Wilkie Collins

Man and Wife Wilkie Collins

Man and Wife (1870) was one of the novels in which Wilkie Collins undertook to expose social injustice - in this case the absurdities which existed in British marriage laws. It was his ninth published novel. As someone who had briefly studied law himself, Collins took a keen interest in legal matters, particularly how they applied to domestic life. He himself never married, even though he maintained two separate families who lived quite close to each other in London's fashionable West End. The novel explores both the social and legal problems which arise from bad law and the cruelties inflicted on women trapped in abusive marriages.