Wilkie Collins The Initiator Of The Detective Novel And His Model The Woman In White

This thesis aims to explore Wilkie Collins’ s pioneering contributions to the detective novel and his influence on later detective novelists.Collins sets notable examples in structuring the detective novel.In characterization,Collins creates amateur detectives who play a decisive role in cracking cases and adopts the mode of“co-detectives”.In plot,Collins’ s characters all have secret identities,so searching for identity is a mainline of his novels.In narrative strategy,Collins arranges multiple narrators,which is an ideal vehicle of establishing and intensifying suspense.Comparing Collins’ s works with those of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle,the present author of this thesis elucidates that Collins sets many paradigms for detective fiction,such as the “fair-play” principle and “the least-likely-person” trick,which is still used today.Wilkie Collins’ s exceptional achievements make him an entitled forerunner of the detective novel,one of the co-creators of detective fiction.