Author: Wilkie Collins
Genre: Victorian Gothic Horror/Mystery
Disclaimer: has some dark themes, such as murder and being locked up in various locations
This is one of those books I keep running into and want to read but kept putting it off. I've read Victorian prose, and for me it tends to be slow going, so - advanced warning - if you decide to pick up this book, here's one of the paragraphs to give you an idea of the writing style:
Ok, now that that's out of the way....I waited where I was, to ascertain whether his object was to come to close quarters and speak, on this occasion. To my surprise, he passed on rapidly, without saying a word, without even looking up in my face as he went by. This was such a complete inversion of the course of proceeding which I had every reason to expect on his part, that my curiosity, or rather my suspicion, was aroused, and I determined, on my side, to keep him cautiously in view, and to discover what the business might be on which he was now employed.
I loved this book! It's very well thought out, complex (there are many more mysteries to solve than just the woman in white), with characters who have enjoyable personalities (the hypochondriac is hilarious, and another character has tamed mice who follow his commands, for example) and locations I can vividly imagine (a cemetery, huge manor houses, the outdoors.) We often hear much about the plight of the poor in Victorian novels, but in this book, we learn about the struggles rich females and females with rich family members. Here's one of my favorite quotes:
This quote is just so poetic:“Being, however, nothing but a woman, condemned to patience, propriety, and petticoats for life, I must respect the house-keeper's opinions, and try to compose myself in some feeble and feminine way.”
My only issue was how the book concluded Marian's storyline. I wanted more for her. I thought she'd have a bigger part in figuring out the mystery. I also mentally wrote an ending where she turned out to be Count Fosco's daughter and her mother was the same as Laura Fairlie's, before she married Laura's father, making Laura and Marian half-sisters. The idea that Fosco loved Marian seemed silly to me.“Darker and darker, he said; farther and farther yet. Death takes the good, the beautiful, and the young - and spares me. The Pestilence that wastes, the Arrow that strikes, the Sea that drowns, the Grave the closes over Love and Hope, are steps of my journey, and take me nearer and nearer to the End.”
The Woman in White has never been out of print in over 100 years and is considered a "classic." I definitely recommend it!
From Goodreads:
'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 becomes embroiled in 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.
