A rogue's life, paperback/wilkie collins

Scion of a well-connected but impoverished family, Frank Softly may be the most audacious, outrageous, engaging, and thoroughly lovestruck young man in Regency London.

By the age of 25, hes been in and out of doctoring, caricaturing, forging Old Masters, and counterfeiting half-crowns.

Now a maliciously conceived will ties the loveable rascals fortunes to those of his doddering grandmother and miserly brother-in-law.

The ensuing scheme brings Frank up against a worthy adversary, the sinister Dr.

Dulcifer, a conductor of secret experiments who also happens to be the father of a highly attractive young woman.

Ranging from the British Isles to Australia, Franks picaresque adventures enable Wilkie Collins to take a good-natured poke at a host of ready targets, including pretentious art collectors, puritanical English society, and stuffy self-improvement groups.

Written with a light touch and charming sense of humor, A Rogues Life offers a delightful diversion.

About the Author: A prolific author of the Victorian era, Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) wrote sensation novels.

The forerunners of todays detective and suspense fiction, his best-known works include The Moonstone and The Woman in White .

Charles Dickens was his lifelong friend and collaborator, and many of Collinss stories first appeared in periodicals published by Dickens.