"Basil" by Wilkie Collins is a novel written in 1852. A young man from an aristocratic family falls in love at first sight with a shopkeeper's daughter and enters into a secret marriage. Bound by her father's strange condition to live apart for a year, Basil's patience is tested when the mysterious Mannion appears. Betrayal, violence, and a thirst for revenge follow as dark family secrets emerge, connecting these strangers in ways no one could have imagined. The story builds to a dramatic confrontation on the treacherous cliffs of Cornwall. (This is an automatically generated summary.)