Although I acknowledge that Wilkie Collins was a literary master, in particular as someone who would create the tropes for the "sensational" detective novel (or "thrillers" in the current, post modern parlance), Antonina falls short of such estimable heights. I offer the example of watching Usain Bo

This novel was far better than I thought it would be based on the reviews. It is not Wilkie Collins' best effort but there are many things he does well in this novel. He sets the scene of each chapter very well. He does a good job describing things and placing the reader in the time and place of anc

Novela preciosa de la caída del imperio romano. Explicación de la decadencia de la sociedad a través de una historia preciosa.

“Antonina, ovvero la caduta di Roma” è il primo romanzo col quale Wilkie Collins si affaccia sulla scena letteraria londinese. In seguito conosciuto come il padre del genere giallo, in questo caso Collins si confronta con una tipologia letteraria completamente diversa, ovvero quella del romanzo stor

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A book of two halves - on the one side you have some great descriptive scenes and some relatively interesting characters but then on the other you have some of the most melodramatic and flowery writing I have ever read and a heroine whose sole purpose is to tremble, faint and sob (which she does at

Remarkable story concealed within florid overwriting.

This is a remarkable novel and it amazes me no film adaptation was made of it. We're it not for the unpardonable verbosity that Wilkie indulges in telling this dramatic tale, I would have given it 5 stars. It is his strangest work, both the worst

Not uncommon for its period, Antonina is a work of highs and lows, the lows too many and too irritating for me to recommend it.

Collins is inclined to waffle. This comes out at the beginning in which he tells us that he has no intention of dwelling upon the history and environment of the falling Rome