William Wilkie Collins was born in 1824, the eldest son of a successful painter. He suffered bad health, was extremely short-sighted and had an unusual appearance, with a rather large head and small delicate body. Nevertheless, he led a colourful life. He was friends with the pre-Raphaelite painters and Charles Dickens, for whose magazine, Household Words, he contributed stories.
SCANDALOUS LIFE
When Collins left home at the age of thirty-two, it was to do something unthinkable in Victorian society: he set up house with his mistress, a girl in her early twenties who already had a daughter. He also started a relationship with another mistress. When he died in 1889, his scandalous lifestyle prevented many of his friends from attending his funeral. Collins left instructions for his headstone to be inscribed with his name, date of birth and death and the words ‘Author of The Woman in White and other works of fiction.’
BRILLIANT THRILLER
Although critics have sometimes given greater praise to his other novels, The Woman in White was almost certainly Collins’ finest novel and it stands out in literary history as a brilliant psychological thriller. It appeared as a series of installments in Dickens’ new magazine All Year Round. This serial publication forced Collins to work to a tight routine, and yet the unfolding of the intricate plot is masterly. Various characters tell the story through a series of written eye-witness accounts. This allows for frequent shifts in narrative viewpoint, creating all the elements of suspense we are familiar with in modern best-sellers.
STRANGE ENCOUNTER
Set in 1850s England, the novel opens from the point ofview of Walter Hartright, a young painter, who finds a job at Limmeridge House in Cumberland. The house belongs to Frederick Fairlie, and Walter is to teach art to Fairlie’s niece and her half-sister. On a hot summer night, just before his departure, Walter is walking home over Hampstead Heath, north London, when he receives a terrible shock — a hand suddenly touches him on the shoulder.
“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 in head to foot in white garments, […] her hand pointing to the dark cloud over London, as I faced her.”
“Allí, en medio del camino ancho y tranquilo, allí, como si hubiera brotado de la tierra o hubiese caído del cielo en aquel preciso instante, se erguía la figura de una solitaria mujer envuelta en vestiduras blancas [...] su mano señalaba las oscuras nubes sobre Londres, así la vi cuando me volví hacia ella”.
MENTAL ILLNESS
Walter helps the woman to find a cab and as they walk and talk, he mentions his new job at Limmeridge House. The woman reacts with surprising distress when she hears the name of Limmeridge, a hint of the dangers and tragedies which are to follow. As soon as the woman has left, Walter discovers she has escaped from a mental asylum.
UNREQUITED LOVE
At Limmeridge, Walter meets his pupils: Laura Fairlie and her half-sister, Marian Halcombe. Laura and Walter fall in love, but Laura is already engaged to Sir Percival Glyde, the wealthy and respected owner of Blackwater Park in Hampshire. Despite her love for Walter, Laura feels duty-bound to marry Sir Percival. However, as the book progresses, Sir Percival becomes an increasingly sinister character and we learn that he was probably responsible for placing the woman in white, Anne Catherick, in the asylum.
Tension is created by the shifting perspectives. In her diary, Marion Halcombe describes her stay at gloomy Blackwater Park, while waiting for Laura and her new husband to return from their honeymoon. When they finally arrive, Marion hears the carriage wheels and throws down her pen. Later she writes:
“She has found me unaltered, but I have found her changed.
Changed in person, and in one respect, changed in character. I cannot absolutely say that she is less beautiful than she used to be — I can only say that she is less beautiful to me.”
“Ella me ha encontrado como siempre, pero yo la encuentro cambiada. Ha cambiado físicamente, y en cierto modo ha cambiado también su modo de ser. No puedo afirmar que esté menos guapa que antes, sólo diré que a mí me parece menos guapa”.
EVIL PLAN
The newly-weds are accompanied by the sinister Count Fosco and his wife. It soon becomes clear that both are spying on Marion and Laura and that Fosco has masterminded a plan to help Sir Percival get his hands on Laura’s money, perhaps through her death. At one point Marion falls ill after standing for hours in the rain, secretly eavesdropping on Count Fosco and Sir Percival. Her diary concludes:
“So cold, so cold —oh, that rain last night! And the strokes of the clock, the strokes I can’t count, keep striking in my head.”
“¡Qué frío, qué frío..., la lluvia de esta noche! ..., y las campanadas del reloj, las campanadas que no soy capaz de contar y que resuenan dentro de mi cabeza...”.
TERRIBLE SECRET
Her writing becomes illegible and, then, chillingly, the Count himself continues her diary:
“The illness of our excellent Miss Halcombe has afforded me the opportunity of enjoying an unexpected intellectual pleasure. I refer to the perusal (which I have just completed) of this interesting Diary.”
“La enfermedad de nuestra excelente amiga la señorita Halcombe me ofrece la oportunidad de gozar de un placer intelectual inesperado. Me refiero a la lectura (que acabo de terminar) de este interesante Diario”.
As the plot continues, the sisters are separated, reunited and constantly on the run from danger, but Walter Hartright returns to help them finally uncover Sir Percival Glyde’s terrible secret.