Review - Wilkie Collins The Woman in White
A Classic Victorian Novel That You Just Can't Put Down!
Wilkie Collins’ is acknowledged to be one of the greatest exponents of the Victorian sensation novel. He first became a household name with this masterpiece of suspense and intrigue. The Woman in White, Collins’ tenth novel, was published in 1860 and became an immediate success. As was usual with many novels of the period, The Woman in White made its debut as a serialization in All the Year Round, a popular magazine edited by Charles Dickens.
Collins’ Timeless Classic
‘This is the story of what a Woman’s patience can endure, and what a man’s resolution can achieve’; so begins what is still viewed by many as ‘the greatest mystery thriller in the English language’. The Woman in White has never been out of print since it first caught the collective imagination of Victorian readers with its memorable characters, page-turning plot and sinister settings. Its appeal remains strong today and is considered, along with The Moonstone, to be the finest of Collin’s prolific output.
How The Woman in White begins
The story opens with the main narrator, Walter Hartright, who is disturbed by meeting a ‘solitary woman dressed from head to foot in white garments’ on an eerie moonlit road in London. As he travels to Cumberland to take up his post as art tutor to two wealthy half-sisters, he could not possibly have realised the fatal repercussions that his mysterious encounter will have.
The Dastardly Villain - Collins' Count Fosco
Heading the cast of carefully depicted characters that populate his masterpiece, is the irrepressible Count Fosco, a melodramatic, quietly menacing villain who is vividly realised by Collins’ masterful use of convincing detail. Corpulent yet effeminate, this dastardly anti-hero delights in allowing his pet mice to crawl under his waistcoat whilst plotting the cruel conspiracy that will lead to kidnap, incarceration in a lunatic asylum and an attempt at forced marriage.
Wilkie Collins' Representation of Women
In the ‘original creation’ of Marian Halcombe, Collins portrays a female protagonist who is a match not only for Count Fosco but also for the stereotypical fair-haired, passive heroines of many contemporary novels. Marian defies convention from the outset with her solid, physical presence, her no-nonsense approach and her quick, intuitive intelligence.
Geographical Locations in The Woman in White
The novel is set in various locations across Britain as the characters engage in a thrilling game of cat and mouse and altered identities. The disturbing truths which lurk behind those seemingly respectable Victorian curtains gradually come to light in the vast country estates of Cumberland and Hampshire and the foreboding Victorian lunatic asylum.
Conclusion of The Woman in White
The Woman in White is part of a series of linked articles on the works of Wilkie Collins. If you enjoyed this, then try The Moonstone.
Sources: The Woman in White, notes by Julian Symons, ISBN 0140430962
The chase is on as Marian and Walter combine forces to try and outwit their adversaries. The machinations of Count Fosco and his aristocratic foil, the scheming Sir Percival Glyde, come to a head in a small parish church where the secrets of the past are finally revealed.
1899 edition of The Woman in White
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