A Rogue's Life

Wilkie Collins

Jan 2006 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Bernard Mayes

About this audiobook

This delightful tale of thwarted ambition and forbidden love follows the adventures and fortunes of an endearing young rogue, Frank Softly. Originally appearing serialized in Household Words in 1859, the rogue is one of Collins' most richly comic creations. Propelled into society by his ever-hopeful father, Frank is introduced to a variety of professions in order to make his fortune. Not industrious by nature, Frank finds working life a challenge, and by his twenty-fifth birthday, he has failed in medicine, portrait-painting, caricaturing, and even forgery. Disenchanted with life, he despairs of ever finding something to commit to-until he meets Alicia Dulcifer and her inexplicably wealthy father. Proffering his own take on picaresque storytelling-and with many a grain of truth for twentysomethings today-this is Wilkie Collins at his entertaining best.

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.”

Bernard Mayes is a teacher, administrator, corporate executive, broadcaster, actor, dramatist, and former international commentator on US culture. He is best known for his readings of historical classics.