"The Novelist who invented Sensation"

[Wilkie Collins]

Spy

3 February 1872

Vanity Fair

See the Forty Years of 'Spy" commentary below.

Other Literary Caricatures from Vanity Fair

• "The Poet Laureate" (Alfred Tennyson)
• "The Representative of Romance" (Bulwer-Lytton)
• "The Diogenes of the Modern Corinthians without his Tub" (Thomas Carlyle)
• Anthony Trollope (Men of the Day No. 60)
• Benjamin Disraeli (Statesmen, No. 1)
• "Tess" — Thomas Hardy, Novelist

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary: Spy recalls his childhood connections with Collins and Dickens

I went with my father to Charles Dickens' last reading. He was an amateur actor of high repute, and his rendering of the famous novels was [65/66] exceedingly dramatic, Wilkie Collins once wrote a play, called The Lighthouse, for some private theatricals in which Dickens acted. My father designed the invitation card, and the original drawing was sold at the Dickens' sale at Christie's, where it fetched high price. At the last party given by Miss Dickens before he died [in June 1870], I was introduced to the great author, and curiously enough, he said, "I am so pleased to make your acquaintance, and I hope this will not be your last visit." That evening Joachim gave us an exhibition of his incomparable art. . . . .

About that time I made several slight caricatures of Dickens, which have been not only exhibited, but published. [66]

Bibliography

Ward, Leslie ['Spy']. Forty Years of 'Spy'. London: Chatto and Windus, 1915.

Ward, Leslie ['Spy']. "The Novelist who invented Sensation" [Wilkie Collins] 3 February 1872. Vanity Fair.

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Created 21 July 2023