The Evil Genius
Written by Wilkie Collins
Narrated by John Bolen
4/5
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About this audiobook
And now an "evil genius" is threatening to rip apart the fabric of the Linley home. Who is it, and why? Is it the orphaned young governess, Sydney, for whom the father lusts? The brother-in-law who appears to help everyone but often succeeds in making things worse? The meddling mother-in-law whose good-intentioned interferences lead to greater heartache? The disloyal father? Or perhaps it is the unassuming daughter.
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824, the son of a successful and popular painter. Collins himself demonstrated some artistic talent and had a painting hung in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1849, but his real passion was for writing. On leaving school, he worked in the office of a tea merchant in the Strand but hated it. He left and read law as a student at Lincoln's Inn but already his writing career was flowering. His first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850. In 1851, the same year that he was called to the bar, he met and established a lifelong friendship with Charles Dickens. While Collins' fame rests on his best known works, The Woman in White and The Moonstone, he wrote over thirty books, as well as numerous short stories, articles and plays. He was a hugely popular writer in his lifetime. Collins was an unconventional individual: he never married but established long term liaisons with two separate households. He died in 1889.
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Reviews for The Evil Genius
5 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great story. I enjoyed the reader very much. He maintained the different voices all the way through.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm a bit of a Wilkie Collins fan, and since there are a number of his novels that I don't know yet, I decided to revisit his works.
This work is one of his weaker novels, but not quite as weak as 'Poor Miss Finch', which is by far the weakest of his novels that I've read.
The characters are plastic, and they develop, but I think I prefer his mysteries to his romances.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the moral views, either. They're somehow twisted, but then I guess they're indeed mirroring the general sentiments of the time, and as such, you can understand why the characters act as they do. The oddest thing is, that in Catholic circles, nothing has changed until today. Fascinating.
Since I have to rate it, and semi stars aren't possible, let me just say that I'd award this novel 3.5 stars. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book was so different than I expected from the title I expected a spooky gothic story like Woman in White but alas that is not what this book was it’s the story of a marriage breaking up, a meddling mother-in-law, a child who suffers through it all and a young girl who seems to be taken advantage of no matter where she goes. This was an interesting look at divorce in a by gone era if a bit outdated.The narrator of this one John Bolen isn’t a favorite, I don’t like his women’s voices at all and Mr. Linley (sp-audiobook) sounded like Mad Eye Moody from Harry Potter. His regular reading voice is fine but it almost seemed like he was trying too hard at all the different voices.Like I said this book wasn’t at all what I expected it to be but it is written by Wilkie Collins so it is so well written that I kept listening. It wasn’t a bad story it was just not what I was hoping to read if you want to try Wilkie Collins don’t start with this one start with Woman in White or The Moonstone.3 stars