The Woman in White (1860)

I ~loved~ this. It's made its way straight into my top ten. It certainly hit all the right buttons for me, in that it has all of the elegance and literary merit of classic British literature, yet manages to be an enthralling page-turner at the same time.

I really couldn't recommend this book more highly, both for fans of the classics and those who generally stay away from them ;) ( )

I read way too much Victorian stuff when I was little. Girls were always fainting and I would sit in church on Sundays, eyeing the altar boys and deciding which one’s arms I was going to faint into. It seemed such a romantic thing to do. On the other hand, the likelihood of ever fainting seemed poor. I didn’t have a clue how or why one would, let alone time it for when a loved one was standing, arms to the ready.

Subsequently, as an adult, I have done so a couple of times and it is nothing like the books make it out to be. Sigh.

The first time was 1994. I’d got up late morning – 1pm, to be exact and when you are a card playing type that IS still morning – smoked a joint and went to the shower – an over the bath affair. I stood there brushing my teeth and it occurred to me that I was going to pass out. ‘Interesting’, I thought, and went on brushing. I know the obvious thing with this warning would have been to sit down in the bath, or get out, but I’m not very good at the obvious. And I did indeed pass out quite directly. Unfortunately I hit my face on the taps on the way down, with a couple of cuts so deep they almost went right through my cheek. Where was the gallant guy who saves you as you faint? On duty somewhere else, I guess. I shakily got myself up and dressed and went down to my local doctor who sewed me up. Romantic it was not.

The second time was last night. No loved one then either, no chivalrous man to save me from myself. What’s the point of fainting if there is no one to save you? I’m doing something wrong here. My timing is shite. But it’s like I suspected when I was little. It was all very well fantasising about fainting into the arms of the cutest altarboy…but it’s all in the timing and how on earth was I going to get that right?

Bugger it. I’m giving up fainting. Consider it a belated New Year’s Eve resolution.
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Sometimes it is so damn hard to put your mindspace in the right place to enjoy a piece so far out of your frame, and this is definitely one of those books.

I knew a bit of what I might expect, after all, I did enjoy reading [b:Drood|3222979|Drood|Dan Simmons|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1441211620s/3222979.jpg|3257056] and so I got a real hankering to read an actual extremely popular novel by such a wild character in a modern book about Wilkie and Charles. But that's neither here nor there. I probably wouldn't have ever picked this one up without it, though.

On to the novel at hand. It's a mystery! And if I can believe wikipedia, it's one of the very first ever written, and considered to be one of the top 100 novels ever written! Whoopie! I mean, that's all great and all. But did I enjoy it? Actually... I did. To a degree.

Of course, the mental gymnastics were pretty strenuous. After all, I have to suspend belief that Laura was NOT TSTL. Tstl? Yes. Tstl. Every step of the way, she made the most horrible decisions, either by not listening to her heart or not having a brain in her head. If this were a mystery novel of even 20 years after its written date of 1854, we'd have killed this one off like a redshirt for sure. Therefore, I am UTTERLY AMAZED by the ending. I've never seen such brilliant contrivance to make such an unlikable airhead pull through to the very end, have her love, her fortune, and her unwitting revenge upon all who had assailed her.

I mean, WOW. Wilkie Collins is a MASTER.

That being said, I thought the Count was pretty much awesome. Everyone except for Laura and Walter managed to transform themselves from cardboard cutouts into genuine people full of both good and bad.

Sometimes the descriptions were cumbersome and made me wish for a bit of a Hemingway Edit, but that's a complaint I can make about any of the literature of that day. There was one notable exception. I loved our enlightenment of Count Fosco's animals. It's details like this that turn a sensational-ish novel into something a bit more memorable.

I swear, though: Laura was consistently tstl. Thank GOD for her half-sister. Miss Halcombe was pretty damn awesome from start to finish, and I agree 100% with the Count's esteem of her.

The one thing I cannot be more pleased about, after finishing this, is the fact that there wasn't some long-drawn-out court scene so reminiscent of modern police drama or mysteries. We had the hint of it in the beginning, and it could have gone that way, but I can't be happier with the outcome as it actually occurred.

There was a hell of a lot of expanded plot in this novel, and it was all so logical and well thought out. I'm just so damn AMAZED that the whole society in which they lived was actually able to FUNCTION, ya know? How could people trust each other as much as they did? How could people be so INNOCENT? I mean, really? Really? Was it a function of the black and white nature of the novels of the time to pop all of these features out at us in stark and glowing detail? Or was it just Wilkie? Or was it in actual fact, a real piece of the society in which they all lived?

I'm primarily a sf/f/horror fan, but I truly HAVE read a ton of traditional classics. And yet, I'm still forced to set myself into a Victorian England as if it is some truly alien society so foreign and strange to us. It's funny. I should know better. Life is WEIRD.
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I love this novel. Collin's book, "The Woman in White" is known for it's vivid, complex descriptions on everything, and for it's ability to be a teaching tool for another century of writers in mystery.

But While the story is very gothic in nature, it may turn off some readers. Some people just don't understand how a mid-9th century author will write; the descriptions, the conversations, the ideas, and the reiterations are all pondered at great length.

Reading a novel like this, in today's society, where instant gratification is the King - well that will probably being tedious and boring for most. So in order to truly appreciate Collins' writing, one must put themselves in the shoes of the 19th century reader's standards. Most people in this era knew little of life outside their tiny lives, or small, insular towns. Only the rich get to travel, and experience other cultures, and lots of other people. There was a need for long explanations and descriptions, as it was the only way for a reader to experience things beyond the norm. Even the most poor of the populace could find a copy of the periodical this novel, and many others, appeared in, and would be riveted on every single word.

So readers who enjoy the beauty of the written word, for just itself, and for long, flowing cadances in a paragraph, will revel in this amazing story. Those who are more story-driven will need to exercise their patience at least a few times throughout the book. The story itself is immaculate; just dark enough to enthrall a reader without being terrifying for those who are not used to it, and not graphic enough for young people to also read/hear about. It is couched in a style that is long forgotten, for most.

Meanwhile, for those of us Bibliophiles who don't mind a "period piece", love going back in time once in a while, to the 19th century. It is good for you. ( )

I come to this book having already having read Wilkie Collins's novel The Moonstone. Because of this, I found his use of multiple narrators repetitive and not as well done, which is admittedly unfair as The Moonstone is a later novel and reflects his greater experience with the technique (not to mention what I thought was a more natural explanation for the employment of the multiple retrospective accounts). Still, I found The Woman in White inferior in other respects as well; the central mystery was less engaging and the lack of a protagonist on the level of Sgt. Cuff telling (the character best suited to play this role, Marian, is effectively put in a position where she has to rely on the far less interesting Hartright to resolve their problems). Though it would have been to the earlier novel's credit to have read it first, but then I don't know if I would have been as motivated to read The Moonstone afterward.

Reading all of this might leave you with the impression that I didn't like the novel, which is far from the truth; I found it to be enjoyably written, with sympathetic characters and a plot that kept me engaged to the final page. I'm glad to have read it, and will probably return to it in the future. That being said, though, I would recommend readers interested in exploring Collins's works to begin with The Moonstone which is a leaner and more interesting work than this one. ( )