The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins

Penguin, 2003 - Fiction - 671 pages

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 is drawn into 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.
Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collin's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel ands its serialisation history.

What people are saying

Woman in White

User Review  - pasmolen - Overstock.com

Its not an ordinary movie. I enjoyed it very much but I am not certain that other people would. You have to like a specific type of movie to really enjoy this since it is not run of the mill like so many others out there. I would recommend it but only to people that I know the tastes of.

User Review  - Paula Hill - Christianbook.com

The Woman in White is one of the finest pieces of literature I have ever read. The reader falls in love with the characters, which are brilliantly developed and richly deep. Men and women alike would enjoy this book thoroughly; it is a mind stimulating, intriguing and delightful read.

Contents

• A CHRONOLOGY OF WILKIE COLLINSS LIFE: vii
• INTRODUCTION: xiii
• FURTHER READING: xxxv
• A NOTE ON THE TEXT: xxxviii
• PREFACE 1860: 3
• PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION 1861: 6
• THEATRICAL ADAPTATIONS OF THE WOMAN IN WHITE: 628
• WILKIE COLLINS ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE WOMAN IN WHITE: 645
• THE SERIALIZATION OF THE WOMAN IN WHITE IN ALL THE YEAR ROUND: 651
• NOTES: 654

About the author

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) began his literary career writing articles and short stories for Dickens' periodicals. He published a biography of his father and a number of plays but his reputation rests on his novels. Collins found his true fictionalmetier in mystery, suspense and crime. He is best known for his novels in the emerging genres of Sensation and Detective fiction.Matthew Sweet is a journalist and critic, and wrote his doctoral thesis on Wilkie Collins.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Woman in White; Classics Series; Penguin classics
• Author: Wilkie Collins
• Editor: Matthew Sweet
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, reissue
• Publisher: Penguin, 2003
• ISBN: 0141439610, 9780141439617
• Length: 671 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary