The Dead Alive

In this 1874 novella, the celebrated British writer of sensation fiction tells the tale of two brothers sentenced to be executed for having committed a murder that never occurred, and of the efforts of the energetic Naomi Colebrook to ferret out the truth and save the two innocents. As editor Anna Clarke observes, Collins' work is both a compelling legal sensation thriller and an important transatlantic commentary on American life. Along with the text itself and an illuminating introduction, Clarke provides a range of background materials-including documents from the real-life Boorn murder trial that inspired the novella-in order to set the work in its historical context.