The next day he arrives at Limmeridge House, where he has gained a position as a drawing master. Once he's dropped her off in London, two men in hot pursuit claim that the girl has escaped a mental asylum and must be returned there at once, but Walter does nothing to help them in their search. The young woman accepts his offer on the condition that he allow her to come and go as she pleases. Visibly distressed, the young woman begs him to show her the way to London, and he offers to accompany her there.

Walter Hartright, a young art teacher, is startled when he is overtaken by a young woman dressed entirely in white while walking on the road from Hampstead to London. Count Fosco's accent wavers more than a little between (and even within) narrators, but he's such an outlandish piece of work that this is hardly a distraction. Simon Prebble is uniformly excellent Josephine Bailey starts out a bit woodenly but soon picks up in intensity, and does a fine job voicing range of characters from different classes and regions. The rationale is that the entire novel is constructed as a sequence of 'narratives' by various characters of both sexes. The use of dual male and female narrators takes some getting used to but in the end works well. Marion Halcombe and Count Fosco are two of the most memorable characters I've encountered in English fiction, and Collins's mastery of plotting and suspense leaves most contemporary authors in the dust (I've just given up on Brad Meltzer's chaotic 'The Inner Circle', but that's another story). I can now thoroughly second the recommendation. This was my first exposure to Wilkie Collins, after someone recommended 'The Woman in White' as a good followup to going through most of Dickens on audiobook.

Masterfully constructed, The Woman in White is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction: Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant 'Napoleon of Crime'. The next day Hartright, engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half sister, tells his pupils about the strange events of the previous evening.ĭetermined to learn all they can about the mysterious woman in white, the three soon find themselves drawn into a chilling vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue. The story begins with an eerie midnight encounter between artist Walter Hartright and a ghostly woman dressed all in white who seems desperate to share a dark secret. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall audiences today. One of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White was a phenomenal best seller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Charles Dickens.

The woman in white audiobook