Synopses & Reviews
"There in the middle of the broad, bright high-road-there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven-stood the figure of a solitary woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments."
Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero's foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collin's narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing. Collins other great mystery, The Moonstone, has been called the finest detective story ever written, but it was this work that so gripped the imagination of the world that Wilkie Collins had his own tombstone inscribed: "Author of The Woman In White. . . "
Synopsis
Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since.
Synopsis
Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.
The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.
Synopsis
"There in the middle of the broad, bright high-road-there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven-stood the figure of a solitary woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments."
Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero's foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collin's narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing. Collins other great mystery, The Moonstone, has been called the finest detective story ever written, but it was this work that so gripped the imagination of the world that Wilkie Collins had his own tombstone inscribed: "Author of The Woman In White. . . "
Description
With splendid packaging created by acclaimed designer Coralie Bickford-Smith (Great Books for Boys series), Penguin Classics presents beautiful hardcover editions of the world's favorite books. Featuring gorgeous patterns stamped on linen cases, colored endpapers, and ribbon markers, these are rich and sumptuous volumes that continue what will be one of the most coveted sets of books ever produced.
About the Author
The eldest son of the landscape artist, William Collins R.A., Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824. Educated for a few years at private schools in London, the family then moved to Italy when he was thirteen years old and it is here that he gained his real education. Rebelling against his father's strict religious code and conservative values, Wilkie Collins refused to settle into life in either the tea business or as a barrister and remained adamant that he wanted to write. His first book, a biography of his father was published in 1848. A close friend and travelling companion to Charles Dickens, they spent a lot of time together during the 1850s. Collins wrote regularly for Dickens's periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round. The two men shared a keen interest in the theatre, as well as in London's high life and Dickens acted in two early melodramas that Wilkie Collins wrote. With the serialization of The Woman in White in 1860, Collins' popularity grew to such an extent that queues formed to buy the next instalment and Gladstone cancelled a theatre engagement to carry on reading it. He followed this success with the novels No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and the highly successful The Moonstone (1868). Collins continued to write until his death, producing fifteen more novels, which although of deteriorating quality were still well received.
Collins never married and his private life remains a mixture of the romantic and the raffish. Living with his mother until he was thirty-two, Collins then left to set up home with a young woman, Caroline Graves and her daughter by another man. Remaining with Caroline on and off for the rest of his life, he also fathered three illegitimate children by Martha Rudd. This scandalous arrangement led to Collins being ostracized by smart Victorian society. Plagued by gout from his thirties onward, Collins was often in great pain which he attempted to dull with increasing amounts of opium. As his addiction to the drug grew he became more obsessed with the bizarre, heavily reflected in the gruesome characters of his last books. He died in 1889.