Written in the same decade as The Moonstone and The Woman in White, Collins' novel deals with various issues of the Victorian era, such as the unsatisfactory marriage laws, the emergence of the autonomous, sexually active woman and the growing scientific intrusion into the privacy of the psyche. The text of this World's Classics edition is that of the 1869 edition, checked and corrected against both the first impression and the magazine serialization which preceded it. Catherine Peters is the author of Thackeray's Universe and this current book is published before her critical biography of Wilkie Collins.