cover No Name by Wilkie Collins Contents PREFACE. THE FIRST SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. CHAPTER XI. CHAPTER XII. CHAPTER XIII. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XV. BETWEEN THE SCENES. THE SECOND SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. BETWEEN THE SCENES. THE THIRD SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. BETWEEN THE SCENES. THE FOURTH SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. CHAPTER XI. CHAPTER XII. CHAPTER XIII. CHAPTER XIV. BETWEEN THE SCENES. THE FIFTH SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. BETWEEN THE SCENES. THE SIXTH SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. BETWEEN THE SCENES. THE SEVENTH SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. BETWEEN THE SCENES. THE LAST SCENE. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. TO FRANCIS CARR BEARD; (FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND) IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE TIME WHEN THE CLOSING SCENES OF THIS STORY WERE WRITTEN. PREFACE. The main purpose of this story is to appeal to the reader’s interest in a subject which has been the theme of some of the greatest writers, living and dead—but which has never been, and can never be, exhausted, because it is a subject eternally interesting to all mankind. Here is one more book that depicts the struggle of a human creature, under those opposing influences of Good and Evil, which we have all felt, which we have all known. It has been my aim to make the character of “Magdalen,” which personifies this struggle, a pathetic character even in its perversity and its error; and I have tried hard to attain this result by the least obtrusive and the least artificial of all means—by a resolute adherence throughout to the truth as it is in Nature. This design was no easy one to accomplish; and it has been a great encouragement to me (during the publication of my story in its periodical form) to know, on the authority of many readers, that the object which I had proposed to myself, I might, in some degree, consider as an object achieved. Round the central figure in the narrative other characters will be found grouped, in sharp contrast—contrast, for the most part, in which I have endeavored to make the element of humor mainly predominant. I have sought to impart this relief to the more serious passages in the book, not only because I believe myself to be justified in doing so by the laws of Art—but because experience has taught me (what the experience of my readers will doubtless confirm) that there is no such moral phenomenon as unmixed tragedy to be found in the world around us. Look where we may, the dark threads and the light cross each other perpetually in the texture of human life.