"The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" (1857) the novella Charles Dickens wrote in collaboration with his protégé, Wilkie Collins involves British imperialism on two continents—Asia and South America. In preparation for writing the first and third chapters of the novella, for which he was responsible, Dickens consulted his scholarly subeditor for Latin American affairs, Henry Morley (1822-94), whom he had recruited to the staff in 1850, about details of politics, international relations, setting, and circumstance, as well as about the broader issues behind the rhetorical strategy of a first-person "captivity narrative" (see letter of 18 October 1857, Pilgrim Edition of The Letters of Charles Dickens, 8: 468-69).

Following on from the success of The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, Hesperus presents another collaboration between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Their legendary friendship resulted in a number of joint literary ventures, with Collins writing the second chapter in this book under Dickens' supervision. Inspired by the events of the Indian Rebellion in 1857, but wishing to distance himself from the context of India itself, Dickens chose to set his novella in Central America. Fascinating in its use of female heroines, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners is a rousing adventure story. On an island near the English colony of Belize, a silver mine is overrun by pirates. They murder a number of English colonists and take the remaining ones prisoner. In the diverting narrative that follows, the initiative of intrepid women prisoners enables the captives to escape.

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812-9 June 1893) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period.During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity, and by the twentieth century he was widely seen as a literary genius by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824-23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale, and No Name.