The Storm at the Lighthouse by Wilkie Collins, with an Introduction, Textual Notes, and Appendix

Publisher： American Mathematical Society

ISSN： 0084-9812

Source： Dickens Studies Annual: Essays on Victorian Fiction, Vol.44, Iss.1, 2013-07, pp. : 289-364

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Abstract

Wilkie Collins composed his first surviving original play, The Storm at the Lighthouse, between September 1854 and May 1855. The original text of the play is published here for the first time. Sometime prior to June 1856, Collins shortened the play and retitled it The Lighthouse. This version was translated into French by Émile Forgues and is the only previously published edition. Textual notes compare these two versions, the only ones preserved entirely in Collins's hand. Collins's play is noteworthy in Dickens studies, as well. Charles Dickens was the first to recognize the play's dramatic possibilities, producing, directing, and acting in its premiere at Tavistock House in June 1855. An introduction includes a summary of The Storm at the Lighthouse, an examination of its themes of guilt and forgiveness in writings of both Collins and Dickens, influences of the 1827 play Trente Ans on both Collins and Dickens, a summary of major differences between Collins's 1853 short story "Gabriel's Marriage" and his reworking of that story into The Storm at the Lighthouse, and an examination of the four surviving manuscripts, including locales mentioned therein. An appendix contains the play's performance history during Collins's lifetime.