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The Woman in White

Author	Wilkie Collins
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Epistolary, Mystery Novel, Sensation novel
Publisher	All the Year Round
Publication date	1859 - 1860
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	The Dead Secret
Followed by	No Name

The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859-1860, and first published in book form in 1860. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of 'sensation novels'.

Contents 1 Plot introduction 2 Discussion 3 The role of women 4 The Woman in White (BBC miniseries) 5 Adaptations 6 External links

The story begins when the hero, art master Walter Hartright, encounters a mysterious woman dressed all in white on a moonlit road in Hampstead. She is in a state of confusion and distress, and Hartright helps her to find her way back to London. In return, she warns him against a certain (unnamed) baronet, "a man of rank and title". Immediately after they part, Hartright learns that she may have escaped from an asylum.

He goes to Cumberland to take up a position as art tutor at Limmeridge House to two young women: Marian Halcombe and her wealthy half-sister, Laura Fairlie. He finds to his amazement that the story of the woman in white may be entangled with the lives of the two sisters. As a further complication, Walter and Laura fall rapidly in love. But she is already engaged, by her father's wish, to a man named Sir Percival Glyde.

Walter and Marian together delve deeper into the mystery of the strange woman and engage in a battle of wits with Glyde's enigmatic Italian friend Count Fosco.

The various strands of the plot combine to produce a thrilling story, leading this particular type of fiction to be described as 'sensation'.

The Woman In White is also an early example of a particular type of Collins narrative in which several characters in turn take up the telling of the story. This creates a complex web in which readers are unsure which narrators can, and cannot, be trusted. Collins used this technique in his other novels, including The Moonstone. This technique was copied by other novelists, including Bram Stoker, author of Dracula (1897), although by the end of the 19th century the technique was considered "old fashioned".

As was customary at that time, The Woman in White was first published as a magazine serial. The first episode appeared on 29 November 1859 in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round in England, and Harper's Magazine in America. It caused an immediate sensation. Julian Symons (in his 1974 introduction to the Penguin edition) reports that "queues formed outside the offices to buy the next instalment. Bonnets, perfumes, waltzes and quadrilles were called by the book's title. Gladstone cancelled a theatre engagement to go on reading it. And Prince Albert sent a copy to Baron Stockmar."

A strong theme in the novel is that of marriage and its impact on women (in particular on Laura Fairlie). The plot revolves around men stealing women's identities.

Count Fosco is a brilliant man, equally at home in art and science, a devotee of the opera and a deep student of chemistry who makes use of his pharmaceutical skills to further his treacherous plots. He is flamboyant, charismatic, Falstaffian, courtly, refined, romantic, and even tender-hearted (at least in regard to the little mice and birds he keeps), a breathtaking, larger-than-life villain whose exceeding pleasure in his own malevolent genius is only complete when he is forced to reveal his villainy, in all its glory, in a written confession at the climax of the novel.

Although Collins wrote a great deal on the social issues of his era, including the helplessness of women caught in the machinations of men, his writing often reinforces women’s places as second class citizens throughout the novel. Examples of this can be seen even in the opinions of Walter Hartwright and Marian Halcombe, two characters whose narratives may be considered trustworthy:

“no woman does think much of her own sex” (Marian)

”do all a woman can (which is very little, by-the-by) to hold my tongue” (Marian)

”Women can’t draw – their minds are too flighty, and their eyes are too inattentive” (Marian)

”Don’t shrink under it like a woman. Tear it out; trample it under foot like a man!” (Marian)

”My courage was only a woman’s courage” (Marian)

”common, too common, story of a man’s treachery and a woman’s frailty” (Hartwright)

When Hartwright first meets Marian, his first impressions show clearly the accepted role at the time of women in society and marriage: “Her expression – bright, frank and intelligent, appeared – while she was silent, to be altogether wanting in those feminine attractions of gentleness and pliability, without which the beauty of the handsomest woman alive is beauty incomplete”.

This ‘pliability’, in Walter’s opinion integral to female beauty, is also the downfall of the two main married women in the novel. Laura is married for her money and is used by her husband to clear him of any future concerns regarding his birthright. In Fosco’s case, marriage is used to tame the Countess, whose past life as a feminist is held in contempt and embarrassment by Marian. As at times Marian’s narrative is used to express Collins’ opinions, such as that of his scorn at the Victorian fashion for the “overrated” Elizabethan period, it may be deduced that radical feminism was not a movement of which Collins approved. However, the image of marriage Collins gives, portraying the dominance of men over their wives, is contradicted by Hartwright’s conviction that he must marry Laura before he can confront Fosco, his most dangerous enemy.

It is worth noting also, that one of the more independent female characters in the novel, Mrs Catherick, is portrayed as a vain, cold and hard woman, who has little motherly love for her daughter.

Statements throughout the novel such as, ”Women, as everybody knows, constantly act on impulses which they cannot explain even to themselves” (Marian) suggest an unwillingness by the author to understand the mentality of the women of his time. This, together with frequent references to the inferiority of women throughout the novel, ultimately impedes any social statement on this subject that Collins wishes to make. Perhaps due to a desire not to shock his readers by proposing any great change to the role of women in his society, Collins achieves only an expression of patronising compassion.

In 1997, BBC adapted the book into a 2-hour dramatisation. Unlike the epistolary style of the novel, the movie uses Marian Holcomb as the main character. She serves to bookend the film with her narration.

Marian Tara Fitzgerald and Laura Fairlie Justine Waddell are half-sisters (from different Fathers). Laura's father died, leaving Laura all his money, which she will inherit when she comes of age. Despite their differences, Marian is insistent to their new tutor, Mr. Hartright Andrew Lincoln, that they are very close. They agree in everything, and refuse to be taught separately. On the night Mr. Hartright arrives at the Fairlie estate, Limeridge, he bumps into a woman in white. She speaks cryptically, and inquires if he is to stay with the Fairlies. When a carriage arrives, she runs off. Mr. Gilmore, the Fairlies' attorney tells him that the woman must have been a villager. When the new tutor meets the two sisters, he is mistakes Laura for the woman in white. They are not the same person, but there is a strong resemblance.

As Mr. Hartright teaches the sisters, he especially grows fond of Laura. However, Marian makes it clear to him that her sister is already engaged to Sir Percival Glyde. Though she senses that something is not quite right, she cannot find fault in Lord Glyde, who is kind, attentive, and rich. Laura and Mr. Hartright acknowledge their feelings for each other, but they cannot be together. One night, Marian is walking around the estate when she sees a servant rush out from the woods, screaming for her help. Right behind her is Mr. Hartright, whom she accuses of trying to rape her. He is immediately disgraced and sent away, but not before he warns Laura that she is in great danger. She ignores him and marries Lord Glyde.

When her sister returns from her honeymoon, Marian visits her and plans to stay for a while. However, Laura is not herself and refuses to speak to or even see Marian for four days. After threatening to leave, Laura asks her sister to stay and soon reveals the terrible truth. Despite seeming to be kind, Lord Gylde abuses his wife in private. She ultimately reveals that she is afraid her husband will kill her to steal her inheritance. Marian can hardly believe it, but tells her sister to lock Glyde out of her room at night.

Glyde's foreign friend, Count Fosco arrives. Before dinner, Laura is pressured into signing a document, but her husband refuses to let her read it. Fosco, realizing that he must appear to be on her side, tells his friend to stop forcing her to sign it. Angered by her defiance, Glyde throws the papers into the fire and storms out. Meanwhile, the woman in white has reappeared, her name is Anne Catherick. The sisters try to help her by meeting in secret and trying to give her food and clothing. However, they are intercepted by Lord Glyde who captures the woman, and puts her away in an asylum.

Marian and Laura try to find a way to go back home to Limeridge, but their plans are foiled by armed guards who shoot at them as they sprint toward the roads. They run back to the house, but Marian goes back outside to spy on Count Fosco and Lord Glyde. She overhears them saying that Marian and Laura are to be separated before breakfast. However, she accidentally pushes something which crashes off the balcony. They look for who is there, while she jumps from the balcony to the ground and drags her body into the woods until they go back in. She is drenched after it rains, and she has broken her ankle. She rushes back to her room and finds shelter under her bed. However, she is unable to go to Laura because she has a fever. People break into her room and force her to drink something. While ill, she dreams of her sister being drugged and thrown off the tower. She wakes up and Mr. Gilmore informs her that Ann was placed in an asylum and Laura had committed suicide by jumping off the tower.

Unwilling to believe her sister would kill herself, Marian promises herself that she will avenge her sister's death. After being found rifling through Count Fosco's things, she is kicked out of their company. She finds help in a drunken Mr. Hartright who makes a living off cheap portrait sketches. Together they work toward finding Anne Catherick. Marian visits her doctor, under the guise of being ill. However, when he refuses to reveal confidential information about Anne, Marian threatens to tell his clients that he made overtures of love to her while she was scantily dressed. He tells her that Anne was born out of wedlock, and that her mother was used as a "physical resource." She had first sought his help after having a breakdown at 12 years old. He reveals the location of her asylum, and tells Marian that Anne had placed something in Mr. Fairlie's grave when he died.

At the asylum, Marian is told that Anne is docile, but is still given drugs for delusions. They go to her room where a woman dressed in white is staring at the wall. As Marian approaches her, she realizes that it is not Anne, but it is her sister Laura! They take her away from there, but Laura does not show any signs of recognition. They go to their father's grave, and Mr. Hartright digs up the coffin and finds a box filled with a lock of Anne's hair, a will, and Anne's diary. They read the documents and discover that Anne is actually Marian and Laura's half-sister, the product of their father's indiscretions with Anne's mother. In addition, they discover that Lord Glyde had raped Anne when she was only 12 years old, and that is what led to her madness. After discovering this, their father had tried to exclude Glyde from obtaining any of the Fairlie money. However, just as these pieces of evidence come to light, Glyde comes in and knocks out Hartright and sets the papers on fire. Accidentally, Marian knocks over a kerosene lamp and the house begins to catch fire. Afraid that he is going to kill her, she begins running away, locking the doors behind her, and effectively keeping Glyde by the flames. She drags Hartright's body out of the house, and runs back, realizing that Glyde is trapped. However, as he screams for help, there is nothing she can do. Hartright takes her away from the house as it explodes.

Back at home, Laura finally recognizes Mr. Hartright and her sister. Some time afterward, their uncle, Ian Richardson makes a public announcement that Mr. Hartright was mistakenly accused of raping a servant. (The servant had been paid off to frame him by Lord Glyde.) And he also tells everyone that Laura is to marry Mr. Hartright. The story ends with Marian's reflection over what had happened to Anne, and her reflection over how a cycle of male abuse toward females had led to such tragedy. Laura and Mr. Hartright are married and have children. Marian picks up her niece, named Anne, and prays that the cycle had ended with them.

Character	Actor	Description
Marian Fairlie	Tara Fitzgerald	Laura's half-sister
Lady Laura Glyde (nee Fairlie)	Justine Waddell	Marian's half-sister, Lord Glyde's wife
Walter Hartright	Andrew Lincoln	Tutor to the Fairlie sisters
Anne Catherick	Susan Vidler	The mysterious woman in white
Sir Percival Glyde	James Wilby	Laura's husband
Count Fosco	Simon Callow	Percival's conspirator
Mr. Gilmore	John Standing	The Fairlie's lawyer
Mr. Fairlie	Ian Richardson	Marian and Laura's uncle
Dr. Kidson	Corin Redgrave	Ann's doctor

Theater

• 2004 Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical The Woman in White

Film and television

• 1997 BBC miniseries adapted by David Pirie starring Andrew Lincoln as Walter Hartright and Tara Fitzgerald as Marian Halcombe; also broadcast on PBS television in 1998
  • The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
• 1982 Soviet film under the Russian title Zhenshchina v belom, directed by Vadim Derbenyov and starring Aleksandr Abdulov as Walter Hartright and Lithuanian actress Gražina Baikštite as both Laura Fairlie and Anne Catherick
  • Zhenshchina v belom at the Internet Movie Database
• 1982 BBC miniseries adapted by Ray Jenkins starring Daniel Gerroll as Walter Hartright and Diana Quick as Marian Halcombe
  • The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
• 1948 Hollywood film adapted by Stephen Morehouse Avery starring Gig Young as Walter Hartright, Alexis Smith as Marian Halcombe, and Sydney Greenstreet as Count Fosco.
  • The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
• 1929 British silent film adapted by Robert Cullen starring Haddon Mason as Walter Hartright and Louise Prussing as Marian Halcombe
  • The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
• 1917 Hollywood silent film
  • The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
• 1912 Hollywood silent film
  • The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
• 1912 Hollywood silent film
  • The Woman In White at the Internet Movie Database
• A Woman in White was featured in the Pilot episode of the CW's Supernatural

Literature

• Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child published the novel Brimstone (2004), featuring a modern re-imagining of the villain Count Fosco.

• The Woman in White, available at Project Gutenberg.