The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins

A drawing master, Walter Hartwright, takes a job out of London teaching two young moneyed ladies to sketch. As he is preparing to leave London, he has an encounter with a strange young woman dressed in white. After he assists her quick departure, he discovers she has escaped from an Asylum. He could tell there was more to the story, but that was the end of his complicity in the matter.

When he arrives at the mansion in Cumberland he meets the residents. He quickly falls in love with one of his students, Laura Fairlie. She is the heiress in the family and is pledge to marry a baronet. She falls in love with him, as well, but bids him leave Limmeridge House. She has made a promise to her deceased father and her intended husband, and will not go back on it. But after Hartwright has left and Sir Glyde arrives, she speaks with her fiance, trying to be released. He instead magnamously forgives her and they go ahead with the marriage. Hartwright sails to the Americas.

From there things get worse. The woman that Hartwright met in London may have the key to the mystery. But whenever he, Laura, or her half sister try to contact the elusive Anne Catherick, she disappears again. What is Sir Glyde's secret? Why has he turned on his wife? Her half sister Marion falls ill - is it related? And who is Count Fosco, Glyde's friend? What is his involvement?

This novel was first published in 1860, but is still a captivating mystery. It had been recommended to me a couple years ago, and I found it at a used bookstore at the time. I picked it up on a whim, then let it sit on my shelf. I'll admit the main reason I picked it up and started it was so I could get it off my "to be read" shelf. It is too bad I can't remember who recommended this book to me. I would like to thank that person. This is an excellent book. Since I had never heard the story, I could not anticipate what would happen next other than the normal reader's intuition.

The narrative style is interesting, switching from voice to voice, all first person. This is not the sort of mystery that leaves clues for the reader. Instead, I had to find out what was happening even as the story tellers did. I had my guesses, but not enough facts to guess at what was the true story behind Glyde and Fosco. It also addresses not only the evil in the men, but some unexpected good as well. Since most people are a mixture of the two, it makes the novel ring true and more poignant. This is a classic worth reading.

9/24/2006 I was able to see the musical stage production of this novel in London last December. It was well done and didn't do too badly staying with the story line considering how complex the book is (and not interrupted with singing like the stage show). If you would like to meet Count Fosco again, read Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Brimstone. They freely admit they picked up the character "lock, stock, and barrell" from this novel in homage to Collin's work with developing the mystery genre.