Details
COLLINS, WILKIE (1824-1889). Carte-de-visite photograph signed ("Wilkie Collins"), by Cundall, Downes & Co. (imprint on mount), n.p., n.d. [circa 1870]. 100 x 64 mm. (3 15/16 x 2½ in.) including mount. A handsome seated portrait of the English mystery writer, with his hands folded on his lap, signed on the mount.
"Collins is generally credited with the invention of the English mystery story. The Moonstone (1868) includes that staple of the genre in its early years, the villain from the mysterious East, and the first (?) detective hero in English fiction, Sergeant Cuff. But let us not forget that another policeman, Mr. Bucket in Dickens's Bleak House, was detecting sixteen years earlier!"--W.M.
"Collins is generally credited with the invention of the English mystery story. The Moonstone (1868) includes that staple of the genre in its early years, the villain from the mysterious East, and the first (?) detective hero in English fiction, Sergeant Cuff. But let us not forget that another policeman, Mr. Bucket in Dickens's Bleak House, was detecting sixteen years earlier!"--W.M.