No Name

No Name is a novel by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1862. Illegitimacy is a major theme of the novel. It was originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round before book publication.

The story is told in eight major parts, called Scenes.

No Name is a touching story of a woman's quest to redress the injustice which has caused her and her sister to become outcasts and at the mercy of their uncle. Being suddenly left orphans, Magdalen and Norah learn that their parents were unmarried at the time of their birth. In the eyes of law and society, they are illegitimate children; in other words they are nobody’s children and have “no name”. The matter becomes worse when they learn that there is no valid will made to secure their parental inheritance, and their vast fortune will fall in to the hand of their estranged uncle. In the absence of any law to protect them, Magdalen makes it her cause to remedy the wrong done to her and her sister, Norah.