, one of Collins’ favourite English counties, which also features in his early melodrama Basil.... William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866), and The Moonstone (1868). The last is considered the first modern English detective novel. Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. He worked as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Some of Collins's works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins published his best known works in the 1860s, achieved financial stability and an international reputation. During that time he began suffering from gout. After taking opium for the pain, he developed an addiction. During the 1870s and 1880s the quality of his writing declined along with his health. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage and never married; he split his time between Caroline Graves, except for a two-year separation, and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. Unfortunately Collins suffered from rheumatic gout, for which he took the opiate laudanum, and which eventually led to paranoid delusions and the deterioration of his health. The first full length novel by Collins, "The Dead Secret", was originally written for serialization. A tale of unrelenting suspense and penetrating characterization, "The Dead Secret" tells of a mystery surrounding an untold secret of a dying wealthy woman. This woman's secret is shared only with her servant. Despite the woman's dying wish, the servant does not expose this secret but ends with an unpleasant result. Eventually the secret is revealed and all is understood in this blend of romance and Gothic drama.

The Dead Secret Wilkie Collins The secret of the title is the parentage of the heroine, Rosamund Treverton, who has been passed off as the daughter of the wealthy former actress Mrs Treverton of Porthgenna Tower, but is in fact the illegitimate child of her servant Sarah Leeson by a local miner (Mrs Treverton’s motive was to provide her husband with a child, being apparently unable to bear children herself). Sarah writes down the details of the secret from the words of the dying Mrs Treverton, and hides the paper bearing the message in an unused room at Porthgenna. The novel then jumps forward some twenty years. Rosamund has married the blind Leonard Frankland, who now owns Porthgenna Tower. Sarah, under an assumed name, obtains a post as servant to the family, and gives Rosamund a cryptic warning to avoid the room in which the Secret is hidden. On a visit to Porthgenna, Rosamund finds the paper detailing the Secret and reveals it to Leonard. Leonard, who was originally deceived into thinking Rosamund was a wealthy heiress, accepts that his wife is illegitimate, but refuses to accept her inheritance. In the course of things, this would now pass to Mrs Treverton’s miserly brother Andrew (whose introduction, together with his villainous servant, provides some comic relief in the novel). But Andrew Treverton, somewhat out of character, refuses to accept the windfall and Rosamund remains the heiress of the Trevertons in the expected happy ending.