Jezebel's Daughter

Jezebel's Daughter, printed in 1880, is a Victorian thriller from Wilkie Collins. Based in the 1858 play 'The Red Vial', it is a story of fraud, betrayal and mystery based around Mrs. Fontaine, a disturbing widow who employs various poisons and remedies to control her family and friends. A talented chemist and a shrewd businessman die on the same day. Mrs. Fontaine, widow of the chemist, is leave with the poisons he was researching, while Mrs. Wagner is leave with her husband's reforms and plans for hiring women staff along with men in his firm. Mrs. Wagner trusts in dealing madman gently and appeals for the funny little man Jack Straw to be released from the madhouse. At that time, her nephew David Glenny is appointed to the Frankfurt office, where he works with Mr. Keller and Mr. Engelmann. Keller son, Fritz has enamoured with Minna Fontaine, but the marriage is not being approved of by his father because Mrs. Fontaine is in debt after her husband's death. The story is narrated by Mrs. Wagner's nephew David Glenny, and enriched with extracts from the letters and diaries of different characters. Supposed to have been responsible for her husband's downfall, Madame Fontaine becomes known as Jezebel, and her charming daughter is known as Jezebel's daughter.

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright best known for The Woman in White (1859), a mystery and early sensation novel, and The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and may be the first clear example of the police procedural genre. Born to London painter William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved to Italy with them when he was twelve years old, spending two years there and in France learning both Italian and French. Collins was born at 11 New Cavendish Street in London, the son of William Collins, a well-known Royal Academician landscape painter, and his wife, Harriet Geddes. Named after his father, he quickly became recognized by his second name, which honors his godfather, painter David Wilkie. The family relocated to Pond Street, Hampstead, around 1826. In 1828, Collins' brother Charles Allston Collins was born. Between 1829 and 1830, the Collins family relocated twice: first to Hampstead Square and subsequently to Porchester Terrace in Bayswater. Wilkie and Charles received an early education from their mother at home. The Collins family was very religious, and Collins' mother insisted on strict church attendance for her boys, which Wilkie detested.