Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White

[venusunfolding]

Has anyone else read this?

I read somewhere (don't remember where) that it was considered to be the first mystery novel.

I'm about 100 pages from finishing, and I am loving every word of it!

 

[funes]

I haven't read it, but I bought The Woman in White and The Moonstone because of that same description. I look forward to hearing more about it.

 

[steffee]

I haven't read it but I almost bought it today funnily enough, and meant to come by here to find out more about it...

So, Venus, what's good about it then?

 

[Tamsine]

Has anyone else read this?

I read somewhere (don't remember where) that it was considered to be the first mystery novel.

I'm about 100 pages from finishing, and I am loving every word of it!

I absolutely loved that one. It just got better and better and captivated me till the last page. It remains one of my all time favourites. I then read " the moonstone" which is considered his best novel and was a little disappointed by the ending. I liked "Armadale" better. I've read most of his novels now and none is quite as good as "the woman in white", although I also enjoyed his short-stories liked " who killed Zebetee"

 

[venusunfolding]

Collins was good friends with Charles Dickens. I think their styles are similar.

The story is written in sort of an epistolatory form. Each character has a narrative, so you get to hear about some of the events in the book from different point of views. Each narrative reveals a secret of a clue that you wouldn't have learned from the other characters.

It seems a little confusing, but it's not. I thought it was a great device to unfold the story. Each character is unique and really enjoyable.

Quick plot summary, but real quick to avoid spoilers... When Walter is on his way to his new appointment as drawing master he meets a mysterious woman in white. He helps her, not realizing that one act is going to change his life, and the lives of all the characters. As Walter funds out more about the Woman in White, he starts to learn about all of the secrets and betrayals around him, and decides he has do something to help the woman he loves, who has been seriously wronged.

The book really kept me guessing and entertained right up to the last page. It's one of those books that actually took me a while to read because I took it slowly to enjoy every word.

 

[funes]

Thanks, Venus, for the capsule review. I certainly don't need to add to my TBR pile, but I've been thinking about reading something "different". Maybe it'll be Wilkie Collins.

 

[jaynebosco]

I read this book in grade twelve and ended up purchasing it. Now I haven't read the book in eight years, but I remember how the book drew me in and I couldn't seem to put it down.

 

[Tamsine]

Collins was good friends with Charles Dickens. I think their styles are similar.

They wrote " the haunted hotel" together. I confess I was a bit disappointed by that one. It is a story full of mystery like " the woman in white" or " the moonstone" but the ending sort of fizzles out.

 

[venusunfolding]

I just finished The Frozen Deep, another Collins/Dickens collaboration. This one helped inspire A Tale of Two Cities. I think I'm going to have to read some Dickens when I work through more Wilkie.

 

[Enigma]

I don't think Charles and Wilkie wrote in a similar manner. If they did, how can I loathe one, and love the other? At the time, Wilkie was in a genre of his own, even if they were serialized in Dickens' magazine.

The Woman In White wasn't the first mystery novel, I think it was The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. But TWIW definitely got people's attention and pioneered a new way of writing.

I first read this book two or three years back which started my obsession with the author. I came across it because I read an article that Andrew Lloyd Webber was to base his new musical on it. As an avid ALW fan (I've also read Gaston Leroux beacuse of ALW) I wanted to check out the source material. It's still my favourite book. I read The Moonstone afterwards too which only cemented my love for his writing. I have only just bought the book though and I read it through again 2 weeks ago.

What I love about Collins, and especially The Woman In White, is his representation of women. There are three very different female characters in TWIW and he deviated from other writers by giving them dimension. Marian is by far my favourite heroine of all time. If anyone ifs familier with the musical version, I think you might agree that ALW destroyed her character by having her act selfishly and also love Walter. It was such a shame.

SPOILER
My one gripe about TWIW is the dated 'twist'. It's really not that shocking by todays standards for someone to steal another's identity, so I can understand the musical changing the secret to the fact that Glyde bore an illegitimate child and drowned it. That's on a pure entertainment point though, as the secret represented Victorian anxieties, which is the main reason for me to read Victorian Literature in the first place: to get an idea of their culture and society.

 

[nickupton]

The woman in white is probably one of the best written stories I've ever read. I loved the way it was written from different people's perspectives and I was really drawn into the story. I was told that the musical was poor by my mother who is an avid theatre goer.

I also really enjoyed the Moonstone - a good adventure.