Wilkie Collins: The Woman In White

[raffaellabella]

I just finished reading The Women in White by WIlkie Collins and truly enjoyed it. The characters were well developed and the author kept my interest. I laughed, got sad, and even got mad throughout the read but that's what kept me going. The last part could have been made shorter but its a Victorian novel so its to be expected.

 

[Shade]

I agree that it was enjoyable and also that it could have been pared down a touch! I read it earlier this year. For some reason I had it in mind (perhaps because of the spooky woman-in-ethereal-white Penguin Classics cover) that it was a ghost story. But it wasn't. I also immediately understood where Sarah Waters had taken some of her inspiration for Fingersmith, whereas I'd previously thought it was all Dickens-inspired (and anyway Dickens and Collins were apparently great chums, so it's not surprising their work should have similarities).

My main difficulty with Victorian fiction is the length. A lot of what we read now from that era was paid more or less by the word, ie Collins and Dickens both had so many issues of a magazine to use up for the story, and had an interest therefore in dragging it out almost unbearably.

I have The Moonstone also. Any guidance on it?

 

[raffaellabella]

Moonstone is next on my list. I read the intro to my copy of The Women in White (unabridged) and there is some belief that this story was loosely based on Collins' relationship with his two women. Evidently he was living as husband and wife, or wives, with two women, had children with them and maintained two households. Dickens was not very happy about with Collins.

 

[fiedler]

A wonderful and most excellent story, indeed! I loved it!!

 

[Neri123]

It was the first story I read in English.

 

[fiedler]

Once again: THE WOMAN IN WHITE by WILKIE COLLINS is a brilliant book!