4,5
Συζητούσα τις προάλλες με μια φίλη μου και της ανέφερα ότι διάβαζα τη "γυναίκα με τα άσπρα ", αυτή θυμόταν το βιβλίο γιατι το ειχε διαβασει πριν περίπου κανα δυο χρόνια και γενικά αγαπάει πάρα πολύ τον Κόλινς, έτσι πιάσαμε μια συζήτηση για αυτόν και εγώ της παραπονέθηκα οτι το μυστήριο θα μπορούσε να λυθεί με πιο απλό και λογικο τροπο και ότι τελοσπάντων δεν είναι τοσο καλο οσο το -λατρεμένο μου- Αρμαντειλ-Μου είπε λοιπόν "Μαρία ψάχνεις να βρεις στερεα λογικη και μη-υπερβοληστον Κόλινς; διαβάζεις τα βιβλία του Κόλινς για την υπόθεση; Υπόθεση μπορεί να εχει οσες τρυπες και προβλήματα και όση έλλειψη αληθωφανειας θελει, αυτό που έχει σημασία είναι η ατμόσφαιρα, η πρόζα του που είναι αξεπέραστη, ο τρόπος που χρησιμοποιεί τις διάφορες αφηγησεις- οπτικες γωνις - είναι αξεπέραστος. "Και ειχε δικιο βεβαια. Καθώς διάβαζα τις τελευταίες σελίδες, κατάλαβα το δικιο της και το λάθος μου . Ετσι εκει προς το τέλος ειδα όλο το μεγαλείο της αφηγησης, όλο το περιπεπλεγμένο της πλοκής , όλο τον πλουτο των χαρακτήρων και πάνω απ'ολα την σύγχρονη κοινωνική κριτική του συγγραφέα.

The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins, First Published 1860.

'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 becomes embroiled in 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 pyschological realism.

Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialization history.

Characters:
Walter Hartright,
Marian Halcombe,
Anne Catherick,
Sir Percival Glyde,
Count Fosco,
Frederick Fairlie,
Laura Fairlie,
Madame Fosco,
and Mr. Gilmore.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «زن سفیدپوش»؛ «بانوی سفیدپوش»؛ «سفیدپوشی در لیمریج»؛ نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز دوم ماه دسامبر سال1998میلادی

عنوان یک: زن سفیدپوش، نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ مترجم: نودهشتیا، نوع فایل: پی.دی.اف، در524ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسنگان بریتانیا - سده19م

عنوان دو: زن سفیدپوش، نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ مترجم: آذرمیدخت کاوه‌خوری‌، پروین قائمی، ناشر ت‍ه‍ران، ن‍ش‍ر ق‍طره‌، تاریخ اثر سال1376، در733ص، شابک9645958482؛

عنوان سه: بانوی سفیدپوش، نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ مترجم: علی‌اکبر دستمالچی، ناشر تبریز، مولود، تاریخ اثر سال‏‫1387، در736ص، شابک9786009025899؛

عنوان: زن سفید پوش، مترجم: نسرین زارع؛ نشر وصال، سال1383، در128ص؛ شابک9648010048؛ فهرست: مقدمه؛ فصل1: «زن سفید پوش، ص13»؛ فصل2: «والتر به لیمبریج میرسد، ص18»؛ فصل3: «هشداری به لورا، ص23»؛ فصل4: «در قبرستان کلیسا، ص27»؛ فصل5: «ان کاتریک ناپدید میشود، ص32»؛ فصل6: آقای گیلمر وارد عمل میشود؛ ص35»؛ فصل7: «آقای پرسیوال توضیح میدهد، ص40»؛ فصل8: «مقدمات ازدواج، ص46»؛ فصل9: «لورا برای ازدواج آماده میشود، ص50»؛ بخش دوم: فصل1: «در بلک واتر، ص57»؛ فصل2: «آقای مریمن پیغام میآورد، ص61»؛ فصل3: «آقای پرسیوال عصبانی است، ص65»؛ فصل4: «سایه کنار دریاچه، ص69»؛ فصل5: «قرار ملاقات به تعویق میافتد، ص73»؛ فصل6: «ماریان حرفهای عجیبی میشنود، ص77»؛ فصل7: «خواهرها جدا میشوند، ص82»؛ فصل8: «مرگ ناگهانی، ص87»؛ فصل9: «بازگشت به قبرستان کلیسا، ص90»؛ بخش سوم: فصل1: «در تیمارستان، ص95»؛ فصل2: «والتر نقشه ی عملی طرح میکند، ص101»؛ فصل3: «خانم کاتریک رازی را فاش میکند، ص106»؛ فصل4: سند جرم، ص110»؛ فصل5: دومین مرگ، ص115»؛ فصل6: «والتر پاداش میگیرد، ص120»؛ فصل7: «پایان ماموریت، ص123»؛

مقدمه کتاب: (این داستان، بازگو کننده ­ی آن چیزی است، که در بردباری یک زن، می­گنجد؛ و مصلحت اندیشی یک مرد، آن را میسر می­سازد؛ اگر میشد به عملکرد ماشین قانون، در کشف موارد مشکوک، اعتماد کرد، و رسیدگی به پرونده­ هاییکه، برای بازجویی ارجاع می­شوند، اگر قابل کنترل بود، امکان داشت، با استمدادی اندک، از تاثیر و نفوذ طلا، که هر امری را، تسهیل می­کند، و مثل روغن گریس، هر چرخی را، به راه می­اندازد، وقایعی را که، در این کتاب، بازگو می­شوند، در دادگاهی علنی مطرح، و کلی هم مشتری، و بیننده ی پروپاقرص، برایش دست و پا کرد.)؛ پایان نقل از مقدمه کتاب

داستان، شیوه ی روایتی جالبی دارد، هر یک از شخصیت­های داستان، قسمتی از رویداد را، از دید خویش بازمی­گویند؛ «زن سفید پوش»، تنها یک داستان عاشقانه، یا جنایی نیست؛ بلکه تلفیقی از ماجرای عاشقانه ی «والتر هارترایت»، و از سوی دیگر، شخصیت مرموز «سِر پرسیوال گلاید» است، که دل خوانشگر را، در فراز و نشیب داستان، میرباید؛ دلپذیرترین اثر «ویلکی کالینز» است؛ رمانی، پر از تعلیق، که راوی داستانش، جوانی هنرمند است، به نام «والتر هارترایت»، که برای تدریس نقاشی، به دو دوشیزه ی اشراف‌زاده، «لندن» را، به مقصد دهکده ­ی «لیمریج»، ترک می‌کند؛ در جاده­ ی «لندن»، زنی سفیدپوش و مضطرب، از «والتر»، یاری می‌خواهد، زن در گفت و شنود، از خانه‌ ای می‌گوید، که مدرس جوان، قرار است، به آنجا برود؛ «والتر» پس از اقامت در «لیمریج»، دلباخته­ ی «لورا» (یکی از دوشیزگان) می‌شود؛ اما پس از چندی، درمی‌یابد که قرار است ایشان، با نجیب‌زاده‌ ای ازدواج کند و.....؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 15/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 27/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Questa è la storia di quel che la pazienza di una donna può sopportare,
e che la determinazione di un uomo può ottenere.  





Un anno: dal 1859 al 1860.
Questo l’arco di tempo in cui, sulla rivista diretta da Charles Dickens - Household words, uscì a puntate la storia de “La donna in bianco”.
Un anno in cui – come testimonia l’autore stesso nella prefazione- la redazione riceveva regolarmente lettere da parte dei lettori che non solo si appassionavano sempre più ma si identificavano con i personaggi.
Mi piace pensare come, in un’epoca così lontana dalla nostra, non solo dal punto di vista temporale, ma anche per l’evidente cavalcata dei progressi scientifici e tecnologici, ecco, mi piace pensare a quell’atmosfera carica di ansia che attendeva l’uscita del giornale per poter soddisfare la curiosità dell’enigma di questa storia.
Nonostante io non sia per nulla un’appassionata vittoriana, ho letto questo libro con gran piacere. Confesso di aver sghignazzato, ogni tanto, per quelli che considero eccessi zuccherosi e battute da alto melodramma, oppure per alcuni risvolti propri del giallo che all’odierna luce del Luminol appaiono come ingenue strategie narrative.
Ammetto anche la stizza per la traccia misogina.
Ovvio che tutto va contestualizzato e in definitiva la lettura è proprio della sua epoca e compie il dovere di intrattenere ed appassionare chi gira le pagine.
D’altra parte le mire letterarie che Collins esprime nella prefazione alla seconda edizione, sono così riassunte:

” L’unica narrativa che può sperare di far breccia nell’attenzione dei lettori è quella narrativa che parla loro di uomini e di donne - per la ragione perfettamente evidente che essi stessi, i lettori, sono uomini e donne.”

Sicuramente, l’autore raggiunge questo intento.
“La donna in bianco” non è, tuttavia, solo un romanzo che tiene incollati alle pagine per la curiosità di conoscere il mistero ma comprende anche una profonda caratterizzazione dei personaggi:
Laura, Miss Marian Halcombe, Anne Catherick, Il Conte Fosco, Mr Fairlie, Sir Percival Glyde e Walter Hartright.
Una schiera variegata di caratteri che Collins muove con grande abilità.
A ciò si deve aggiungere l’originale struttura narrativa; ogni capitolo, difatti, riporta la voce di un testimone come se ci si trovasse in un’aula di tribunale.
Ecco questi i gustosi ingredienti del piatto.

E la storia?
Beh, basti sapere che è costituita da apparizioni e sparizioni, dove i contorni di ciò che appare possono assumere una forma diversa con la luce giusta...


” E lì, al centro della strada luminosa - lì, come se fosse spuntata in quel momento dalla terra, o caduta giù dal cielo - vidi stagliarsi solitaria la figura di una donna, vestita di bianco dalla testa ai piedi, che mi scrutava con espressione grave, e con la mano indicava la nuvola scura sopra Londra, guardandomi dritto negli occhi.
Ero troppo sconvolto dalla violenza di quella straordinaria apparizione, piombatami davanti all’improvviso nel cuore della notte e in quel posto desolato, per chiederle cosa volesse da me. Fu quella donna misteriosa a parlare per prima.
«È questa la strada per Londra?», mi chiese.”

“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 Halcombe’s unbecoming features and distinct lack of beauty are offset with wit, intelligence, strength of character, bravura and courage, shrewdness, and loyalty. Laura Fairlie, her half-sister, by contrast, suffers a frail disposition and a weak, self-effacing, retiring personality but possesses a comely figure and undeniable facial beauty. Potential readers will not earn any insight points for guessing which one Walter Hartright falls in love with.

Late night on the road to Limmeridge House to undertake a contract as a drawing master, the previously mentioned Walter Hartright first encounters Anne Catherick, the eponymous woman in white, whom the reader learns is a mentally challenged young woman recently escaped from her commitment in an asylum. When he meets Laura and Marian, his student charges, the next day, Walter is shocked at the resemblance between Laura and the woman he had met and helped the previous night under such bizarre circumstances. Of course, notwithstanding their difference in class and Laura’s previous engagement to a wealthy local landowner baronet, Sir Percival Glyde, not to mention her melodramatic propensity for swooning, her heaving bosom and her Victorian tears, her sniffing at cologne and smelling salts, and her suffering from “back of the hand to the forehead” female illnesses, weaknesses, and bedroom confining headaches, Walter and Laura fall in love with each other. To avoid the likelihood of a certain scandal and the loss of reputation that would entail for Laura, Marion advises Hartright to leave Limmeridge House before the completion of his employment contract and he complies.

Shortly thereafter, Sir Percival Glyde, accompanied by his close friend, the outgoing, obsequiously charming, and spectacularly fat Count Fosco, (and his unaccountably surly and always subservient wife) arrives at Limmeridge House seeking to set a date for his contracted marriage to Laura. That arrival is overshadowed by the receipt of an anonymous letter warning Laura not to marry him under any circumstances. The plot begins to thicken quickly and one wonders whether a youthful Sherlock Holmes might have used his oft-repeated aphorism for the first time, “The game is afoot”!

If THE WOMAN IN WHITE were a modern novel (abundant servings of Victorian melodrama and sensation notwithstanding), it would be characterized as a psychological thriller based on criminal identity theft for financial gain. Gain to the tune of £30,000 to be more exact, which was an enormous fortune at the time. Walter Hartright’s and Marian Halcombe’s astute investigations to undercover the nature of the theft and its motives, and their legal machinations to restore the stolen identity to its rightful owner are exciting and compelling. Add in some thematic overtones of greed, misogyny, satire and political commentary on women’s legal rights in the mid-19th century, international spycraft, murder, fraud, adultery, and good old-fashioned criminal skullduggery blended with character development that is simply masterful in its depth and completeness, and it’s no wonder that THE WOMAN IN WHITE, first published in 1860, consistently ranks as one of the best English literature novels ever written and has never been out of print.

Highly recommended, I have no hesitation in adding THE WOMAN IN WHITE to my list of lifetime favourite novels.

Paul Weiss

3, 5.

Citit pe la 15-16 ani, romanul lui Collins are mari șanse să intre în biblioteca afectivă a oricărui cititor. Din păcate, dacă-l citești mai tîrziu, observi, înainte de orice, că are 620 de pagini. Și asta te intimidează...

Observi că Anne Catherick (Femeia în alb) și Laura sînt niște ființe mult prea gingașe și sensibile (sînt surori vitrege și asta ar putea explica inclinația lor nevrotică), dar că Marian Halcombe (și ea soră vitregă cu Laura) nu prea seamănă cu ele: nu e „slabă la minte” ca Anne și nici hipersensibilă și anxioasă ca Laura. În chip ciudat, aceste eminente virtuți sînt, cum să zic?, diminuate de chipul ei neatrăgător:

„Niciodată vechea zicală că natura nu poate greşi n-a fost mai categoric contrazisă, niciodată aspectul promiţător al unei înfăţişări frumoase n-a fost mai straniu şi mai uimitor dezminţit... Această doamnă avea un obraz aproape negricios, iar puful negru de deasupra buzei superioare era aproape o mustaţă etc.”.

Mai observi că ogarul Laurei îi simte imediat pe bărbații dubioși și latră la ei (la sir Percival Glyde, în primul rînd), dar dă din coadă și se veselește în fața unui bărbat onest, moral și muncitor. Mă refer, firește, la întreprinzătorul Walter Hartright, prof de desen și om cu indiscutabile abilități de detectiv: mînuiește cu eleganță bîta și, cînd e urmărit de răufăcători, are o viteză de alergare neobișnuită.

Observi, în plus, că Providența îi mîngîie pe cei buni și-i pedepsește exemplar pe cei răi. Ea rezolvă partea murdară a afacerii: abjectul sir Percival Glyde, baronet (noblețea lui e falsă), moare în incendiul din sacristia bisericii din Welmingham, iar sinistrul conte Fosco, ajuns în Paris, e înjunghiat (de un asasin plătit, cu o cicatrice de rău augur pe față) și aruncat în Sena.

La sfîrșit, Walter se căsătorește cu Laura, iar Marian decide să rămînă pe veci cu ei și să-și educe nepotul / nepoții cu devotamentul cunoscut și apreciat de toți. Ea știe din capul locului că nu va avea noroc la bărbați (of, mustața!) și alege să-și sacrifice energia și spiritul de inițiativă în serviciul tinerei familii: „După tot ce am suferit împreună toţi trei - a spus ea -, între noi nu mai poate exista despărţire, pînă la despărţirea din urmă. Walter, inima şi fericirea mea sînt alături de Laura şi de tine”. Am putea vorbi de un ménage à trois...

Oare Wilkie Collins ignora adevărul verificat de experiență că pentru orice femeie există întotdeauna cel puțin un bărbat care o așteaptă? Preceptul e valabil, desigur, și în cazul bărbaților...

P. S. Necesitatea nu e, vai, întotdeauna binevoitoare, întrucît Anne Catherick, înspăimîntată de Fosco, face un atac de cord în momentul cel mai nepotrivit pentru criminal. Ar trebui să moară pe 26 iulie, dar moare - în ciuda contelui - pe 25. Vorba lui Cehov: Blestem!

P. P. S. Neîndoios, personajul cel mai interesant din toată povestea rămîne Marian Halcombe. Așadar, are dreptate criticul John Sutherland. Ar merita o soartă mai bună :)

Where I got the book: public domain freebie on Kindle.

This is one of those novels I've been promising myself I'd read for years. I was expecting a really creepy ghost story, but what I got surprised me.

The plot: this is one of those Victorian novels told through a series of documents, with several narrators giving their accounts of the tale. Drawing teacher Walter Hartright has a nighttime encounter with a woman in white, and later learns that she has escaped from an asylum. By an amazing coincidence (in true Victorian fashion, the plot depends on many unlikely coincidences) he is summoned to the north of England to teach drawing to a young woman, Laura, who bears a striking resemblance to the woman in white and who is engaged to a much older man, Sir Percival Glyde. Laura and Walter fall in love, and Walter does the honorable thing and takes himself out of the picture as he is clearly too poor and socially inferior to marry an heiress. Walter's cause is espoused by Laura's half-sister, Marian Halcombe, who later joins Laura and her new husband as they set up house with creepy Italian Count Fosco, whose wife is Laura's aunt. The woman in white remains at large and continues to warn Walter (when he returns from the obligatory Dangerous Overseas Journey), Marian and Laura about Sir Percival's and the Count's evil intentions.

Despite (or because of?) the inevitable Victorian tics of overly long descriptions, melodramatic touches and Amazing Coincidences, I found this to be a cracking good story. I was surprised to detect a feminist side to Collins; he is clearly sympathetic to the plight of the middle-to-upper-class Victorian woman, who either had to marry, often against her own inclination (Laura) or remain a spinster dependent on others for a home (Marian). I do wish, though, that Collins had not been quite so Victorian about the two women; he clearly portrays Laura as the only marriageable one of the two sisters because she is fair, delicate and doll-like where Marian is strong-featured (ugly, thinks Walter when he sees her) and strong-willed and therefore DOOMED to remain unmarried.

Alas, Laura comes across as wishy-washy while Marian is a superb Victorian heroine: resourceful, intelligent, kind and generous. Even though she is ready to take action on Laura's behalf, though, Marian is true to her time in her belief that they can accomplish nothing without the support of a Man of pretty much any description. A bit frustrating for a modern female reader, but there it is. Collins does a much better job than his contemporary and friend Dickens of portraying the sad truth of the female condition; I can't help feeling that (unlike Dickens, who is a thoroughgoing misogynist at heart), Collins really likes women and is keen to portray them well. With the exception of the Count (whose real gloriousness as a villain is, intriguingly, seen mostly through Marian's eyes) the really interesting people in this novel are the women.

I found The Woman in White to be quite a page-turner by the end, with reasonably intricate plotting that never became too convoluted to follow. I'm glad I read it, and wonder why I waited so long.

Completed--why only three stars, when I was so enthused about the book at the beginning? I will explain.

My reaction after listening to a third:
This is so much fun! I r-e-a-l-l-y need to know what is going on; I am super curious. The characters are very well drawn. Then audiobook narration by Ian Holm is very highly recommended. Who ever thought I would like a Gothic mystery?! I am so surprised.

The blend of "Gothic horror and psychological realism" is superb. The words in quotes are from the GR book description. They capture the tone of the book well.

My thoughts at the end:
The Woman in White is considered one of the first mystery / detective novels to be written. For this reason alone, it is worth reading.

Educated as a barrister, but never practicing as one, Wilkie Collins used instead what he had learned from his legal training in his books. Here, multiple narrators recount the tale, as in a court case where witnesses are heard. Walter Hartright plays the role as the detective. He is also one of the novel’s narrators. We hear from a lawyer, a housekeeper, a cook, a doctor, and different members of the Fairlie family.

Two women, Laura Fairlie and Ann Cathrick share a resemblance. How they are related is one of the mysteries to be resolved. Involuntary insane asylum confinement, forgery of registry documents, mistaken identities, serious and hypochondriacal illnesses, fires and murders fill the register of events that must be made sense of. And, of course, there is a love thread to be followed too. Is the end going to be happy or sad? All you have to base your guess on is that Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens collaborated with each other and were good friends.

The story was originally published in serial format during 1859 and 1860 in Charles Dickens’ journal All the Year Round. Having become a huge hit, in 1860 it was released as a novel.

There, now you have the background, but what did I think on completing the novel? It is too long and too drawn out! By the end I was totally fed up. Parts of the story are repeated over and over again, but at the same time, the most essential tidbits are withheld. Why? To create suspense. My patience was worn thin. I grew so exasperated that I no longer even cared who did what and why and when and how! By the end every aspect has been detailed minutely and more than once.

The story begins by arising one’s curiosity through the depiction of intriguing characters. Some bizarre, each unique in their own way. Up to this point I was intrigued. Then the story shifts from character portrayal to a plot-oriented solution of mysteries involving multiple crimes. Misconceptions and dead ends abound. They are included for the sole purpose of confusing the reader. I am guessing that those who love solving mysteries eat this stuff up. I get annoyed. Too many farfetched plot contingencies draw out the story. It loses shape, form and credibility. I will cite one example--the inclusion of Count Fosco’s and Professor Pesca’s membership in the Brotherhood. This pulls the tale in a new direction that is quite simply not necessary..

I am giving the book three stars, averaging out what I liked at the beginning and disliked at the end. I am glad it is over and will not be reading more by the author. Sure, I am glad I gave it a try but one by the author is enough for me.

The audiobook narration by Ian Holm was excellent from start to finish. The narration is in fact worth five stars. He captures each character’s personality magnificently. Gosh, how he intones Frederick Fairlie simply has to make you laugh. He makes you jump with suspense. Maybe his intonation for Marian Holcombe, Laura Fairlie’s half-sister, is a teeny bit too masculine, but this can be excused since the intonation is not completely off. One senses her devotion to Laura and one perceives her as a thoughtful, meticulously accurate and diligent teller of events. I highly recommend this narrator if you choose to listen to the audiobook.

Initial review:

“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”

Good god. I am finally done.

2 stars- one for each of the two characters I liked in the whole book. Review when I am feeling good and ranty.

Jeff- prepare for extra voltage on those nipple clamps later.

Revised review:

So, the crazy band of misfits that opt out of wearing pants suggested we read the Woman in White. Having read Woman in Black (thank you, Dan Radcliffe) I thought to myself- gee whiz! This sure ought to be fun! The Woman in Black is a great ghost story. The Woman in White is a dragged out overdone boring ghost story. Like a ghost story about a ghost that likes to sit and watch paint dry while eating Triscuits.

Nope, not really because THAT story already sounds better than anything that actually happens in THIS story.

There is only one character in this entire story worth learning about and that is Marian. She is like a woman from New York. She’s loud, she’s proud, she’s mouthy, she takes absolutely 0 shit from anyone and she isn’t afraid to kick the shit out of someone for those she holds closest in her heart. Marian is the best. Her biggest downfall is that she is hideous….which is brought up continuously throughout the book. Especially in contrast to her “sister” Laura.

Laura is everyone’s favorite beauty queen. She’s delicate and fragile and known to swoon without a moment’s notice. She is everything I hate about this era. I have very little tolerance for people who allow themselves to be helpless. (Obviously I am not heartless and know there are situations that people can’t get themselves out of. I’m not THAT much of a dick. So easy on the stone-throwing.) It makes reading classics a painful endeavor because women are always fainting and fragile little flowers who can’t stand even the thought of someone raising his/her voice in their presence. Goodness, no!

There’s a whole slew of worthless characters that I suppose contribute to the storyline but basically-everyone loves Laura and her bejeweled vagina. Everyone thinks Marian needs to keep her mouth closed. There’s an evil villain set to marry the good girl while the bad girl fights alongside the sweet dope of a man who is ALSO in love with Laura. Oh, and there’s a ghost lady who isn’t really a ghost. (spoiler??)

Too many words too little story. If I hadn’t read this with my favorite MahFah, I wouldn’t have every gotten through it.

I'm not quite sure how to rate this. I can see why it's a classic and it was an engaging read for the most part. But the conversations felt overly lyrical at times and I needed to be in the right head space for it. It wasn't as suspenseful as I had remembered it but a good story over all

Over 150 years later, The Woman in White still deserves its status as one of the most beloved and influential novels written in English. The combination of Gothic aesthetics, penny dreadful scandal, domestic drama and Victorian true crime makes it a mainstream delight for all readers, then and now. There’s even classic detective work that would, no doubt, go on to inspire the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Collins’ mix of motifs were so unique, and inspired so many knock-offs, that eventually literary critics dubbed The Woman in White as the first 'Sensation Novel'. Specifically, this new genre is said to begin in Chapter 3, when a woman clad entirely in white is found wandering metropolitan streets in the pale moonlight. Her inexplicable, ghostly presence, possibly being the escapee of an insane asylum, and mysterious connection to an arranged marriage elsewhere was the cauldron that officially swirled all these ingredients together.

Stylistically, Collins’ close friendship with Charles Dickens is observed in his similar fashion of language, with a focus on middle class characters and pacing that reflects serialized publication. In other words, the book is long. Probably longer than it should be, but somehow rarely boring.

Serialized novels, like TV shows, are meant to drag out unanswered questions and keep audiences in suspense to sell more installments every week. In some ways this results in a bloated story, but it also means a number of “shocks” every few chapters to generate buzz. Tension is a constant presence, with the assurance of “something bad” about to happen lingering on every page. Cliffhangers are plentiful, yet artfully placed and used to great effect.

The novel would have been read side-by-side with articles involving high-profile legal cases and true crime happening around London, adding an impossible-to-ignore realism to the dramatic fiction. There were a few real life cases in particular which appear to have influenced Collins directly, including the 1856 trial of William Palmer.

Palmer was accused, convicted and ultimately hanged for his particularly heinous crimes of using strychnine to poison a friend, his mother-in-law, his brother, and even his four children. It seemed every day new details about his motivations were revealed. For instance, he received a huge life insurance payment after the death of his 27-year-old wife—who supposedly died of cholera—and brother, whom Palmer poisoned. He was also proven to have defrauded his mother’s wealth to pay heavy losses from gambling debts. The murder of his children was suspected merely for the sake of having less mouths to feed.

Dickens described Palmer as "the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey” and Collins seems to have been equally enthralled by the events of the twist-filled trial. For modern examples we would have to think as big as O.J. Simpson or Jodi Arias, and even those may have paled in comparison. It is estimated that a staggering 30,000 people attended the public hanging of William Palmer on June 14th, 1856. There’s evidence which suggests Wilkie Collins was one of them.

The Woman in White, with its detail-oriented prose and carefully constructed mystery, gave readers a front row seat to what could be the workings of this type of domestic poisoning which dominated the news. When Count Fosco, the novel’s central villain, confesses to his exceptional skills in chemistry, Collins did not need to provide further explanation for how chemists could use their talents for evil. William Palmer made Victorian audiences all too aware.

Once The Woman in White started to appear in print, it was clear a phenomenon was brewing. Frequent discussions around the local pubs included bets over what Sir Percival Glyde’s big “secret” might be. “Walter” became an increasingly popular baby name, while “Fosco” was a favorite choice for cats who exhibited sneaky, stalking personalities. Circulation of ‘All the World Around,’ the popular publication which serialized the novel, drastically increased its circulation. Beyond the text itself, The Woman in White inspired spin-off merchandise including its own line of perfume, bonnets and cloaks.

While society has certainly changed since Victorian times, it seems Wilkie Collins’ story still hits on all the topics which fascinate us, including what drives people to crime, marriage anxieties, and a desire to put bad guys to justice. I’m not surprised at all that it continues to find such a vast and eager audience.

This is not a whodunit in the true sense - there is no nail-biting suspense and the big reveal at the end. But it is a very atmospheric mystery, eerie and engrossing. To be savoured slowly, like vintage single-malt.

4,5