Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, poet, and playwright writing in the mid 19th century. His writing was very popular consisting of 27 novels, 50 short stories, 15 plays, and over 100 poems. His best-known works were The Woman in White, The Moonstone and Armadale. Man and Wife was first published in 1870 and was a biting attack on Victorian marriage laws in England. The plot centers on a woman who fears that the outdated laws concerning marriage in Ireland and Scotland may have unintentionally caused her to commit bigamy. The plot becomes more sinister when the setting moves from a country house to a suburb of London.