Armadale

By: Wilkie Collins

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton, Rachel Atkins, David Rintoul, John Sackville, Lucy Scott

Two young men linked by a familial murder mystery, a beautiful yet wicked governess who spins a web of deceit, and five individuals named Allan Armadale

Wilkie Collins' follow-up to The Woman in White and No Name is an innovative take on mistaken identity, the nature of evil, and the dark underbelly of Victorian England. The story concerns two distant cousins, both named Allan Armadale, and the impact of a family tragedy, which makes one of them a target of the murderous Lydia Gwilt, a vicious and malevolent charmer determined to get her hands on the Armadale fortune. Will the real Allan Armadale be revealed, and will he survive the plot against his life?

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2020 Naxos Audiobooks

Wilkie Collins at his best

The story never gets boring and is fascinating until the end. No one is without flaws which is part of the charm

Classic Collins

This is the third of Wilkie Collins’s four great novels of the 1860s, the others being The Woman in White, No Name, and The Moonstone. The lives of two cousins, both named Allan Armadale, seem inextricably wound together. Is it fate or merely chance? One of the cousins is unaware of their kinship; the other goes by an assumed name and is haunted by a crime committed by his late father. The narrative is increasingly dominated by a third character, the beautiful but deceitful Lydia Gwilt, whose schemes threaten the life of one or both of the cousins. Armadale is a melodrama in the best sense of the word, and the Naxos cast is splendid!

Wilke Collins

This is by far my favorite of his books! Gripping! Even better than Woman in White

Wonderfully engaging!

Worth every minute. You’ll be so sorry to reach the end and have to leave these marvelous characters!

extremely stupid protagonists

i liked a lot about this book and i especially loved the narration, but i just couldn’t care at all about the protagonists. they were both so infuriatingly stupid. also one of the major plot points relies on that idiotic “let me explain!” vs “i don’t want to hear your explanation!” trope which i just cannot. overall though, it was worth reading and it kept my interest engaged all through.