No Name by Wilkie Collins

published 1862

Her headlong course down the house stairs; the brisk activity of all her movements; the incessant sparkle of expression in her face; the enticing gayety which took the hearts of the quietest people by storm—even the reckless delight in bright colours which showed itself in her brilliantly-striped morning dress, in her fluttering ribbons, in the large scarlet rosettes on her smart little shoes—all sprang alike from the same source; from the overflowing physical health which strengthened every muscle, braced every nerve, and set the warm young blood tingling through her veins, like the blood of a growing child. On her entry into the breakfast-room, she was saluted with the customary remonstrance which her flighty disregard of all punctuality habitually provoked from the long-suffering household authorities. In Miss Garth's favourite phrase, "Magdalen was born with all the senses—except a sense of order."

Magdalen! It was a strange name to have given her?

observations: You might think Magdalen was going to be something of a Lydia Bennet: silly and then shameless and impure. But Magdalen is a lot more complicated than that, and so is the plot of this bizarrely tortuous book – it gives away its origins as a long-running serial (cliffhanger at the end of each episode) and the fact that the poor man was quite ill when he came to write the end of it. But if you can run with it, it’s a good rollicking read, and with a couple of strikingly unusual female characters: Magdalen is described by someone as ‘a land-shark in petticoats’, rather a splendid and apt phrase.

Nick Hornby writes very entertainingly about this book - in his monthly column in the Believer magazine he recommended No Name after reading a couple of hundred pages. In the following month’s column, after finishing it, he completely withdrew the recommendation, saying the book was almost unreadable in its later stages, and that it was a full-scale battle to get through it at all. I can see what he means, but I didn’t find it that bad – you have to go with the flow, and do a bit of skimming.

Hornby also points out that the key plot element is not revealed until p130 (in my edition) – that is unless you have read the back of the book or virtually any plot summary, blurb or description, all of which have spoilers. It is, in all conscience, difficult to say much about the book for this reason. Warned by Hornby, I could guess but did not know for certain exactly who would have No Name, and why, and what would happen then.

But there are other things of interest in the book to amuse and entertain. There is a round of amateur theatricals – always a Clothes in Books favourite , and always a favourite of Collins himself and his great friend Charles Dickens. Magdalen will find, in a production of Sheridan’s The Rivals, that she is a very good actress, a talent she will put to unusual use throughout the book. "If airs and graces make an actress, ma'am, Magdalen's performance will astonish us all" says Miss Garth the governess.

The book is both entertaining and very funny. There is a rather unusual aphorism: 

Men some to business, some to pleasure take, But every woman is at heart a rake. 

And this great description of one of the characters: "If he had any brains in that monkey head of his, what a rascal he would be!"

There will be more entries on this book – Collins was good at clothes descriptions….

Collins has featured before, with guest entries on the wonderful Woman in White. 

The woman standing at the fireplace is by Tissot.

The other  picture, the seated woman in a yellow striped gown, is by William Merritt Chase