The Woman in White - a nine month reading

I finally finished the marvelous Wilkie Collins' mystery, The Woman in White. I participated somewhat faithfully in the 150th Anniversary Project, which meant that I read the novel in the weekly installments, formatted and with the original illustrations, following the same serialization schedule as when it was first published in All the Year Round.

Occasionally I got a bit behind and had to read several installments at once, and in August I got very busy with personal matters and couldn't finish up the book on schedule, so I did so just a few weeks ago.

While I enjoyed experiencing the story in a similar manner to that experienced by its first readers, I found that I lost track of some of the details over time and had to refresh my memory regarding events and characters, I did like the slow pace that allowed savoring and stewing versus gulping and gorging.

I felt a deep affection for both Walter Hartwright and Marian Halcombe, and I think Count Fosco is such an interesting character, a real amalgamation of opposing traits, that made him truly creepy but fascinating. Laura Fairlie, on the other hand, is almost a non-entity--bland, passive, feeble, pale. She and her double, Anne Catherick, are both ghostly--spooky in their tenuous grasp on life, and it is fitting that both teeter on the edge of sanity at various points in the book.

I don't consider The Woman in White the best Victorian novel. The two Collins novels I've read, The Woman in White and The Moonstone, both are told via fictional diary entries, testimonials, and letters that do give the story a realism and immediacy, but I miss the narrator's voice that can comment omnisciently on life, society, etc. For example, thing what a tragedy it would have been had George Eliot chosen to write Middlemarch in this fashion.

It's not the best Victorian novel, but it is a classic and I enjoyed reading it over the past nine months. I'm particularly glad to have finished up just in time for Halloween!



Now, I'm waiting for NetFlix to deliver the movie tomorrow. It stars Justine Waddell (Molly in Wives and Daughters) as Laura and Tara Fitzgerald as Marian. I couldn't find the 1982 BBC mini-series, but remember trying to watch it years ago (not having read the book) and falling asleep, which put me off reading the book until I found out about the irresistible anniversary email serialization project.

Woman in White update

I started reading Wilkie Collins' wonderful novel The Woman in White in weekly installments last November. The WomaninWhite.co.uk is issuing weekly installments of the novel, formatted, on the same schedule, and with the same marvelous John McLenan illustrations as its original publication in Charles Dickens's periodical All The Year Round.

I started out sticking to the weekly schedule, but then started saving up a month's worth of installments to read in one sitting as other reading projects intruded on the weekly schedule. I'm really enjoying reading the novel this way. For one thing, this process means I can't plow through, skimming for plot points, and missing the forest for the trees. For another, I often feel a sense of loss when I finish a really good book--I miss the friends I've made between the covers, and wish that we could go on meeting regularly so that I could hear about their latest adventures. Reading a long novel in weekly/monthly batches drags out the process without making me feel guilty that I'm not getting on with it!

I did pull my paperback copy of the book off my bookshelf last weekend when I got caught up to June to find out where we were in relation to the end and discovered we're about two-thirds done with it.

I read WiW a long time ago and remembered the basic outline but not most of the details so this has been almost like reading it for the first time. It's a good novel, but I do wish Collins hadn't based so much of the plot on the uncanny resemblance between two women. This is just the kind of thing that makes those who don't love Victorian novels roll their eyes and groan.

Woman in White - 150th Anniversary

I just signed up to receive email pdfs of Wilkie Collins' most famous novel, The Woman in White, following the same publication schedule as the novel received in Charles Dickens's periodical All The Year Round 150 years ago this Monday.

Visit WomaninWhite.co.uk for details on how you can sign up to get emails of weekly installments. A separate pdf will be published each week on the website as well, and the pdf is designed to capture the feel of the original.

I've been wanting to reread this book for awhile and this is the perfect way to do so--reading the installments on the same publication schedule as they originally had. What a cool idea!

As an aside, in looking for an appropriate image for this post, I found this painting shown above. It's called The Somnabulist, and it was painted in 1871 by Sir John Everett Millais, who might have been inspired by the immense popularity of The Woman in White. Here's a bit about the painting.