Armadale

Old Allan Armadale, planter from the West Indies, confesses in writing on his deathbed a horrible secret that his son should only know when he reaches the age of majority. Twenty years later, this mulatto son calls himself Ozias Midwinter, he is melancholic and, after a troubled life and without affection, he finally finds a friend: an impulsive and cordial young man, lover of the sea and free of worries, who unexpectedly inherits a great fortune. But the revelation of the secret causes enormous suffering, complicated by the intervention of a beautiful redhead with a dark past, Miss Lydia Gwilt, who, with her machinations and unscrupulousness, is ready to wreak havoc wherever she goes: "I have proved -he brags on one occasion- that I am not me". Antithesis of the redeemable Victorian "fallen woman", rebellious to all submission, the scourge of respectability and sentimentality, this character is undoubtedly one of Wilkie Collins' greatest creations and the engine of a devilish plot of greed, harassment, impersonation and murder.