(1824-1889) Novelist, son of William Collins, R.A., entered Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the Bar 1851, but soon relinquished law for literature. His first novel was Antonina (1850), a historical romance. He found his true field, however, in the novel of modern life, in which his power lies chiefly in the construction of a skilful plot, which holds the attention of the reader and baffles his curiosity to the last. In Count Fosco, however, he has contributed an original character to English fiction. Among his numerous novels two, The Woman in White (1860), and The Moonstone (1868), stand out pre-eminent. Others are The Dead Secret (1857), Armadale (1866), No Name (1862), After Dark, "I say No," etc. He collaborated with Dickens in No Thoroughfare.