Little-Known Page of Co-Creation of Ch. Dickens and W. Collins: Novel “No Exit”

Abstract

The article is devoted to comprehending the creative cooperation of the outstanding Victorians Ch. Dickens and W. Collins, who were co-authors for a decade and a half, as well as to the study of the peculiarities of the novel “No Exit”, which was not republished in Russia from the end of the 19th century until 2021 and was virtually unknown to the Russian-speaking reader. The relevance of the article is due to the need to build a coherent and consistent history of the development of English literature of the Victorian epoch in the domestic literary consciousness, an important part of which is the legacy of its masters, as well as the elimination of gaps in the creative biography of the largest figures of Victorianism. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time in Russian English studies a gap in the reception of the creative tandem of Ch. Dickens and W. Collins has been filled: the key studies of their heritage have been comprehended; the history of their creative union has been studied; the novel “No Exit” in the context of the creative biography of Ch. Dickens and W. Collins was analyzed; the features of the generic (interweaving of epic and dramatic elements) and genre synthesis (combination of gothic, detective, adventure beginning) of the novel are revealed. The authors of the article used comparative historical, biographical, sociocultural methods, as well as the method of holistic analysis of a work of art.