Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel

Wilkie Collins was one of the most popular novelists during England's Victorian era. While Collins scholarship has often focused on social issues, this critical study explores his formal ingenuity, particularly the novel of testimony constructed from epistolary fiction, trial reports and prose monologue. His innovations in form were later mirrored by Vera Caspary, who adapted The Woman in White three times into contemporary fiction.