No Name (novel)

No Name

First edition title page
Author	Wilkie Collins
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	mystery novel, sensation novel
Publisher	Sampson Low, Son, and Marston
Publication date	1862
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Preceded by	The Woman in White
Followed by	Armadale

No Name is a novel by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1862. Illegitimacy is a major theme of the novel. It was originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round before book publication.

The story is told in eight major parts, called Scenes.

Scene One begins in 1846, at Combe-Raven in West Somerset, the country residence of the wealthy Vanstone family: Andrew Vanstone, his wife, and their two daughters. Norah, age 26, is happy and quiet; Magdalen, 18, is beautiful but volatile and willful. They live in peace and contentment, looked after by their governess, Miss Garth.

Through amateur theatricals, Magdalen discovers she is a talented actress and falls in love with Frank Clare, the idle but handsome son of a neighbour, who is also in the play. They want to be married, and their fathers agree. Although Frank fails at every career he reluctantly tries, and his father is not wealthy, Magdalen's fortune will easily support the young couple.

But before they marry, Mr. Vanstone is killed in a train crash and Mrs. Vanstone dies in childbirth. The girls discover from the lawyer, Mr. Pendril, that their parents have only been married for a few months, and their wedding invalidated the will which left everything to the daughters.

Since the daughters are illegitimate, they have no name, no rights, and no property. Combe-Raven and the entire family fortune are inherited by Andrew's older brother, Michael Vanstone, who has been bitterly estranged from the family for many years. He refuses to provide any support for the orphaned young women. With the help only of their governess Miss Garth, they set out to make their own way in the world.

Scene Two is set in York, where Magdalen enlists the help of Captain Wragge, a distant relative of her mother's and a professional swindler. He helps get Magdalen started on the stage in return for a share of the proceeds. His wife Matilda, whom he married for an expected inheritance, is physically huge and kindly but mentally slow; she has to be supervised like a child.

Scene Three is in Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth. Magdalen, having earned some money, forsakes the stage and plots to get her inheritance back. Michael Vanstone has died; his only son Noel is sickly and looked after by his housekeeper, Virginie Lecount, a shrewd woman who hopes to inherit his money. Magdalen goes to Lambeth disguised as Miss Garth to see how the land lies, but Mrs. Lecount sees through her disguise and cuts a bit of cloth from the hem of her brown alpaca dress as evidence of Magdalen's deception.