The Woman in White (1859)

I am amazed that I had somehow missed this in my many years of reading. Considered to be the beginning of the mystery genre, I found it long but delightful. Highly recommend to mystery fans. Of course, as with most classics it is a journey in language.

The tale of Walter Hartright, who encounters a woman all dressed in white on a moonlit road in Hampstead. Hartright helps the woman to find her way back to London. The woman warns him against an unnamed baronet and after they part he discovers that she may have escaped from an insane asylum. Hartright travels to Cumberland where he takes up a position as the art tutor of Laura Fairlie and her devoted half-sister, Marian Halcombe, who are somehow entangled with this mysterious “woman in white”. ( )

This was a long one, but I loved every minute of it. The characters are so real, the situation so compelling. A great read! Simon Prebble and Josephine Bailey do wonderful jobs narrating. The only thing that stumps me is what can possibly follow this? ( )

I enjoyed this immensely, although [b:The Moonstone|6138|The Moonstone|Wilkie Collins|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403192382s/6138.jpg|1044477] will remain my favorite. It just felt a bit too long at the end. ( )

Written in the 1800s, the writing style reads rather contemporary. The story is well constructed, using the technique of different narrators. This gives the benefit of different perspectives, and the reader gradually finds out what actually happened. ( )

In many ways this is an unusual read for me. A mystery: I read very few of these, although I did just recently finish up all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. A novel from the Victorian age: I should read more from that time period. A novel by Wilkie Collins: my first, but I think not my last. A Woman in White is proof of the value I get from Goodreads. It found its way to my “to read” list because of the reviews of some Goodreads friends, described as a mystery that is enjoyable even to those that don’t typically read mysteries.

A Woman in White was one of those easy reading pleasures. While it was slow in starting and slow in places, the characters became as rich in detail as any friends in real life and the plot revealed itself slowly and enticingly. This novel continually invited me back like a fall day that encourages you to spend the entire day outside.

I listened to this on Audible. There are actually several different recordings of A Woman in White available through Audible. I listened to one in which different actors played the various characters. This was very effective as Wilkie Collins uses different narrators throughout the novel, an approach that I think he uses in some of his other novels.

I imagine Wilkie Collins would be quite content to know that his novels bring so much pleasure these many years after writing them. I think I would be. ( )