( 1 reviews )
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Posted: May 17 2008
Critics of Wilkie Collins like to say that his later novels are overly didactic and indicate signs of increased drug use. HEART AND SCIENCE is one of those usually so labeled. Because it is an anti-vivisection novel, perhaps the foremost of the 19th century, it is regarded by some (especially those who think that an experiment is stronger if a thousand animals are killed in the process rather than, say, a mere hundred) and often dismissed as sentimental and therefore second-rate. This is hardly the case. HEART AND SCIENCE is a strong, well-structured novel with good characterization and coherent development; unfortunately, Collins decided readers would only purchase the book if the primary plot involved a love story. Perhaps overly-romantic, yes; sentimental, no. While THE MOONSTONE remains Collins' masterpiece, one of the finest pop-to-literature cross-over novels in English, HEART AND SCIENCE deserves to be considered one of the author's best.
