Wilkie Collins invented the modern mystery novel before most readers knew what a "detective" even was. Born on January 8, 1824, in London, the eldest son of the successful landscape painter William Collins, he was educated privately and briefly studied law at Lincoln's Inn before deciding he would rather tell stories than argue cases. His early novels were conventional, but in 1859 he published "The Woman in White" as a serial in Charles Dickens's magazine "All the Year Round." The novel caused a sensation. Readers waited in line for each installment. The story, built around identity theft, madness, and a conspiracy involving a sinister Italian count, was told through multiple narrators, each presenting their piece of the evidence. It was the first major sensation novel and established a template for suspense fiction that persists today. His next major work, "The Moonstone," published in 1868, is widely considered the first full detective novel in the English language. It featured a professional detective, Sergeant Cuff, investigating the theft of a diamond, and it included red herrings, suspects with motives, and a solution that depended on evidence rather than coincidence. T.S. Eliot called it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels." Collins wrote prolifically throughout his life, producing over 30 novels, but suffered from debilitating rheumatic gout that left him in constant pain. He managed the condition with laudanum, becoming seriously addicted. He maintained two separate households with two different women simultaneously, fathering three children. He died on September 23, 1889, in London. Dickens had been his closest friend and collaborator; Collins outlived him by 19 years.