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The Woman in White (Penguin Popular Classics) [Paperback]

Wilkie Collins
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (187 customer reviews)

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Book Description

27 Sep 2007 0140620249 978-0140620245 New Ed
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.


Product details

  • Paperback: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (27 Sep 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140620249
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140620245
  • Product Dimensions: 18 x 3.7 x 11.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (187 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 233,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

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 Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 61 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely excellent - read it already! 14 Mar 1999
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?

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48 of 50 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The most wonderful book I have ever read 7 Jun 2001
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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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly brilliant 8 Mar 2005
Format:Paperback
I am so glad I picked this up by random choice, because it has become one of my most beloved tales. It is so easy to get into - starting off original and funny and quickly slipping into mystery and page-tearing intrigue.

Each character will capture your heart or your contempt as you follow this dark tale. You are immediately drawn into sympathy with them as they unfold their mystery as you, the reader, does. They are among my most favourite characters ever.

The structure of the book means you get precise and detailed accounts of everything, so there is no chance of missing anything important in the mystery. It does ensure you are a part of every moment. I love Marian's diary entries.

The book is thick(er than some) and the pages are thin, but Collins' prose moves you along at such a pace. Everytime I picked it up I said "only 10 or so pages" and I ended up 100 pages into it once again and a cold cuppa next to me.

There is a hefty intro and endless asterisk throughout with notes in an appendix. Don't read these till you finish the book as they give stuff away you don't want to uncover before Walter or Marian does!!

Also, the narrative of Mr Fairlie is the most hilarious chapter I've ever read. I COULD NOT stop laughing. Every sentence just got funnier. Perhaps it was just relief from the darker mood of the book, (which is of course its objective) but it was so funny. Mr Fairlie is a highly entertaining character and Collins' quirky prose excels when writing him.

I keep trying to get people to read this beautiful story, but they see it and go "oh no..." but please, dally no longer and buy it. It's an absolute bargain for 1.50! You get a fantastic, harrowing, gripping story that will stay with you for years. Forget this month's magazine and invest in The Woman in White. It's worth it.

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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This advice for writing serial romances, alternately attributed to Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Charles Reade, is epitomized in this 1860 novel by Collins, a story of thwarted love, a marriage of obligation, claims on inheritance, the victimization of women, and, most of all, engaging mystery. Collins, often credited as the father of the mystery genre, creates a fast-paced story of Victorian England, revealing much about Victorian society and its values--the role of women, the laws governing marriage and inheritance, the social institutions of the day, the contrasting attitudes toward the aristocracy and the lower classes, and even the level of medical care and the treatment of psychological illness.

When drawing master Walter Hartright is on his way to teach Marian Halcombe and Laura Fairlie at Limmeridge House, in Cumberland, England, he meets a "woman in white," a young woman who knows Limmeridge House well because she was mentored by Mrs. Fairlie, Laura Fairlie's deceased mother. The "woman in white" is Anne Catherick, who looks just like Laura, but who is an escapee from a nearby mental asylum. Upon his arrival at Limmeridge House, Walter immediately falls in love with the beautiful Laura, but she has made a deathbed pledge to her father to marry to Sir Percival Glyde, someone Anne Catherick despises and blames for her own incarceration. Throughout the novel, Anne visits various characters to offer help in combating Sir Percival and his cohorts.

The story unfolds through documents held by a variety of characters, each of whom tells the story from his/her own point of view.
... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
The woman in white is a beautifully written book of mystery and love. The events in the book were completely unpredictable unlike modern books and I was shocked with surprise at... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Imogen
5.0 out of 5 stars Quite cleverly written
This was written from several different character's recollections. It took a little time to get into the story but is worth persevering with. Read more
Published 6 days ago by G P
5.0 out of 5 stars The woman in white
A wonderful maze of a tale that takes you one way and brings you back, sometimes by the same path and sometimes by another, to urge you forward again. Read more
Published 22 days ago by Mrs.Simone Burrows
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 28 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago by Pamela Scott-Austin
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