Read This!: Armadale

By Wilkie Collins

I picked up Armadale in my quest to slow down my reading. I was going through around 1-2 books a week and it was getting out of hand. I thought this 800 page mammoth would slow me down. It did. I finished it in about two weeks. Earlier on this blog, I mentioned that I like Wilkie Collins’ books because they border on mysteries and are relatively easy reads, even for 800 pages and this one followed suit.

Armadale centers around four men named Allan Armadale and one bad seed woman who connects them all. The first two AAs are the fathers of the second two AAs. I will try not to give away too much but in the prelude of the story, the story of the first two AAs is discussed. Now, I had some problems with this. AA1 takes revenge upon AA2 by stealing his woman. Now, said woman AA2 had only seen in a portrait and yet was so furious at AA1’s actions that a lot of drama ensured. The book tries to pass this off as love but I think it was male ego mad at being cuckolded. Although I am not positive it counts as cuckolding considering said lady and AA2 had never met. The first 400 pages of this book were slow and got on my nerves. One of the AAs was so overly dramatic the entire time that I thought "LOSER!!!!". But, the last 400 were interesting and the story gained a lot of intrigue and plot twists. I will say that Collins managed to surprise me around page 740 give or take.

Overall, I would rate this book 4th of the Collins books that I have read. In order:

1. Woman in White
2. No Name
3. Moonstone
4. Armadale