Jezebel's Daughter

Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 564K words
Chapters: 57

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Jezebel's Daughter by Wilkie CollinsAuthor: Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 1, 2003

Editor's review

This novel comes from the hand of Wilkie Collins, a Victorian master of suspenseful storytelling. It revolves around family secrets, identity, and moral dilemmas, with a plot driven by dialogue and layer-by-layer revelation, carrying the typical pacing of a serialized novel. Compared with the author's better-known works, it focuses more intently on the situation of female characters within family and property relations; it offers both suspenseful pleasure and a window into nineteenth-century English society's sensitivity to reputation and class. This is a public-domain electronic edition, suitable as supplementary reading for understanding Collins's creative lineage and Victorian popular fiction. As you read, note the shifts in narrative perspective and the use of letters and testimonial-style materials; these techniques reveal the author's narrative craftsmanship more than the mere pursuit of a culprit. If you are used to fast-paced modern thrillers, the build-up may feel slow, but patient reading will reveal tightly woven undercurrents in the characters' relationships.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Victorian English fiction and want to expand their knowledge of Collins's works
Suspense readers interested in family secrets, identity mysteries, and multiple perspectives
Students and enthusiasts studying nineteenth-century women's situation and property relations
Book clubs or course organizers in need of public-domain English fiction material

Not a good fit for

Readers of modern thrillers who want only intense action and fast-paced twists
Those seeking the author's most famous masterpiece and not interested in exploring secondary works
Beginners impatient with nineteenth-century English long sentences and serial-style build-up

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters while noting the character relationships; jot down family members and property clues before continuing.
Slow down when you encounter letters or testimonial passages; these materials often contain key information.
If the English original is difficult, read a Chinese translation first to grasp the chapter structure, then return to key dialogues in the original.
After finishing, revisit the suspense set up at the beginning and appreciate how the author plants foreshadowing in everyday scenes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book similar in style to The Woman in White?

It belongs to the same tradition of Collins's suspense fiction, relying on multiple perspectives and gradually revealed secrets, but this book focuses more on the internal family sphere and women's situation; its tension is more restrained and does not center on pursuit and identity substitution as The Woman in White does.

Can I read it directly without having read other works by Collins?

Yes. The plot is relatively self-contained and does not depend on knowledge of earlier works; a basic understanding of Victorian social background is enough to enter the story.

What should I pay attention to when reading the electronic edition?

This is a public-domain electronic text, so the layout may be plain. Use a reader that supports adjustable font size and bookmarks, and pay attention to chapter titles to help locate character clues within long paragraphs.

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About the author

Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889 Author

Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) was a British novelist best known for his detective and suspense fiction. The library holds 44 of his works, including The Woman in White, The Moonstone, No Name, Armadale, The Law and the Lady and The Dead Secret. He was skilled at multiple-perspective narration and building suspense, and he addressed social issues such as identity, marriage and the law, with intricate plots and vivid characters. The Moonstone is often regarded as one of the pioneering works of modern detective fiction and has had a lasting influence on later mystery writing. It should be noted that the library's information on his nationality and life dates is limited, so this introduction relies mainly on his works and general public knowledge.