The Evil Genius: The Novel and the Play

by Wilkie Collins, Gabrielle de Cuir (Read by), Stefan Rudnicki (Read by), Kathe Mazur (Read by), Nan McNamara (Read by)

Overview

“In one respect, men are all alike; they hate to see a woman in tears.”

Paired with Blackstone’s and Skyboat Media’s production of Wilkie Collins’s The Evil Genius, Skyboat Media presents the dramatic adaptation of the novel, also by Wilkie Collins. Although both versions of the story were written at the same time, the play has never before been published and was only ever performed once on the stage. In fact, it is almost entirely unknown and is otherwise unavailable.

Miss Sydney Westerfield has been saved from a lonely life of teaching at her aunt’s school and taken into service as a governess for Kitty, daughter of Herbert and Catherine Linley. Kitty simply adores Sydney, and Catherine does as well for the governess’s warmth and kindness as a caretaker and a member of their household. But when Herbert and Sydney fall in love, it is only a matter of time before the truth must come out—helped along, of course, by Catherine’s mother, the fierce gossip and foremost meddler Mrs. Presty.

Infidelity, divorce, and child custody are at the forefront of this tale of domestic drama, but Wilkie Collins takes a most modern approach to the view of women in such situations. Not only does Collins offer sympathy—empathy even—for these women that was not at all common at the time, he also remembers to keep a spotlight on young Kitty, whose life will be forever shaped by the affairs of the adults around her.

This full-cast recording of both the novel and the play will fully immerse you in a truly forward-thinking portrait of love and betrayal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798200951659
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	07/26/2022
Edition description:	Adapted ed.
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) studied law and was admitted to the bar but never practiced. Instead, he devoted his time to writing and is best known for his novels The Woman in White, No Name, Armadale, and The Moonstone, which has been called the finest detective story ever written. A number of his works were collaborations with his close friend, Charles Dickens. The Woman in White so gripped the imagination of the world that Wilkie Collins had his own tombstone inscribed: “Author of The Woman in White.”

Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.

Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than three thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.

Date of Birth:

December 8, 1824

Date of Death:

September 23, 1889

Place of Birth:

London, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Studied law at Lincoln¿s Inn, London

Table of Contents

Introduction

Footnotes
A Note on the Text
Selected Bibliography
William Wilkie Collins: A Brief Chronology

The Evil Genius

Appendix: Contemporary Documents
Explanatory Notes

Editorial Reviews

Collins’s boldness in drawing sympathetic portraits of both the wife and ‘the other woman’ is astonishingly modern. The novel well deserves to be brought back into print.”

Oxford University Catherine Peters

The husband-and-wife narrating team of Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir are perfect at navigating Wilkie Collins’s elaborate nineteenth-century prose. They also illuminate the work’s very contemporary empathy for its female characters. It all begins when an English noble returns home with a young governess for his daughter in tow. The husband falls in love. His wife is devastated. And his mother-in-law plots revenge. The staged reading of the play, performed only once before in 1885 to secure copyright, is a revelation showing how Collins emphasized voice and character to retell the novel. It features an energetic de Cuir in multiple roles. Of course, it’s left to the listener to decide who the “evil genius” truly was. B.P. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Released in 1886, Collins's Victorian soap opera focuses on Kitty Linley, a child whose father dies in disgrace and whose mother abandons her for another marriage. Kitty is tossed into a school where she, of course, is treated brutally. A governess is hired to raise her, but her stepfather falls for the woman, bringing yet more misery into the girl's life. Collins is always popular. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir are perfect at navigating Wilkie Collins’s elaborate nineteenth-century prose. They also illuminate the work’s very contemporary empathy for its female characters…The staged reading of the play, performed only once before in 1885 to secure copyright, is a revelation, showing how Collins emphasized voice and character to retell the novel. It features an energetic de Cuir in multiple roles. Of course, it’s left to the listener to decide who the ‘evil genius’ truly was.”

AudioFile

Collins’ boldness in drawing sympathetic portraits of both the wife and ‘the other woman’ is astonishingly modern. The novel well deserves to be brought back into print.” — Catherine Peters, Oxford University

From the Publisher