Wilkie Collins

Antonina, or, The Fall of Rome Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an early expert of secret and tension, composing such works of art as The Moonstone, The Woman dressed in White, and Basil. Antonina, or, The Fall of Rome was his previously distributed novel, a beautiful story of old Rome. Of this work, Collins stated: "To the invented characters alone is submitted the assignment of addressing the soul of the age. The Roman head, Honorius, and the Gothic ruler, Alaric, blend however little by and by occupied with the story-just showing up in such occasions, and acting under such conditions, as the records of history carefully approve yet precise truth in regard to time, spot, and situation is seen in each authentic occasion presented in the plot, from the time of the walk of the Gothic trespassers over the Alps to the end of the primary brute barricade of Rome."