The pale blue cover of the first French edition of Le Secret. Translated by Emile Durand Forgues and published by Hachette in 1858, it was the first book by Wilkie Collins to be published in French.

Title page of the 1858 edition. The translator, given here as 'Old Nick' was in fact Émile Durand Forgues (1813-1883), a French journalist and writer. He wrote an early critique of Colllins 1855 'Études sur le Roman Anglais' in the Revue des deux Mondes XII 1 November 1855. In 1859 Collins dedicated The Queen of Hearts to him.


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