Unequal Partners: Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Victorian Authorship by Lillian Nayder (review)

Abstract

Moreover, Collinsis the authorof three of the seven serialstreatedhere.Armadale, an unusualchoice for the Cornhill's readers,providesan interestingcomparisonwith the two domestic serialswhich ran concurrentlyin that periodical- Gaskell'sWives andDaughters and Trollope's TheClaverings. Nevertheless,alongsidethe concentration on All TheYearRound,this leads to something of an imbalance in the selection of novels and magazines for case study. Selection is, of course, always fraught with difficulty,and as the author recognizes , the modern scholar is faced with an almost overwhelming 'rich excess' of material (p. I67). Her term 'family magazine' embraces very disparatemagazines; the other two are the New Monthly Magazine(Wood's EastLynne) and OnceA Week (Braddon'sEleanor's Victory). It seems a pity, therefore,not to have castthe net a little more widely. Braddon'sown Belgravia, to which Wynne refers,not only delightedin the discourseof sensation, but exploited intertextualityto remarkableeffect. UNIVERSITYOF READING BARBARA ONSLOW UnequalPartners: Charles Dickens,WilkieCollins,and Victorian Authorship. By LILLIAN NAYDER. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2001. xiv + 221 pp. ?23.50. ISBN:0-80I4-3925-6. When, in 1873,FrederickChapman asked Wilkie Collins to identify his contributions to 'No Thoroughfare'(1867)that they might be omitted from futureeditionsof Dickens's work, he declared the task impossible and explained, 'We put the story together in the Swiss chalet at Gad's Hill, and we finished the Fourth Act side by side at two desks in his bedroom at Gad's Hill' (quoted p. 14).As Lillian Nayder's excellent study illustrates,this idyllic image of literary collaboration was Collins's invention, for such 'equityand partnership[...] was rarely,if ever, achieved'during his professional association with Dickens (p. 202). While they may have toiled together in Dickens's bedroom, it is clear, from Nayder's book, that they were uneasy bedfellows, and that the tensions between them manifested themselves not only in each man's private correspondence,but also in their writings. Nayder skilfullyobservesCollins'searly acceptance of his subordinateposition in relation to Dickens. Impressedby his mentor's success, Collins consented -albeit reluctantlyat times - to Dickens'scontrolof the overallmoral and politicaltone of their collaborativeproductions.Yet, as Collins'sconfidence grew, this subordination became increasinglyirksomeand he resentedthe 'confusionof authorship'between Dickens's works and his own which he saw as the implication of his anonymous contributions to Household Words(p. 32). Taking Collins's challenge to Dickens's authority as its startingpoint, Nayder's book aims to demonstrate 'how their collaborativeworksrepresentand reconfigurethe relationshipbetween the two men', while simultaneously following 'Collins's efforts to establish his autonomy as a novelist famous in his own right' (pp. 5-6). Examining their collaborationon 'The Wreck of the Golden Mary' (1856),TheFrozen Deep(I856-74), and 'The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices' (1857),as well as individual essays, and novels such as Collins's The Moonstone (i868) and Dickens's The Mystegyof EdwinDrood(1870), Nayder's analyses mark the significant differences in their attitudes to questions of gender, sexuality, class, and race, while her deft critical observation traces the shiftingbalance of their working relationship.The widening gulf between the two writersis particularlyevident on the matter of race, emerging most prominentlyin Moreover, Collinsis the authorof three of the seven serialstreatedhere.Armadale, an unusualchoice for the Cornhill's readers,providesan interestingcomparisonwith the two domestic serialswhich ran concurrentlyin that periodical- Gaskell'sWives andDaughters and Trollope's TheClaverings. Nevertheless,alongsidethe concentration on All TheYearRound,this leads to something of an imbalance in the selection of novels and magazines for case study. Selection is, of course, always fraught with difficulty,and as the author recognizes , the modern scholar is faced with an almost overwhelming 'rich excess' of material (p. I67). Her term 'family magazine' embraces very disparatemagazines; the other two are the New Monthly Magazine(Wood's EastLynne) and OnceA Week (Braddon'sEleanor's Victory). It seems a pity, therefore,not to have castthe net a little more widely. Braddon'sown Belgravia, to which Wynne refers,not only delightedin the discourseof sensation, but exploited intertextualityto remarkableeffect. UNIVERSITYOF READING BARBARA ONSLOW UnequalPartners: Charles Dickens,WilkieCollins,and Victorian Authorship. By LILLIAN NAYDER. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2001. xiv + 221 pp. ?23.50. ISBN:0-80I4-3925-6. When, in 1873,FrederickChapman asked Wilkie Collins to...