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. Kitty Linley is the heroine of this 1886 Victorian soap opera. When Kitty was a child her father died in disgrace and her mother abandoned her for another marriage. Kitty is sent to a school where she, of course, is treated brutally. A governess is hired to raise her, but her stepfather falls for the governess, bringing yet more misery into the girl's life.