The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright’s eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his ‘charming’ friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.
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see Fielding's Tom Jones or Wharton's Ethan Frome
Book Description
'A hypochondriac uncle, two girls who look identical, a count with a penchant for mesmerism and vanilla bonbons, a lunatic asylum, an evil husband... What more could you want?' - Maggie O'Farrell
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A barnstorming doorstop (pardon the mixed metaphores) of a book. Has to be read at one sitting, I know I've done it, and according to the blurb so did Gladstone. So no slacking at the back. The characterisation is magnificently overdone, the plot is brilliantly worked out. It's got remote asylums, spooky mansions, ghostly apparitions, swirling fogs and the first sight of "The Woman in White". Oh how I envy you, just drop your modernist standards and have a good old fashioned wallow. Throw another log on the radiator send the kids to your mother for the weekend (there's approx 2 inches of paperback to get through) give in and get on with it.
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Wonderfully entertaining stuff - this is essentially a pre-television soap opera, much like the novels of Dickens or George Eliot.
The essentials of the story are as follows: our hero is a young painter hired as tutor to a young heiress. The lady in question is remarkably pretty, innocent, sweet-tempered (etc etc) and inevitably our hero falls for her hook, line & sinker. Needless to say the path of true love doesn't run smoothly and not only are they separated, but the heiress is subject to the wicked plots of marvellously nefarious villains.
Sounds cheesy as anything, I know; but the story is fast paced, convoluted and frequently (intentionally!) very funny. Because Collins employs a first person narrative technique, telling his tale through one character's diary then another one's letters, we are allowed an insight into the thoughts and speech patterns of a wide range of characters. Some of them are downright hilarious - particularly our heroine's outrageously camp uncle. As so often happens, it is the secondary (and indeed bit-part) characters who are the most entertaining - the fabulous Marianne (just wait till you read that initial description of her appearance! The contrast between standards of beauty now & then is remarkable...although granted it sounds like she needed immac for that top lip of hers) and the indomitable Count with his pet white mice scampering around, to name my two favourites - and undoubtedly your own. What are you waiting for?
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I took a few pages to click into the Victorian narrative but once I was into it, it gripped from start to finish. This book has the most wonderfully drawn characters and because it switches narrators several times ( Wilkie Collins does this to great effect also in 'The Moonstone') you are just getting lulled into the perspective of one person, when you are then gently jolted and led along by another.
If you want a book with love, romance, mystery and an undercurrent of the sinister running through it I promise you will not be disappointed. You will then be so hooked by Wilkie Collin's writing style that you will want to devour the rest of his books immediately.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
I thought I would give it a whirl
I had to read this book for my book group, its a long book and I wasn't particularly looking forward to it for that reason but I started reading it with an open mind. Read more
Published 2 days ago by S. Wilding
2.0 out of 5 stars
Yawn!
I read the reviews about this novel and decided that it sounded exciting despite being a period thriller (not my first choice). It was tedious and the story was far too slow. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Kerry
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't put it own
Wonderful book - racy, full of fascinating insights, and suspense so tight you read on and on. For this novel at least, Wilkie Collins must be classed among the Victorian greats.
Published 9 days ago by Dale Millard
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read
I enjoyed this book, which is set in the year 1850. A literary classic. Guessed how it would end, and could have been shorter but definitely worth a read
Published 10 days ago by C. Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down!
Fantastic read. Didn't realise quite how long it was when I downloaded it. Likeable characters and a fascinating plot. Where did those two days go?! :-)
Published 10 days ago by JCJ
5.0 out of 5 stars
None
The first book I have read from this author, it was hard to put down, absolutely loved it and will definitely read more of his books...recommended
Published 10 days ago by mrs marie l griffiths
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Woman in White
The subtle and revealing plot ,the twists and turns of the story keep the reader on the edge of anticipation at what is going to happen next. Great novel.
Published 12 days ago by Pamela Scott-Austin
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book.
I had meant to read this book for so long. Loved the precise language and the the care taken with description. I felt part of the book.
Published 12 days ago by mrs. S Howson-Green
4.0 out of 5 stars
Woman in white
What a marathon read. I nearly gave up several times. In the end I persevered and enjoyed it, but it was very longwinded.
Published 16 days ago by SMJ
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spell binding
I was thoroughly gripped from beginning to end by this book. It had everything from suspense and intrigue to a poignant love story.
So worth reading!
So worth reading!
Published 17 days ago by mumsy
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