18 July 2011

I have recently taken to reading classics and in particular, books by Wilkie Collins.  His most notable novel would be "Woman in White" which was also made into a movie.

Wilkie Collins, to my surprise, is one author whose work I find little difficulty in reading every single word.  And just as importantly, his story plots and twists therein are to me, exceptional, because there is always something new and unexpected.

I have come to find most other authors (whether old or new) to follow much the same plot over and over.  Apart from the degree of what happens, there is not much surprise in the story line.  This, I find, is especially true of serial writers - authors who have a series of books with the same main character(s). 

This book "Blind Love" by Wilkie Collins did not disappoint me and indeed, provided me with the usual distinctive enjoyment of a Collins book. Unfortunately, this did not last.

This book was never completed by Wilkie Collins.  He died before he could complete it.  The preface of the book tells how Wilkie Collins supposedly (I say "supposedly" for good reason which I will come to later) asked Walter Besant to complete the novel for him.  Wilkie Collins did have notes, plot details, and drafts to aid Walter Besant in completing the request thus asked of him.  And as Walter Besant (in the preface) himself acknowledges, the notes, drafts, and plot lines left by Wilkie Collins were, to his surprise, in fulsome detail.

With that reassuring preface I commenced my enjoyment of "Blind Love".  About 70% of the way in, by way of a note, I was informed that from that point, the writing was no longer by Wilkie Collins - Walter Besant had taken over.

As earlier mentioned I deliberately used the word "supposedly" to disparately allude to the 'fact' that that Wilkie Collins could have chosen Walter Besant to write the end of his novel for him because there is no doubt that the skills of Walter Besant are so far below that of Collins that it seems an insult that they should write as one, in the same book.  I had originally thought that surely there would not be much difference (and hence, no disappointment) because Walter Besant had been (supposedly) chosen by the talented Wilkie Collins to complete his last work and in that choice, must be the implicit notion that Wilkie Collins knew well the works and style of his appointed writer and that he must surely have felt that Walter Besant would best complete Collins novel in a style as little differing from his own as possible.

That is so not true!  I attempted valiantly for many pages to read on from where Besant took over, but from in truth from that point - the words and construction of sentences became significantly less enjoyable to read.  And worse - despite himself admitting that Collins had left him very detailed plot stages - the novel became increasingly hard to follow.  Not I am sure from the deficiencies of the details left by Collins, but definitely by the (lack of skill and) style of Besant.

The lines became less graceful, the characters lost depth and consistency, and with the over use of indistinguishable pronouns, oftentimes one could not decipher who was talking and hence lost much of the delicious subtleties that was such an enjoyable trademark of Collins.

So for any other ardent fan of Wilkie Collins, you most definitely might wish to give this "Blind Love" a miss based on the fact that the second half might as well as not have been written and, I think, the task undertaken by Walter Besant was a disappointing failure.