The Woman in White

In my last post I mentioned I was in "my Henry James phase." I had read several short stories and/or novellas of Henry James, as well as a biography, but I needed to take a break. So, after putting it off for several months, I finally got around to looking for and finding a copy of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

This was the #1 best-seller in 1859. It was serialized before it came out in book form (first a 3-volume, and then a one-volume edition). In serial form it followed Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and preceded Great Expectations. I can't recall having read a more exciting book in a very long time. It was excellent. It is hard to believe it doesn't get more press. I have a pretty good "feeling" for BritLit after I began my aggressive reading program in 2002, but had it not been for a friend's recommendation, I may never have heard of this novel. I had even come across Richardson's Clarissa on my own, but never The Woman in White.

Suffice it to say, this is worthy of a Sherlock Holmes-like film adaptation.

The Woman in White is not great literature ala Wuthering Heights but it really is very, very good. I would say that Collins is "Dickens Lite."

It's a thick book, 630 pages, but it moves quickly. It takes Henry James two pages to say two people look alike; Collins does it in a sentence. It is very easy reading despite the convoluted plot. If one has read Shakespeare, James Joyce, Emily Bronte, and Virginia Woolf, this will be very easy reading.