The Woman in White

by Wilkie Collins

Overview

Marian and her sister Laura live a quiet life under their uncle's guardianship until Laura's marriage to Sir Percival Glyde. Sir Percival is a man of many secrets - is one of them connected to the strange appearances of a young woman dressed all in white? And what does his charismatic friend, Count Fosco, with his pet white mice running in and out of his brightly coloured waistcoat, have to do with it all? Marian and the girls' drawing master, Walter, have to turn detective in order to work out what is going on, and to protect Laura from a fatal plot...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781407090795
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	06/10/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	624
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Wilkie Collins was born in London on 8 January 1824. His father was the landscape painter William Collins. After school he worked for a tea merchant before studying to become a lawyer. In 1848 he published a biography of his father and his first novel, Antonina, followed in 1850. In 1851 he met Charles Dickens who would later edit and publish some of his novels. Collins's novels were extremely popular in his own time as well as now. The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868) are his best known works. Collins was linked with two women (one of whom bore him three children) but he never married. He died on 23 September 1889.

Date of Birth:

December 8, 1824

Date of Death:

September 23, 1889

Place of Birth:

London, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Studied law at Lincoln¿s Inn, London

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The Woman in White

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
William Wilkie Collins: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Woman in White
Appendix A: Prefaces to the Novel
1. Preface, 1860, Sampson Low, Son & Co., Three-volume Edition
2. Preface to the Present Edition, 1861, Sampson Low, Son & Co., One-voume Edition
3. Preface. La Femme en Blanc, 1861, trans. E.D. Forgues, J. Hetzel (Paris)
Appendix B: Sample Page from All the Year Round
Appendix C: Commentary and Reviews of The Woman in White
1. The Opinions of Charles Dickens
2. Unsigned Review, Saturday Review (25 August 1860)
3. Unsigned Review [E.S. Dallas], The Times (30 October 1860)
4. "Awful Apparition," Punch (6 April 1861)
5. Unsigned Review [Mrs. Oliphant], Blackwood's Magazine (May 1862)
6. Edmund Yates, "Mr. Wilkie Collins in Gloucester Place," in Celebrities at Home (1879)
7. Wilkie Collins, "How I Write My Books: Related in a Letter to a Friend," The Globe (26 November 1887)
8. F.W. Waddy, "He Wrote 'The Woman in White,'" Once a Week (24 February 1872)
Appendix D: The Woman Question
1. From William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69)
2. From Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Women of England, Their Social Duties, and Domestic Habits (1839)
3. From John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, 1865 (1907)
4. From Caroline Norton, A Letter to the Queen (1855)
Appendix E: The Lunacy Panic of 1858 and the Mesmeric Mania of 1851
1. “Lady Bulwer Lytton,” The Times (19 July 1858)
2. “Commission of Lunacy,” The Times (27 July 1858)
3. [Editorial], The Times (28 July 1858)
4. “The Tragedy of Acomb House,” The Sunday Times (1 August 1858)
5. “The Mad-House System,” The Sunday Times (15 August 1858)
6. “Lunatic Asylums and the Lunacy Laws (By a Physician),” The Times (19 August 1858)
7. “Commission in Lunacy,” The Sunday Times (29 August 1858)
8. “Law and Lunacy,” Punch (15 January 1862)
9. “Mesmerism; Its Dangers and Curiosities,” Punch (24 February 1844)
10. Anonymous, “Electro-biology,” Westminster Review (1851)
11. Wilkie Collins, “Magnetic Evenings at Home” (Letter 1), The Leader (17 January 1852)
Select Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Collins's mid-Victorian novel is one of the first, and possibly still the greatest, of all literary thrillers." —-The Irish Times

EBOOK COMMENTARY

"Collins's mid-Victorian novel is one of the first, and possibly still the greatest, of all literary thrillers." —-The Irish Times

Reading Group Guide

1. Wilkie Collins has been hailed as the creator of the “sensation novel”. Citing examples from The Woman in White, how would you define this Victorian literary genre?

2. In his preface to the 1860 edition of The Woman in White, Collins wrote, “An experiment is attempted in this novel, which has not (so far as I know) been hitherto tried in fiction. The story…is told throughout by the characters of the book.” Was the experiment a success? What is gained and what is lost in telling the story exclusively through first person narratives?

3. In her Introduction to this Modern Library edition, Anne Perry asks, “What is there in The Woman in White that transcends the change in culture from 1860 to the present, and beyond?” How would you answer this question?

4. Collins has been widely praised for his fully drawn portraits. Which characters stand out as the most vivid, and why?

5. Throughout the novel, how does Collins use premonitions, coincidences and dreams to foreshadow key events?

6. “Walter Hartright is very much a man of his time, ” declares Anne Perry. “His view of women is almost unbelievably naïve compared with today’s.” Drawing on Hartright’s descriptions of Marian Halcombe and her sister Laura, as well as Anne Catherick and her mother, do you agree with Perry’s comment? Do you think that Wilkie Collins shared his protagonist’s view of women?

7. Why does Mrs. Catherick allow her own daughter to be placed in an insane asylum, and how does she justify her actions?

8. In his concluding narrative, Count Fosco describes “thefirst and last weakness” of his life. What is the nature of Fosco’s self-described “deplorable and uncharacteristic fault”?

9. Throughout the novel, how does Collins explore the themes of respectability and social class?

Editorial Reviews

"The most popular novel of the 19th century, and still one of the best plots in English literature. Notable for its marvellous villains and, like all Collins's work, for its complex, spirited and believable female characters"

EBOOK COMMENTARY

Playwright and audio dramatist Beverley Cooper has done a masterful job in adapting Collins's classic Victorian suspense novel to the audio medium. Within the framing story of a courtroom setting, each character stands up to describe the events that he or she has witnessed; the words of testimony then fade into a flashback scene, so the listener can experience the story as it unfolds. The actors are simply marvelous, particularly Douglas Campbell as the oily, sinister Count Fosco and Cedric Smith as Lord Percival Glyde, the manipulative gold digger with secrets to hide. Suzanne Hoffman sounds appropriately sweet and lovely as Laura, the damsel in distress, and Gina Wilkinson gives a nice contrasting performance as her practical, intelligent and down-to-earth sister, Marian. The story is well paced and suspenseful, while background music adds a subtly ominous atmosphere without distracting from the tale. Likewise, the production uses just the right amount of sound effects. With its colorful characters and air of mystery, this superb dramatization truly does the tale justice. (Dec.)

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Publishers Weekly

This is an excellent edition of The Woman in White. It has been prepared with great thoroughness by two editors well versed in Collins studies and give the earliest published version of Collins’s text. It provides a lengthy introduction covering most of the important issues raised by the novel. The annotations have been carefully researched and the various appendices succeed in furnishing the reader with exactly the right sort of contextual and background matter to give a better understanding of the story.” — Andrew Gasson, Chairman, Wilkie Collins Society

“To convey the sensationalism of The Woman in White, Bachman and Cox wisely choose the original, serialized version as their copy text. A thoughtful introduction places the novel in context, explaining its importance to sensation fiction, outlining its concern with the problem of identity and with constructions of madness, and discussing its narrative structure as well as its later stage adaptation. The appendices are especially useful, with their material on Victorian gender ideologies and Victorian psychology, including letters, articles, and reports illuminating the ‘panic’ over false incarceration for insanity.” — Lillian Nayder, Bates College

From the Publisher

[A] genuine classic…and, a rare thing among mystery stories, wonderful to reread.”

Independent on Sunday (London) Robin Blake

Collins was a master craftsman, whom many modern mystery-mongers might imitate to their profit.”

bestselling mystery author Dorothy L. Sayers

"To convey the sensationalism of The Woman in White, Bachman and Cox wisely choose the original, serialized version as their copy text. A thoughtful introduction places the novel in context, explaining its importance to sensation fiction, outlining its concern with the problem of identity and with constructions of madness, and discussing its narrative structure as well as its later stage adaptation. The appendices are especially useful, with their material on Victorian gender ideologies and Victorian psychology, including letters, articles, and reports illuminating the 'panic' over false incarceration for insanity."

Lillian Nayder Bates College

"This is an excellent edition of The Woman in White. It has been prepared with great thoroughness by two editors well versed in Collins studies and give the earliest published version of Collins's text. It provides a lengthy introduction covering most of the important issues raised by the novel. The annotations have been carefully researched and the various appendices succeed in furnishing the reader with exactly the right sort of contextual and background matter to give a better understanding of the story."

Andrew Gasson Chairman

Wilkie Collins's gothic tale of redemptive love and treachery could not be better suited for a full-cast audio, with different characters picking up the story chronologically. Walter Hartright is employed to give drawing lessons to sisters Laura and Marian. He falls in love with Laura, but she’s engaged to another. When Laura's new husband steals her fortune and identity, Walter and Marian mobilize to protect her. Glen McCready (Walter) and Rachel Bavidge (Marian) are standouts as the moral center of the story. Walter's steadfastness and loyalty are fully realized; Marian's sense of outrage at her sister's mistreatment and frustration with her inability to change it are clear. Their characterizations of Laura's arrogant husband, the smooth but untrustworthy Italian Count Fosco, and the nervous Mr. Fairlie are both amusing and exactly right. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2008 - AudioFile