First American edition.
In an interview in "Cassell's Saturday Journal" of March 5, 1887, Collins indicates that "Armadale" was his own personal favorite of his novels.
It is a novel of fate, fraud and attempted murder. The story's heroes are born under a curse. Ozias Midwinter's father had murdered Allan Armadale's father. His illicit abortion clinic shut down by the police, a shady doctor sets up a private sanitarium with a system of pipes that allow him to keep his patients sedated.
The anti-heroine, Lydia Gwilt, has been called "the first femme fatale in the modern sense". Very good .
Keywords: LITERATURE; 19TH CENTURY; WILKIE COLLINS; FIRST AMERICAN EDITION; FICTION; ILLUSTRATIONS; G.H. THOMAS; 1ST US EDITION; ARMADALE; LYDIA GWILT; ABORTION CLINIC; ANTI-HEROINE; FEMME FATALE; SANITARIUM; NINETEENTH CENTURY; FATE; FRAUD; MURDER; OZIAS MIDWINTER