![]() A dying man dictates the story of a past crime, a thwarted marriage, and a wicked servant girl's deeds that allow his fortune to fall into the hands of a man who shares his name. This dichotomy of the two men is underscored by Collins in a chapter entitled "Day and Night."Īrmadale opens with a deathbed confession. Similarly, the light and dark characteristics, both physical and emotional, exemplified in Marian and Laura are mirrored in the portraits of Allan Armadale - light haired, fair skinned, cheerful to the point of naivete - and Ozias Midwinter - his dark haired, swarthy opposite, a man of brooding darkness and superstition. In Armadale the reader meets the unscrupulous Madame Maria Oldershaw and the vindictive, man hating Lydia Gwilt who serve as the female counterparts to Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. ![]() Whereas the earlier book has two women at the mercy of two scheming men out to win a fortune through deception and fraud Armadale gives us two men being victimized by two plotting women both of whom are desirous of power and wealth and will stop at nothing to get what they want. ![]() ![]() The book can easily be seen as The Woman in White (1860) in reverse. ![]() Replete with the worst of human behavior including murder, poisoning, bigamy, torture, fraud and all sorts of mental and physical cruelty Armadale is the grand daddy of all noir fiction. ![]()
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