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The Woman in White

by Wilkie Collins, Matthew Sweet (Annotations)

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 45,244 ratings · 3,201 reviews

'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'

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 become...more

Paperback, 672 pages

Published April 29th 2003 by Penguin Classics (first published 1860)

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Aug 06, 2012 Sandy Tjan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, british-literature, classics, mystery-thriller, bbc-big-reads, victorian-lit

Beware of spoilers!

What I learned from this book (in no particular order) :

1. Italians are excitable, dedicated to the opera, and most likely to be involved with organized crime.

2. Beware of fat, jolly Italian counts with submissive wives and fondness of white mice and canaries.

3. Watch out if your newly wed husband lives in a stately pile with an abandoned wing full of creepy Elizabethan furniture. If the said ancestral house is surrounded by dark ponds and eerie woods, expect the worst.

4. A Ba...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Woman in White is a gem of a novel - creepy, dense, menacing, and always intriguing. For a long time, the reader isn't quite sure what is going on, only that it isn't good - and it's to Collins' credit that when the plots are revealed, they are as interesting as anything I was supposing.

The book is long, but immensely readable, and if a few sections dragged, I just reminded myself that this was written as a newspaper serial, and authors tend to get paid by the word. Those sections were few,...more The Woman in White is a gem of a novel - creepy, dense, menacing, and always intriguing. For a long time, the reader isn't quite sure what is going on, only that it isn't good - and it's to Collins' credit that when the plots are revealed, they are as interesting as anything I was supposing.

The book is long, but immensely readable, and if a few sections dragged, I just reminded myself that this was written as a newspaper serial, and authors tend to get paid by the word. Those sections were few, as it turns out, but there were a couple of places where the padding showed.

I also enjoyed the way the story was told, by multiple narrators with their own tales ranging from a page or two to vast swathes of the novel. This fractured narrative works well for the purposes of the novel, and the multiple narrators allowed Collins to hint at the mysteries from several different angles.

I just started a brief synopsis about three times - how to say what this book is about? Let's try again: Just before leaving London to take up a post as drawing teacher in the country, Walter Hartright helps a mysterious woman in white escape from those pursuing her. She will reappear through the story, catalyzing most of the unnerving events. Once at his new post, Hartright falls head over heels for one of his students, the beautiful Laura Fairlie. Laura, however is engaged to be married, and she and Walter are far too honourable to break her engagement. So he leaves. And the man Laura marries turns out to be a brute, and finds herself in great danger from him and his close friend, Count Fosco.

But while that does mention the unnerving presence of the Count, who always thinks two or three steps ahead of his opponents, it fails to mention the most vivid character in the book, Marian Halcombe, Laura's half-sister. Marian is intelligent, bold, and, in one of the best known descriptions from the book, ugly. But her outward appearance makes no difference to Marian, who sizes up the dangerous situation her sister finds herself in, and attempts to help her break free of it.

It is amazing how much of the tension in this book results from the simple constraints on women's opportunities and behaviour in Victorian England.

Marian is such a vivid, interesting character that I was disappointed when she dwindled as a presence, and became a mere background character when Walter took up the tale again - Walter is a serviceable protagonist, but he's something of a non-entity, and Marian is so much more interesting.

But despite this, I enjoyed The Woman in White a great deal, and was always eager to curl up in my rocking chair and read some more.

Crossposted at Smorgasbook (less)

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Jan 14, 2012 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: littry-fiction, my-summer-of-classix

this is a weighty relic of a book. it's pretty enjoyable, just don't expect any surprises, unless you have missed the last 20 years of police procedurals on the television set. i'm sure in its day it was chock full of surprises, but i have to shudder at the contrivance of characters talking aloud to themselves while unknown to them, people hide in cupboards or whatnot, overhearing exactly the information they are most desirous of. it does make me yearn for these times when it seems pulling a con...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, reading-through-history

I've never liked the term "butterface." I don't object to the objectification; I just don't like the sound of it. Nonetheless, it unavoidably popped into my head at my introduction from behind to Miss Halcombe, as Collins allows Hartright to ogle "the rare beauty of her form...[and] her waist, perfection to the eyes of a man, for it occupied its natural place...visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays*," before she turns and he's horrified by the revelation that "The lady is ugly!" (I.6)

Sinc...more I've never liked the term "butterface." I don't object to the objectification; I just don't like the sound of it. Nonetheless, it unavoidably popped into my head at my introduction from behind to Miss Halcombe, as Collins allows Hartright to ogle "the rare beauty of her form...[and] her waist, perfection to the eyes of a man, for it occupied its natural place...visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays*," before she turns and he's horrified by the revelation that "The lady is ugly!" (I.6)

Since I like pretentious literary allusions as much as I dislike the word "butterface," I propose to exchange that unpleasant word for the new term, "Halcombe." It's even gender-neutral: "That guy you went home with last night? Looks like he hits the gym plenty...but man, what a Halcombe." Much better, right? I've already put it on urbandictionary.com; go give it a thumbs up.

Collins, a polyamorous laudanum addict, invented a genre called the sensation novel with Woman in White. He took Gothic stories away from their ghost-filled castles and directly into what he called "the secret theatre of home": "Collins and his fellow sensationalists [Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, Charles Reade and Rhoda Broughton] re-mapped the 'knowable communities' within which writers such as George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell and Margaret Oliphant plotted their fictions as territories that were unknowable, or at least dangerous to know" (Penguin Read Red intro). Unsurprisingly, this has been a big hit with generations of people who dislike their spouses.

And it's a terrific book. The titular woman shows up almost immediately to hook you in; after a brief slow-down to set the stage, around a third of the way in the tension ratchets up and never lets go again. It's incredibly gripping, and there are no plot holes. It features several brilliant characters: the aforementioned Halcombe, who makes the book basically feminist; the hypochondriac Fairlie; and, of course, the illimitable Fosco, one of the most memorable creations ever.

It's set up as an unusual epistolary: testimony from a number of sources, as if for a legal proceeding. The switching of narrators allows Collins to play a bunch of daring tricks: at one point a character suddenly intrudes in another's diary, confessing that he stole and read it, and commenting on her version of events.

And, of course, it lets Collins experiment extensively with the idea of the unreliable narrator. At least three passages are overtly untrustworthy (Fairlie, Mrs. Catherick and Fosco are also the most entertaining narrators); and since Collins obviously meant for us to understand that, might it not follow that the rest of the narrators are equally untrustworthy? Major spoilers: (view spoiler)

*Collins was wonderfully against corsets, and unapologetically an ass man: "I too think the back view of a finely formed woman the loveliest view." (Letters of Wilkie Collins, Vol. II, p. 534; ganked from an endnote in my edition)

--------------------------------------------------------

Edition review: the Penguin Read Red edition is fantastic. Great intro and great endnotes. The Kindle version I bought did a superb job of linking to the endnotes (something often neglected in Kindle editions), and it's only $4.75. (less)

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Nov 12, 2012 Arah-Lynda Hay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top

Originally published in a weekly periodical between late 1859 and 1860 as a serial story, this is believed to be the first English crime detection novel. This is Victorian fiction that combines romance, mystery and Gothic horror with a psychological twist.

The story opens with an eerie encounter, in the dead of night on a moonlit London road.

In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop… There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth…stood the figure of a solitary w...more Originally published in a weekly periodical between late 1859 and 1860 as a serial story, this is believed to be the first English crime detection novel. This is Victorian fiction that combines romance, mystery and Gothic horror with a psychological twist.

The story opens with an eerie encounter, in the dead of night on a moonlit London road.

In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop… There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth…stood the figure of a solitary woman, dressed from head to foot in white.

Collins had me at hello. This is the story of what a woman’s patience can endure, and what a man’s resolution can achieve. I loved the fly on the wall perspective of events as revealed through a series of narrators, starting with Walter Hartright, drawing master of the time and place, who introduced me to Marian Halcombe thusly;

The instant my eyes rested on her, I was struck by the rare beauty of her form, and by the unaffected grace of her attitude. Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well developed, yet not fat; her head sat on her shoulders with an easy, pliant firmness; her waist, perfection in the eyes of man, for it occupied it’s natural place, it filled out its natural circle, it was visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays. She had not heard my entrance into the room; and I allowed myself the luxury of admiring her for a few moments, before I moved one of the chairs near me, as the least embarrassing means of attracting her attention. She turned towards me immediately. The easy elegance of every movement of her limbs and body as soon as she began to advance from the far end of the room, set me in a flutter of expectation to see her face clearly. She left the window – and I said to myself, The lady is dark. She moved forward a few steps – and I said to myself, The lady is young. She approached nearer – and I said to myself (with a sense of surprise which words fail me to express), The lady is ugly!

Marian knows who she is, personally and as a woman in Victorian society. She reflects these qualities and embraces society’s expectations with elegance and grace, deftly, slowly, surely and quite successfully disarming her male audience and the reader with her charming, disarming, demeanour that both mirrors and ever so subtly mocks those expectations. Never have I been so invested in a character. I adore and applaud her. She is simply one of the most deftly drawn, beautiful and complex renderings I have ever encountered in the written word.

Without a doubt it is Collins characters that both support and propel this story, each in their own unique voice, of which Marian is but one. All brilliantly drawn and cleverly revealed as time goes by. It is a classic, therefore it is wordy, with long drawn out, highly descriptive sentences that go on and on and on as they slowly, persistently tug you forward.

No matter! I lapped up every word. (less)

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Oct 27, 2011 TJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

This book is an amazing teaching tool. Not because it conveys any great lessons in life or exhibits profound understanding and insight but because it so clearly delineates the beauty and differences in 19th century writing and 21st century writing.

The story is definitely very gothic and one of the best mysteries available. It is in the length of the story - most especially the length of the writing that will probably cause many readers to balk. The descriptions, the conversations, the ideas... v...more

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Feb 03, 2013 MichelleCH rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, audiobook, classics, favorites, group-reads, kindle, mystery, suspense, victorian

Ok. Amazing.

I must confess that initially I had thought that this would be a ghost story. The title is very mysterious and the cover made the woman in white appear ethereal. Generally I try to not read too much about a book before I begin. I like to just let it unfold as I read.

Anyway, despite my initial misconception, I loved this book. It had a great build-up, amazing characterizations, and the "just right" ending.

It is told in pieces from varying viewpoints which give it the flavor of indiv...more Ok. Amazing.

I must confess that initially I had thought that this would be a ghost story. The title is very mysterious and the cover made the woman in white appear ethereal. Generally I try to not read too much about a book before I begin. I like to just let it unfold as I read.

Anyway, despite my initial misconception, I loved this book. It had a great build-up, amazing characterizations, and the "just right" ending.

It is told in pieces from varying viewpoints which give it the flavor of individual perception. As in real life we all 'think' we know what we saw but is it really what occured? I enjoyed being in the shoes of different observers as I tried to piece together what was happening. Also, I must say that when I read a passage written in the diary of one of the main characters by an outide person, I got tremendous goosebumps.

The novel begins with an art teacher, Walter Hartright who comes to the home of a Ms. Fairlie to instruct her in drawing techniques. This Ms. Fairlie is pretty darn fair so there is love in the air; but unfortunately she is to be wed to a Sir Percival. Her half-sister Marian is there to watch the flame between the two grow but advises that the proper course must be taken and Mr. Hartright is soon sent on his way. After his departure things become complicated. Sir Percival is too good to be true and has some Jerry Springerish things lurking in his closet. Hartright goes into the deepest darkest locations to try and forget his true love and we meet one of the best characters ever, Count Fosco.

For the longest time I couldn't tell if Fosco was the good or bad guy. But that in my opinion is what makes a good story. Fosco was such an oxymoron and very complex. He truly made most of the story and it was a worthwhile endeavor getting to know him.

I love how Collins sneaks in bits that are subtle but say a whole heck of a lot. I don't need everything spelled out for me and I enjoy a writer who can trust his readers to interpret as they wish.

Another observation is how delicate women were percieved to be at the time. The smallest emotional discomfort could set your health back for weeks. Thankfully Marian, for the most part, broke that mold. She was strong and smart!

Collins is the master of mystery in this book. I read the book and also listened to it on Librovox. This is the first time I have tried this approach with a book and I must say that it really worked in terms of getting a more complete experience of Collin's writing. A great experience and I enjoyed every page. (less)

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Jul 07, 2008 Shan O rated it 5 of 5 stars

I haven't quite finished Wilkie Collins' brilliant 19th century novel, "The Woman In White," but I had to go ahead and start my review to say that I am thrilled with it. I picked it up from the shelf because it was in the mystery section of my local bookstore, and I took it home because Collins had me on the first page.

Having its origination as a 19th century serial novel, "The Woman In White" is written in first person; in fact, it is actually a modified epistolary form from the perspective of...more

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Apr 02, 2007 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who are not crazy in the noggin

Shelves: fiction, own, pre-1900, gbr_ire_cmnwlth, favorites

Although I've read in several places that Collins's main career achievement was essentially to invent the modern detective story in The Moonstone, I found The Woman in White by far the superior of the two novels. (In fairness, people don't generally fall over themselves in praise for The Moonstone as a novel so much as for depicting a new kind of sleuth.) This book is wonderfully written. Collins uses different narrators - perhaps eight altogether, but two or three main ones - and while he can't...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Bev Hankins rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic-lit, mystery, vintage-mystery, fiction

Well, the Energizer Bunny finally ran out of batteries. What, you don't get my reference? Shame on you, that means you missed reading one of my blog posts. :-) In my "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" post for the week I suggested that The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins had been the inspiration for the Energizer Bunny. It was the book that kept going and going and going....The good thing about having finished it is that I can scratch it off my TBR list (it's been on there forever) and it cou...more Well, the Energizer Bunny finally ran out of batteries. What, you don't get my reference? Shame on you, that means you missed reading one of my blog posts. :-) In my "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" post for the week I suggested that The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins had been the inspiration for the Energizer Bunny. It was the book that kept going and going and going....The good thing about having finished it is that I can scratch it off my TBR list (it's been on there forever) and it counts for about three challenges that I've got going!

So, now that it's done, I'm sitting here scratching my head and trying to figure out just exactly what all the fuss is about. Why does just about every review posted on Visual Bookshelf praise this thing to the skies? You got me. It's a somewhat decent little Victorian novel (no, wait, make that an extremely long Victorian novel). There are parts that are good. The scene where Hartright first meets the lady in white and helps her escape--very nice and quite atmospheric (very in keeping with Victorian gothic and not too overdone--unlike quite a bit of the rest of the book). I love the character of Marian although I, as a 20th/21st Century woman, find it deplorable that such an interesting, intelligent and courageous woman is relegated to the position of spinster and described at the beginning as ugly. But, then such is the lot of most intelligent women in Victorian times. And I find Frederick Fairlie to be absolutely hysterical even though he is a whiny, self-centered twit. I mean, how can I resist such declarations as

"Why--I ask everybody--why worry me? Nobody answers that question, and nobody lets me alone. Relatives, friends, and strangers all combine to annoy me. What have I done? I ask myself? I ask my servant, Louis, fifty times a day--what have I done? Neither of us can tell. Most extraordinary."

AND

"'Let Lady Glyde's maid come in, Louis. Stop! Do her shoes creak?' I was obliged to ask the question. Creaking shoes invariably upset me for the day. I was resigned to see the Young Person, but I was not resigned to let the Young Person shoe's upset me. There is a limit even to my endurance."

Without these two characters, I would have despaired of the whole thing. I thought that the shift in narrators would help me out. And, at the beginning of each section it did. The change was (as they tended to say in Victorian times) as good as a rest. For the first several pages of each narration...but then that particular part would go on and on and on...and there I was again, bored stiff.

It may be that I've read too many mysteries that have built on what must have been a fairly original idea for Collins at the time....but the twists in the middle and at the end just didn't make this book for me. Decently done, Wilkie, but surely you could have accomplished your task in about 150-200 less pages. Cut to the chase, man, cut to the chase! Two and a half stars out of five.

This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting any portion. Thanks.(less)

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Sep 16, 2012 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, classic, conspiracy, gothic-fiction, historical-fiction, mystery, victorian-literature

One night, on a lonely road, Walter Hartright meets a woman dressed completely in white. What he doesn't know is that she is going to change everything. After that encounter, he is constantly reminded of the woman and he becomes interested in her mysterious character. Why does she know so much about the place he now lives in? Why does she seem to fear people in that area? And why are certain people afraid of the mere mentioning of her?

This is considered to be one of the first mystery novels, as...more

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Jun 25, 2008 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: victorian, crime, 1860s, london

A paradigm of thrilling Victorian melodrama, Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (1860) is an engrossing read whose 600 pages captivated me over a long weekend. Haunting dreams, telling names, insane asylums, poisonings, spy rings, illness, kidnappings, and all the other trappings of gothic fiction are threads in a convoluted plot that requires the statements and confessions of half a dozen witnesses to untangle. The labyrinthine, often redundant narrative -- a test, sometimes, of what a Reader's...more

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Apr 17, 2008 Virginia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-classics, mystery-suspense

My friend Nora Ephron suggested i read this. Okay, I don't know her, but I feel like she'd be a friend. Therefore I honored her recommendations.

In her collection of essays "I Feel Bad about my Neck," she includes a bit about books that have completely transported her. She says it better than I do about this wonderful mystery:

"I open Wilkie Collins's masterpiece, The Woman in White, probably the first great work of mystery fiction ever written (although that description hardly does it justice),...more

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Sep 08, 2009 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-star-reads, classics

I loved this story from the first page and its wonderful, though complex, prose. For much of the story I thought the mystery a little less than mysterious, and then suddenly there was a twist or a turn and I found myself not knowing what would come next. For the most part, the characterizations are typical of 19th Century novels, often predictable, but better than one might expect given the time period. I have seen many novels recently which are written in the first person from the viewpoint of...more

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Jun 07, 2009 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

The sensation yarn of the 19th C. Quivering heroines 'n' moustache twirling villainy. Larks include gender subversion 'n' narrative innovation. Identity theft labourious endeavour pre digital age. A modern reimagining would be brief.

Ironically, have been on phone to passport office today. Mine's missing. Somewhere an Oompah Loompah is manoeuvring under my name.

*infiltrates factory*

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 18, 2013 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I can't believe I've had this on my "to-read" list for so long without picking it up! So well written, such fleshed out main characters (well except for Laura, in my opinion - I'll get back to her)...a great read. A few thoughts:

1) As much as I loved Walter Hartright in this book, I was constantly confused by Laura being his love and not Marian. In my opinion, in one thing at least, Count Fosco was the more discriminating of the two ;-)

2) That being said, I felt Laura was merely a ghost of a cha...more I can't believe I've had this on my "to-read" list for so long without picking it up! So well written, such fleshed out main characters (well except for Laura, in my opinion - I'll get back to her)...a great read. A few thoughts:

1) As much as I loved Walter Hartright in this book, I was constantly confused by Laura being his love and not Marian. In my opinion, in one thing at least, Count Fosco was the more discriminating of the two ;-)

2) That being said, I felt Laura was merely a ghost of a character...I never felt like I got a real handle on who she was....just a pretty face, fragile and insipid? She must have been more than those things due to the devotion of Marian and Walter, unless she was like a wounded bird they wanted to care for. She was the only character I felt was "ghostly" in character development. It was such a glaring "omission" I feel it must have been purposeful by the author. The other characters were so well fleshed out I could feel their own personal vibes, if that makes any sense at all.

3) I think Count Fosco and Mr. Frederick Fairlie are on equal footing as villains in this book. (Yes, of course Sir Percival is a villain too but I found him to be one dimensional and stupid so I don't want to talk about him.) I liked Count Fosco in the same way Marian did at the beginning...he is hard to "look away" from. I found him completely fascinating in his own bloated sense of self-worth and "integrity". What a great character! Frederick Fairlie was hilarious, though ridiculous and weak in his own villainy. The section written from his perspective left me laughing out loud. When he was "talking" of the burdens put upon single people by married people...brilliant narrative ;-)

4) I was a bit disappointed the best ending Marian deserved was to be a "good aunty". I know it is unreasonable to have wished it, but she was deserving of a grand love. Couldn't Mr. Kyrle or for someone more exciting, Count Fosco's assassin, left a hint in the air of a future love interest for Marian? I'm going to choose to believe that she did find the love of her life, have a home and a family of her own :-)(less)

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Jan 12, 2012 Lynette rated it 1 of 5 stars

Wow. This is supposed to be a classic mystery? The Woman in White was one of the most boring books I've ever read, and I've read a LOT of Victorian books. The plot is seriously that a woman marries a man she doesn't want to marry, and he stages her death to collect her fortune. YAWN. Am I supposed to be impressed that she followed through with her word to her father and married Sir Percival, even though she loved Walter? Nothing interesting happens for about 400 pages, something slightly interes...more Wow. This is supposed to be a classic mystery? The Woman in White was one of the most boring books I've ever read, and I've read a LOT of Victorian books. The plot is seriously that a woman marries a man she doesn't want to marry, and he stages her death to collect her fortune. YAWN. Am I supposed to be impressed that she followed through with her word to her father and married Sir Percival, even though she loved Walter? Nothing interesting happens for about 400 pages, something slightly interesting happens, and then nothing happens for another hundred pages. In fact, I'd guessed the end of the book before I was even halfway through.

The premise is that Walter Hartright is collecting information about the events from the people who witnessed them - I guess that is a clever way of writing a book, but there is no real purpose to this. He says it's so that he can have an accurate description of events so that he can prove his wife's true identity.

I don't know how things were back in the 1850's, but I have a very hard time believing that two women are SO IDENTICAL that NO ONE can tell that there was a switch.

Also, Collins's treatment of women is horrible. Laura is constantly fainting and having fits and losing her memory and doing things she doesn't want to do and then weeping about it - "dear me, I'm so helpless!" She's a wet rag, talentless, and boring, and I don't know why Hartright is in love with her. Marian is a much stronger character, but still, she's always saying things like, "I know I'm only a woman, but ..." I seriously thought that Marion would end up with Walter at the end. But, she's not very pretty, and I guess looks are more important than brains.

Seriously, I cannot believe I waded through this boring crap for four weeks. And then, I get to the end and there's a letter that was published in the newspaper about how Collins had his dates wrong! And that's what most of the book hinges on! Not to mention the fact that he could have told the story in about 400 fewer pages. Y-A-W-N!(less)

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Oct 29, 2010 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, mystery

Woah. I'm shocked that this book doesn't have more ratings here, because truely, it is a masterpiece that any fans of Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, andCharlotte Brontë must read. I'll admit to being wary when it comes to mystery novels. The only few I can tend to handle without shrieking are Agatha Christie, and even then I can tell my nerves aren't in check. Yet, what is it about The Woman in White? What is it about this book that can be all at once painfully perfect, and yet overwhelmingly...more

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Sep 26, 2007 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of the mystery/thriller genre

Shelves: fiction, classics, i-own

I read this as a teen and loved it. Since I didn't rememeber a thing from the book except one short paragraph from the opera scene, it was time to reread.

What to say? I really liked it, despite my many, many problems with the text. I'm happy to report that the rampant sexism of the first third of the book or so eventually dies down, and you learn to ignore the useless Laura Fairlie in favour of Fosco and Marian and, above all, the mystery.

I know a common criticism of the book is that it piles on...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Sarah Sammis rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: released

I've not had a very successful run of book reading recently. I suppose after having so many page turners in a row, I was bound to hit some books that didn't entertain me or engage me. The Woman in White, a novel beloved my many, didn't do much for me. In fact, it earns its placement in a very short list of novels I haven't been inspired to finish reading.

The Woman in White with its epistolary narrative is reminiscent of Bleak House (1852) and shares many of the same flaws. Both are too long, ha...more

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Feb 20, 2009 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is the greatest mystery story I've ever read! The character development is superb and the story is absolutely captivating! I could not put it down for the life of me (apologies to my hubby for the house going to pot while I read it). Published in 1860 and the author considered to be the father of all English mystery novels, it is still a great mystery by today's standards. I think it is a much more intelligent mystery than many modern day novels. A true classic and one that you will no...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Dinah Küng rated it 5 of 5 stars

What is going on with me? I've got a three-book trilogy to write and the plotting's going well but instead of working on ancient Rome, I'm hooked on a Victorian thriller with all the subtlety of a...pale and interesting woman in a white muslin gown wandering around a cemetery in the middle of the night by moonlight!

I know I read this some decades ago, and yet I don't recall it being such a page-turner. The delineation of character in marvelous, the chapter hooks would do a modern mystery master...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 20, 2008 Rachelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved, loved, LOVED this book. It's definitely in my top 5 for all time! I would love to hear from anyone else who has also read this. Not sure how I've missed knowing about it for so long - and I'm really gonna miss it!

Soooo, it's a 'classic' - written in the greatest time period ever (1850) and comparable to reading a really long Austen novel with a dark, suspenseful twist. Can you beat that?

I would recommend this to anyone who loves to read - savor and enjoy it!

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Mar 13, 2010 Alison rated it 3 of 5 stars

*Here be spoilers.*

Collins wrote in the preface to this book, "It may be possible in novel-writing to present characters successfully without telling a story; but it is not possible to tell a story successfully without presenting characters: their existence, as recognisable realities, being the sole condition on which the story can be effectively told. The only narrative which can hope to lay a strong hold on the attention of readers is a narrative which interests them about men and women--for t

...more *Here be spoilers.*

Collins could write a hell of an absorbing novel. But once you've actually finished the book, and you start thinking about what to say, you wonder how you could have been so enthralled by such silly plot machinations and, less forgiveably, such objectionable characters. Collins' faults as a novelist appear in his rigid lack of imagination about "recognisable" men and women: they're stereotypes. There's an unfortunate strain of phrenological characterization at work here, so that villainous Englishmen look brutish and are distrusted by lapdogs, and villainous foreigners look grotesque and silly and effeminate but have gigantic heads if they're also intelligent, and hard people *look* hard, and stupid people *look* stupid, so that you wonder how anybody in the nineteenth century ever made a false character judgment at all. There is a strong, charismatic, intelligent female character, Marian--possibly a portrait of George Eliot--whose "manly" mind--and FACE, because by God she's ugly!--render her effectively sexless (it's a little more complicated than that, but it would take an essay to describe the gender dynamics there), so she doesn't threaten any of the binaries at work here. So the hero (profoundly uninteresting but devoted and penniless) falls in love instead with (the profoundly uninteresting but rich and beautiful) Laura, who's characterized chiefly by her "kindness" and "truthfulness," which she manifests solely by having blue eyes. And there are the comic characters: Count Fosco and his mice; Pesca "quietly coiled up" at the bottom of the sea; Mrs. Catherick's final, amazingly ironic line--"My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody"--but unfortunately these wonderful characters are marred by ethnic, class, and gender stereotypes, not to mention a great deal of tiresome moralizing. The sanctimony is sickening, when a great deal of the virtuous women's virtue consists in negative values, and the virtuous men are virtuous mostly by dint of being inspired by women's beauty and calling it virtue. Meanwhile, have any of these virtuous people noticed that a young woman, who happened to be wearing white, has died pitifully on their account? Only insofar as her death inconveniences Laura!

I'm trying to figure out what exactly makes Collins so enthralling after all. Because the plot is silly. And the characters are revolting, without much to counteract that impression (unlike in the works of Charlotte Bronte, who also loved her some phrenology). I think perhaps there's something so thoroughgoing about his revolting characterization that you can't *not* want to know more. Collins believed in his characters, and that conviction carries through to the reader. He said, "Is there any way to make a limp, brainless, virtuous beauty even MORE so? Why yes! I WILL WIPE OUT HER MEMORY WITH THE DESPAIR OF BEING WRONGFULLY LOCKED IN AN ASYLUM! Can I make my wily fat foreign gentleman, the incarnation of depraved evil, even more depraved? Why, yes! I WILL MAKE HIM FEED A FRUIT TART TO A HURDY-GURDY MONKEY!" You can't believe he's willing to take it there, but he does, over and over, and you can't stop reading.

(less)

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Apr 07, 2013 Lisa Vandamme rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those rare books that I didn't want to put down, and didn't want to end. Riveting from start to finish.

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Feb 06, 2010 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jason by: 'The Classics' group, Jan 10 book

DON'T READ THIS BOOK, unless you've got the patience, stamina, and requisite taste for a quintessential mid-Victorian novel. If you don't, you'll think The Woman in White is terribly overwrought and 500 pages too long. If you like Victorian writing, you'll think this is a well-drawn, balanced novel with characters to root for, characters to despise, a twisting plot that rolls up seamlessly, and narrated ingeniously from multiple points of view. If you're unsure whether you like or dislike Victor...more

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Nov 12, 2010 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Stephanie by: Leslie

Possible spoilers. Maybe? I don't know what you consider spoilers, so read at your own risk!

Random thoughts about The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins:

Count Fosco is a villain I loved to hate. He’s so delightfully devious. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids...er, I mean his one Fatal Flaw. I’d like to say more, but I don’t want to ruin anything for you.

Then there’s Marian. What a heroine! She’s always protesting that she’s just a woman, or that...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Kristi rated it 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't put this book down. I think I'll have to take a break from reading and reaquaint myself with my family, now.
At first, I thought I might never get through the book, struggling with the language, but after about 6 pages, I found otherwise! :) Collins is true to his characters; while it is by no means predictable, the characters always act within their descriptions and each new action is revealing, rather than contradictory. Does that make sense? Marian is wonderful, Fosco is wonderful...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 25, 2011 Marialyce rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-group-reads, classics, october-2011

Perfect, perfect, perfect, in every way. So sad to see this book end, but it was truly wonderful and moved in all the right directions for suspense, for revealing the sinister nature that is inherent in some people, and the joy that happens when right makes right. Such an enjoyable novel written for thoe of us who love mystery, gothic horror, and excellent writing.

I am sure that this is one of those books that will never lose its allure. They story, although written for a Victorian audience, tra...more

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Apr 03, 2009 Cindy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Five stars not versus anything at any time, but for what it was at the time. Great characters and a well drawn mystery in 1860, before others were doing it. Fascinating to watch the plot unfurl using the tracking and deducing of the time -- diaries, letters, eavesdropping, following on foot and attacks in the road. The British post and rail system were awesome! And so were servants.

Collins does a great job with characters -- very believable and he captures different voices and uses them to unfu...more

3 likes · like · see review

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About Wilkie Collins

A close friend of Charles Dickens' from their meeting in March 1851 until Dickens' death in June 1870, William "Wilkie" Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and, for a time, best paid of Victorian fiction writers. But after his death, his reputation declined as Dickens' bloomed. Now, Collins is being given more critical and popular attention than he has received for fifty years. Most of...more

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“My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.” — 584 people liked it

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