Rogue's Life

Written in Paris during the happiest years of Wilkie Collins' life, when Charles Dickens was his neighbor and daily companion, Rogue's Life is a sparkling comic trifle that knows exactly what it is and never apologizes for it. The story follows young Frank Oldright, who has been living under an assumed name and pretending to be a rogue precisely because he isn't one - his ruse is a way of escaping his father's attempts to arrange his marriage. When he falls genuinely in love with the sharp-witted Mary, complications multiply deliciously. The plot spins through mistaken identities, hidden fortunes, and proper Victorian society sent into gentle chaos, all delivered with Collins' trademark wit and a lightness of touch that was perhaps easier for him here than in his darker, more famous sensation novels. It never takes itself seriously for two moments together, and at barely 200 pages, it asks nothing of you but a few delightful hours. This is comedy as an antidote to gloom - the literary equivalent of spending an afternoon with a clever friend who makes you laugh.