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The Woman in White (novel)

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The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859-1860, and first published in book form in 1860. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of 'sensation novels'. ceilia likes this book

Plot introduction

The story begins when the hero, art master Walter Hartright, encounters a mysterious woman dressed all in white on a moonlit road in Hampstead. She is in a state of confusion and distress, and Hartright helps her to find her way back to London. In return, she warns him against a certain (unnamed) baronet, "a man of rank and title". Immediately after they part, Hartright learns that she may have escaped from an asylum.

He goes to Cumberland to take up a position as art tutor at Limmeridge House to two young women: Marian Halcombe and her wealthy half-sister, Laura Fairlie. He finds to his amazement that the story of the woman in white may be entangled with the lives of the two sisters. As a further complication, Walter and Laura fall rapidly in love. But she is already engaged, by her father's wish, to a man named Sir Percival Glyde, a baronet.

Walter and Marian together delve deeper into the mystery of the strange woman and engage in a battle of wits with Glyde's enigmatic Italian friend Count Fosco.

Discussion

The various strands of the plot combine to produce a thrilling story, leading this particular type of fiction to be described as 'sensation'.

The Woman In White is also an early example of a particular type of Collins narrative in which several characters in turn take up the telling of the story. This creates a complex web in which readers are unsure which narrators can, and cannot, be trusted. Collins used this technique in his other novels, including The Moonstone. This technique was copied by other novelists, including Bram Stoker, author of Dracula (1897), although by the end of the 19th century the technique was considered "old fashioned".

As was customary at that time, The Woman in White was first published as a magazine serial. The first episode appeared on 29 November 1859 in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round in England, and Harper's Magazine in America. It caused an immediate sensation. Julian Symons (in his 1974 introduction to the Penguin edition) reports that "queues formed outside the offices to buy the next instalment. Bonnets, perfumes, waltzes and quadrilles were called by the book's title. Gladstone cancelled a theatre engagement to go on reading it. And Prince Albert sent a copy to Baron Stockmar."

A strong theme in the novel is that of marriage and its impact on women (in particular on Laura Fairlie). The plot revolves around men stealing women's identities.

Count Fosco is a brilliant man, equally at home in art and science, a devotee of the opera and a deep student of chemistry who makes use of his pharmaceutical skills to further his treacherous plots. He is flamboyant, charismatic, Falstaffian, courtly, refined, romantic, and even tender-hearted (at least in regard to the little mice and birds he keeps), a breathtaking, larger-than-life villain whose exceeding pleasure in his own malevolent genius is only complete when he is forced to reveal his villainy, in all its glory, in a written confession at the climax of the novel.

Adaptations

Theater

Film and television

Literature

  • Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child published the novel Brimstone (2004), featuring a modern re-imagining of the villain Count Fosco.
  • James Wilson, The Dark Clue (2001): a "sequel" to The Woman in White

External links



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