A review of 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins
Note: The following review was originally published at Amazon.co.uk on 8th. June 2014.
Link to original review: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R2FY4465J6JG12?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
Although not among the better-known of the classic authors, Wilkie Collins contributed to the grand narrative of the English novel and was, without question, one of its finest craftsmen. In my opinion, his mid-career novel, Armadale, is the finest ever written. One of Wilkie's trademarks was melodrama: in his time, he was king of the so-called 'sensation novel', and The Woman in White exemplifies the genre.
This is essentially an amateur detective novel in which the protagonists set out to solve a deep mystery. The plot is intricate, with a heavy emphasis on the preoccupations of mid-Victorian England: confused identities, status and inheritance, loyalty and money. A feature of Collins' fiction is its length: this and his other major novels were originally published in serial form and so it's a long book (or over-long, if you don't enjoy it), albeit with lots of exciting and interesting plot twists and turns, but probably not suitable for readers who are looking for a quick and easy read. This edition has 643 pages of densely-worded text, plus various extra sections from the publisher and the author.
The story is related in the first person by the main characters, through prose, letters and diary entries - the type of format that was popular in fiction at the time. It is the characters who are the most memorable aspect of this book, and that in itself is a refreshing feature of Victorian writing. Critics have discounted Collins as a 'great novelist' because to his tendency toward melodrama and his reliance on this for plot. There is some validity in that critique, but what stands out in my experience of his writing is the vividness of the characters he sketches for us. Like Dickens' creations, they are unforgettable: Count Fosco, the Italian villain, both sinister and hilarious; Frederick Fairlie, the fun hypochondriac uncle; Pesca, the other Italian, who is not all he seems; Sir Percival Glyde, the slimy villain.
One dark night, our main character, and hero, Walter Hartright, has a strange encounter with a woman dressed in white, on a road just outside London. Later, on taking up employment as a drawing master at a minor estate in Cumberland, Hartright meets and falls in love with Laura Fairlie, the daughter of his employer. He realises that Laura bears a striking resemblance to the aforementioned 'woman in white'. This, one of those accidental occurrences of Fate, together with Hartright's inquisitiveness and centrality to events, become crucial in unravelling the convoluted, but clever, mystery that unfolds. If you have the patience to read a novel like this, then you will be amply rewarded.
In this, and other Collins novels, women are an active presence and protest if they are relegated into the background. Here the character of 'Marian Halcombe' is the feisty female and heroine who uncovers the dastardly plot to ruin Laura and confine her to an asylum. This active role for women is partly what makes Collins' writing so interesting. It presents a refreshing contrast with both of Collins' close literary contemporaries, Dickens and Doyle, who tended to place women firmly in the shadows in their novels. But Collins was also simply a great, innovative novelist who could mesmerise a more literate popular readership than today with his superior wordcraft while also holding the attention of the average reader through the more traditional devices of romance, sensation and drama.
This Oxford World's Classics edition has an interesting introduction by John Sutherland. There are also appendices covering the background to Collins' composition of and inspiration for the novel, including a lengthy essay by Collins himself. The Penguin Classics edition also has an excellent introduction. One thing I would recommend is to read these 'extras' after reading the novel itself, as they do contain spoilers.
This is essentially an amateur detective novel in which the protagonists set out to solve a deep mystery. The plot is intricate, with a heavy emphasis on the preoccupations of mid-Victorian England: confused identities, status and inheritance, loyalty and money. A feature of Collins' fiction is its length: this and his other major novels were originally published in serial form and so it's a long book (or over-long, if you don't enjoy it), albeit with lots of exciting and interesting plot twists and turns, but probably not suitable for readers who are looking for a quick and easy read. This edition has 643 pages of densely-worded text, plus various extra sections from the publisher and the author.
The story is related in the first person by the main characters, through prose, letters and diary entries - the type of format that was popular in fiction at the time. It is the characters who are the most memorable aspect of this book, and that in itself is a refreshing feature of Victorian writing. Critics have discounted Collins as a 'great novelist' because to his tendency toward melodrama and his reliance on this for plot. There is some validity in that critique, but what stands out in my experience of his writing is the vividness of the characters he sketches for us. Like Dickens' creations, they are unforgettable: Count Fosco, the Italian villain, both sinister and hilarious; Frederick Fairlie, the fun hypochondriac uncle; Pesca, the other Italian, who is not all he seems; Sir Percival Glyde, the slimy villain.
One dark night, our main character, and hero, Walter Hartright, has a strange encounter with a woman dressed in white, on a road just outside London. Later, on taking up employment as a drawing master at a minor estate in Cumberland, Hartright meets and falls in love with Laura Fairlie, the daughter of his employer. He realises that Laura bears a striking resemblance to the aforementioned 'woman in white'. This, one of those accidental occurrences of Fate, together with Hartright's inquisitiveness and centrality to events, become crucial in unravelling the convoluted, but clever, mystery that unfolds. If you have the patience to read a novel like this, then you will be amply rewarded.
In this, and other Collins novels, women are an active presence and protest if they are relegated into the background. Here the character of 'Marian Halcombe' is the feisty female and heroine who uncovers the dastardly plot to ruin Laura and confine her to an asylum. This active role for women is partly what makes Collins' writing so interesting. It presents a refreshing contrast with both of Collins' close literary contemporaries, Dickens and Doyle, who tended to place women firmly in the shadows in their novels. But Collins was also simply a great, innovative novelist who could mesmerise a more literate popular readership than today with his superior wordcraft while also holding the attention of the average reader through the more traditional devices of romance, sensation and drama.
This Oxford World's Classics edition has an interesting introduction by John Sutherland. There are also appendices covering the background to Collins' composition of and inspiration for the novel, including a lengthy essay by Collins himself. The Penguin Classics edition also has an excellent introduction. One thing I would recommend is to read these 'extras' after reading the novel itself, as they do contain spoilers.
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