An Important But Forgotten Classic

The Woman in White (1859) by Wilkie Collins – A drawing teacher meets a mysterious woman dressed in white on his way to a new job. When he arrives, he finds a beautiful young woman who could be the first woman’s twin. His love for his student is doomed because of their different social positions, and she faces a marriage to a man she doesn’t love. A man whose motives are less than gentlemanly. A mystery grows around all the people of that house, centering on the suave, but dangerous Count Fosco. It’s a mystery that he must solve.

William Wilkie Collins is a name that most modern readers will not recognize. In the mid-1800s, he had an international following for his books like “The Woman in White” and “The Moonstone”. Collins was a bit of a disappointment to his father, the well-known painter William Collins. His father’s first hope was that Wilkie (as he was best known, the name coming from a grandfather) would be a clergyman. When it became apparent that his son wasn’t interested, he pushed the young man into a job as a clerk, and finally to study law. None of them interested the younger Collins, although he did eventually complete his legal education and be called to the bar. His stories quickly became his life and work. It helped that he’d become friends with Charles Dickens, the greatest writer of the Victorian era. Dickens published several Collins novels as serials, a format that Dickens had made immensely popular.

In “The Woman in White”, Collins give us the first seeds of the modern mystery. While the main character, Walter Hartright, isn’t a police officer, he uses the techniques that are now familiar to readers of police procedurals. The novel offers a lot along the way. For me, the best aspect is the character of Marian Halcombe, older half sister of Hartright’s beloved, Laura Fairley. It’s unfortunate that Collins introduces her by describing this amazing woman as “ugly”. Marian is intelligent, determined, and resolute in her decisions. She has a huge heart and will make whatever sacrifices are needed to support both Laura and Walter. She overshadows all the other characters except Walter and the villain Count Fosco. Truly amazing.

The book is filled with fascinating characters. Fosco is the classic wolf in sheep’s clothing. Charming and dramatic, he is also devious and manipulative. The grossly fat Italian is a creepy presence in all scenes. In the middle is Laura Fairlie, a beautiful but naïve young woman with a considerable inheritance. Living in a world where the law leaves all her assets to her husband at the time of her death, her life is in perpetual danger. Her uncle and guardian, Frederick, is a mass of imagined illnesses and faux politenesses. Collins does a wonderful job of bring all the characters, large and small, to life.

I’ll admit that the book was a bit slow for me at the beginning, but the mystery keeps coiling ever tighter as the chapters go by. Telling the story from multiple points of view reveals facets to the puzzle that can’t be seen from one vantage alone. By the time I finished, I was fully involved.

Rating – **** Recommended