The Guilty River

The Guilty River is a short novel, written by Wilkie Collins, late in his career. It was previously published as the 1886 Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual. The psychological impact of physical disability of a deaf man and love between a rich young man and low social status woman is the theme of this novel. The guilty river is the unattractive, filthiest stream in England. It passes by an old mill where the miller, his beautiful daughter, and a deaf lodger lived. The wealthy young man of the place, returns to his territory, after being absent for years. Accidentally he meets, this lodger and comes to know his peculiar story. Gerard and Cristal fall in love, sustaing lodger's enviousness.

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.