'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 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.
Perhaps the prettiest of the Book Club books so far, don't you think? Admittedly this novel was first published in book form (previously serialised) in 1860 so it's had quite a number of covers... including this simply gorgeous cover for the first US edition I think you'll agree...
Anyway, this book doesn't just win the aesthetic prize, it is also the oldest novel we've read together and, originally being an epistolary novel, it is also the longest. Jaysus. It is long. 700 pages plus. And it's an old book so it's not like reading Potter before any of you start comparing it... But I finished it people and do you know what that means? It was really quite good.
It's successfully eerie to start with. It's often credited as one of the first sensation novels, a genre of literary fiction that drew on the Gothic and Romantic genres and tended to focus on a shocking incident of some kind - murder, kidnapping, adultery etc - and often domestic in setting. This fits all that criteria and there are plenty appearances of the Gothic 'Other' too: nothing like a mad woman dressed all in white, and then you've got fat foreign Fosco who just can't make your mind up about.
It's really quite an achievement that, first of all, Wilkie Collins was taken seriously being called Wilkie..., and secondly that he has written a great novel which kept me entertained for 700 pages with only a small cast of characters.
One of the first characters we meet is Marion Halcombe, Laura Fairlie's half sister, and she's wonderfully feisty. I would go so far as to say Wilkie Collins is burgeoning on early feminist writing here if Marian wasn't immediately described as having an amazing physique but a really ugly face... Once he's got out the way, he can pave the way for her to be an opinionated, intelligent woman who fights back at authority. Beautiful Laura meanwhile just squeaks in the background and is a little dull. Saying that, there are other important reasons with regards plot why these characters are the way they are. It was more of an historical observation of the times rather than something I was offended by.
Anyway, if you are looking for a classic to read and you don't fancy Austen or the Brontes, I would definitely recommend this mystery novel. It's main downfall is that it is just too long for modern readers. I did drift off a little on a couple of occasions, but to be fair never for that long. All in all it gets an 8/10 from me, 7/10 from the Book Club.
Hi, I've just finished reading The Woman in White too. I agree with your review, I thought it was a fantastic read. It is a long book and it did take me a while to get into it. I think the first chapter (epoch) is quite slow-going in terms of story progression. After that the story flows much more easily with some action and interesting revelations. I think perhaps it is so long because it was originally published in weekly instalments. As a result of the weekly format it also has a large number of cliff-hangers spread through the book. It was exciting but also frustrating to always be wanting to find out the answer to a question but then always being confronted by another question instead!
ReplyDeleteMarian was my favourite character. Such a forceful courageous woman. I’d agree that her character is pushing is favour of gender equality as she is described as possessing, and even excelling some of the male characters, in her ‘masculine characteristics’. Marian’s diary was enthralling and I was on the edge of my seat when she embarked on her windowsill adventure.
Which was your favourite bit? :)