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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN num: 9780141439617
ISBN number: 0141439610
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 720
Printing Date: April 29, 2003
Publishing house: Penguin Classics
Release Date: April 29, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 80312
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Matthew Sweet.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was a good friend of Charles Dickens. Dickens asked him to contribute a serial to the journal "All the Year Round" of which he was the editor. This all occurred in 1859. The result is one of the very first of the so-called "sensational novels" so fetching to middle class Victorian readers.
The Woman in White takes gothic elements and entwines them into a mysterious web of intrigue set in a middle class typically English landscape of nineteenth century life.
The book is told using the multiple narration method. Most of its over 600 small print pages is told by the artist Walter Hartright. Walter is hired to teach drawing to two half-sisters at an estate in Cumberland. He falls in love with the blonde Laura Farlie while he becomes good friends with the plain sister Marian Halcombe. Laurie disappears one night and is placed in an insane asylum by her evil husband Lord Percival Glyde. The motive is to receive Laura's sizable inheritance. Glyde is assisted in his evil plot by Count Fosco an Italian aristocrat. Fosco is one of the most fascinating bad guys in English Literature. He is witty, well-educated, rotund and has several exotic pets such as white mice, a cockatoo and canaries. Laurie is kidnapped and replaces the mad Anne Hathrick in the asylum where she is eventually rescued by Walter. Walter weds Laura and Marion remains a spinster.
The plot is very complex featuring forged marriage records, abduction, duplicity and murder
Twos are important to Collins. There are two evil men in Fosco and Glyde; two good women in Marian and Laura and two estates-Limmeridge in Cumberland and the sinister Blackwater Park the residence of Percival Glyde.
The book also has many interesting minor characters presnting a realistic portrait of life in upper middle class British society. The plot will keep you guessing and the various narrators keep the reader alert. Not all the narrators tell the truth!
The dullest person in the book is Laura! Walter is, in my opinion, a ninny for not marrying the much brighter and more loving Marian Halcombe.
Collins style is similar to Dickens and his novel will give you many hours of reading pleasure.
Rated by buyers 
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The very first 100 pages are the hardest to get through, but once Collins ushers his readers and protagonist alike into the isolated gloom of Limmeridge House it becomes plain why this is one of the most celebrated mysteries ever written. The lead couple is rather bland, in particular the heroine, but that weakness is more than compensated for by the presence of such memorable characters as the clever, resourceful Marian Halcombe and the insidious Count Fosco. The tale of greed, murder, madness, revenge and conspiracy that unfolds is well worthy of being considered one of the best and most influential gothic novels of all time.
Rated by buyers -
I am so glad I read this book. What a treat! The names even fit the characters. It was a wonderful book and I now look forward to reading Moonstone.
Rated by buyers -
Similar to Wilkie Collins other masterpiece, The Moonstone, various characters narrate sections of The Woman in White and the story is told as the characters look back on what has already happened. This method of building a mystery is fantastic because we, as readers, also become sleuths in the mystery that takes place. Collins ability to get into characters heads enhances the level of suspense, and gives it a sense that we are right there with them.
In The Woman in White, Walter Hartright decides to take a job as a drawing instructor at the Fairlie House, where Laura Fairlie, Miriam Holcombe, and Laura's uncle reside. Once there, Walter is enchanted with the beauty of Laura, but discovers that Laura's uncle has already arraigned a marriage between Laura and Sir Percival, a diabolical man whose interests lay mainly in greed and deception. While there, Walter has a few strange incidents, one of these being an encounter with a mysterious woman in white who appears to have run away from an asylum. Walter is a little distraught after this encounter, wondering why she appeared and what she could have wanted from him. Things get more extraordinary as this random encounter seems to propel Walter into the Fairlie family secrets, and a villainous scheme by Laura's husband Sir Percival and his accomplice, the equally ruthless Count Fosco. Walter finds himself right in the middle of Sir Percival's plan, which is to not only take the Fairlie fortune but "rid" himself of various individuals one way or another. Walter, with the aid of Laura and Miriam, tries to foil this plan.
Collins has an extraordinary method of creating plot, tying all loose ends, all the while having intricate and complex narratives and twists. Moreover, he is a suburb storyteller, and although some may not like his deeply detailed methods, I feel that these give credence to character and story depth. There is a dark Gothic kind of feel to The Woman in White; it is a perfect read for a cold, rainy, thundery night. Heroes, villains, deception, twists, turns, secrets revealed, and supernatural elements: The Woman in White is a page turner despite its daunting length.
Rated by buyers -
For sheer mystery and excitement," The Woman in White ", was unmatched in the genre of 19th century literature. That is what one must keep in mind when reading this extraordinary novel. Written in 1860, nothing approaching it had ever been attempted, and if the New York Times best seller list had been in existence at the time, it would have topped the list for countless numbers of weeks. Like many authors of the period, the book was serialized, and it was followed voraciously by tens of thousands of readers. It continued to remain popular when published in book form. For those who relish an intricate plot, serendipitous chance coincidences filled with its share of villains, heroes, and fragile heroines in distress, along with a modicum of amateur detective work, then this is the novel that will entertain and satisfy those who are avid readers of the likes of Dickens, Conan Doyle, and Thackeray.
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