March 2011 Guest Editor Robert Goddard on The Woman in White...
There’s just such a lot to enjoy and admire in this ground-breaking work of mystery and suspense. It was one of my inspirations for trying my hand at novel-writing in the first place. When The Woman in White was published in 1860, it was an instant success. No-one else had ever dared to cram quite so much intrigue into a plot, not least because it’s an extremely difficult thing to do. But Collins brushes the difficulty aside, throws in memorable characters and carries the whole thing off with the aplomb of the master he was. Genius!
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'The woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy conceptions of beauty, fills a void in our spiritual nature that has remained unknown to us till she appeared.'
One of the earliest works of 'detective' fiction with a narrative woven together from multiple characters, Wilkie Collins partly based his infamous novel on a real-life eighteenth century case of abduction and wrongful imprisonment. In 1859, the story caused a sensation with its readers, hooking their attention with the ghostly first scene where the mysterious 'Woman in White' Anne Catherick comes across Walter Hartright. Chilling, suspenseful and tense in mood, the novel remains as emotive for its readers today as when it was first published.
Probably the finest example of 'sensation fiction', a Victorian genre that used suspense as a basic element. This work twists and turns with dastardly deeds and shameful secrets, love and dishonour. Usually regarded as one of the original 'detectivestories, Collins 's novel is much concerned with personal danger, suspense, the conflict of good and evil, and characters at the extremes of suffering and survival - a genuine thriller. The 'rescue of innocence' theme is essential to the genre, and the characterization and psychological detail are elements too often ignored by the thriller. Thackeray stayed up all night to finish it, and so will you. (Kirkus UK)
Author
About Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) began his literary career writing articles and short stories for Dickens' periodicals. He published a biography of his father and a number of plays but his reputation rests on his novels. Collins found his true fictionalmetier in mystery, suspense and crime. He is best known for his novels in the emerging genres of Sensation and Detective fiction.
