Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der böse Genius
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who enjoy Victorian fiction with a social purpose, and anyone curious about marriage and divorce law in the 1800s. A household in crisis brings duty, desire and the choices open to women into focus.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Evil Genius is a novel by Wilkie Collins, published in 1886, near the end of his career. Collins is best known for The Woman in White and The Moonstone, but in his later books he often turned to the law and to the rules that bound men and women in Victorian life. This novel takes up marriage, divorce and the custody of a child, and it asks what a family owes to duty and what it owes to the heart.
You get a story of a household in crisis, in which a marriage is tested and the people around it are pulled into the damage. You also get a look at how English law treated husbands, wives and mothers in the 1800s. Let us begin with the world the novel is set in.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A marriage under strain in Victorian EnglandFree
- 2A governess brings desire into the house
- 3The law becomes a character in the story
- 4What the story is really about, and how it is told
Punkt 1 von 4
A marriage under strain in Victorian England
The novel opens in the comfortable world of the English middle and upper classes. At its center is a married couple, Herbert Linley and his wife, and their young daughter Kitty. On the surface the household has everything a Victorian family was meant to have. A home, money, standing and a child to bring up.
Collins is interested in what happens when that surface cracks. He does not treat a marriage as a private matter alone. In his England, a marriage was also a legal bond, and the law gave a husband and a wife very unequal powers when it failed.
That is why the book matters beyond its plot. Divorce was possible by the 1880s but it was still a public scandal. Reputation, property and the care of children all hung on how a couple behaved and on what a court would later say about it. Keep this in mind as you listen, because the pressure on the characters comes as much from society as from their own feelings.
That’s 1 of 4 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Der böse Genius
What is The Evil Genius by Wilkie Collins about?
It is a Victorian novel about a marriage in crisis, centered on a husband, a wife, a governess and a young child. It looks at divorce, custody and the pressure of duty against desire.
When was The Evil Genius written?
Wilkie Collins published it in 1886, a few years before his death in 1889. It belongs to his later period, when he often used fiction to examine marriage and the law.
What does the title The Evil Genius mean?
An evil genius is an old term for a spirit or influence that leads a person toward ruin. The novel invites you to ask who or what plays that role.
Is The Evil Genius a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction. It is, however, based on real conditions in Victorian England, especially the laws on marriage, divorce and the custody of children.
Is The Evil Genius as good as The Moonstone?
It is a different kind of book. It is more a domestic and legal drama than a mystery, so it suits readers interested in Victorian society more than puzzle plots.