I have recently finished a wonderful, much under-read novel by Wilkie Collins titled Poor Miss Finch that focuses on a mysterious pair of identical twin brothers who court one beautiful girl in one small village in East Sussex, UK, and, thus, got inspired to write this post. It is the continuation of my previous post – “Double Trouble”: 7 Books That Focus on Identical Twins, where I talked about works of such authors as Christopher Priest and Hanya Yanagihara, and since that time have read a number of other books about twins. Though identical twins as side characters are more or less a well-known, permanent fixture in literature (Harry Potter, Gone With the Wind), there are actually some great books out there that have them as intriguing lead characters, too.

Poor Miss Finch [1872]

Inspired by his own short story The Twin Sisters [1852], Wilkie Collins wrote Poor Miss Finch in 1872. The tale is about one strong-willed French woman, Madam Pratolungo, who becomes a companion to a beautiful blind girl living apart from her extended family in a small village of Dimchurch in East Sussex. This girl, Lucilla, falls in love with a dashing young man Oscar Dubourg, but he has a more confident and outspoken identical twin brother Nugent, who may also have strong feelings for Lucilla. When Oscar’s appearance changes, and there is also a prospect that Lucilla may recover her sight, Nugent senses that it may be time to make his move. The plot revolves around one preposterous turn of events and there is some melodrama, but this is still a fine page-turner of a novel with vivid characters (including little “vagabond” girl Jicks and eccentric doctor Herr Grosse), bold themes, and delicious psychological aspect of a rivalry between two very different brothers.

Continue reading ““Double Trouble”: 7 Fiction Works About Identical Twins (Part II)” →