Basil

Basil, published in 1852, is Wilkie Collins’ second novel. In writing it, Collins took a very different approach from his first novel, a historical romance: Basil is his first venture into “sensation fiction.” It features themes of adultery, fraud, betrayal, and vengeance; themes certainly sensational by the standards of the early Victorian era in which it was written. The novel begins with Basil, an aristocratic young man who sees a beautiful young woman on an omnibus, and instantly falls in love with her.