William Wilkie Collins (1824–89) was, unlike many nineteenth-century writers, a great literary success within his own lifetime. At one stage he rose to be the highest-paid Victorian writer, even eclipsing the earnings of his mentor, Charles Dickens. He had several careers in his youth, but it was writing novels that brought him fame, boosted by a certain notoriety for what many perceived as his scandalous and immoral private life.Rohan Maitzen (Introduction) is Associate Professor of English Literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her primary teaching areas are Victorian literature and detective fiction. She has research interests in historiography, literature and philosophy, ethical criticism, and women’s political fiction. Her essays and reviews have appeared in publications including Victorian Studies, The Times Literary Supplement, The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Literary Review of Canada. She blogs at ‘Novel Readings’.