Woman
in White
The story begins
with Walter's late night meeting of the titular woman dressed in white
who he rescues from a group of pursuers. Walter goes to work in the service
of the selfish and unpleasant Mr Fairlie as a drawing instructor and in
doing so meets his niece Laura who strongly resembles the mysterious woman
in white. Walter falls in love with Laura, but naturally there is a hitch.
Laura does love Walter but is engaged to Sir Percival Glyde. Deceit, love
and various unmaskings ensue that explain the strange confinement within
an asylum of Anne Catherick. Tense adventures, villainy and gloriously
fitting retributions are Collins?
The Woman in
White was published serially in Charles Dickens's All the Year Round between
November 1859 and August 1860. Selling over 100,000 copies in serial form,
The Woman in White was published in three-volume form on 15 August 1860,
10 days before the final installment appeared in All the Year Round. Its
initial run of 1,000 copies sold out on the day of publication and the
next run of 1,350 copiies sold out in a week. It is difficult in a few
sentences to express the immense popularity of The Woman in White in its
day; however, the novel was so popular it not only spawned a mini-industry
of Woman in White paraphernalia (including Woman in White perfume and the
Woman in White dance), it stimulated the sensation fiction rage of the
1860s.
Take out from: www.bibliomania.com/wilkiecollins/
bohema@alumni.uv.es
Academic year
2000/2001
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Mª del Mar Boluda Henares
Universitat de València Press
bohema@alumni.uv.es