The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins
Started December 18, 2007
Finished December 25, 2007
Wilkie Collins
Started December 18, 2007
Finished December 25, 2007
I should start by saying that I found this book to be compulsively readable, despite (or maybe because of) the ridiculousness of some of the plot twists. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat just wanting to know what happens next, and there's something to be said for that in a novel. And really, the plot twists can be pretty fun. Part of the reason why I couldn't put the book down was the changing points of narrative view- the person most able to tell the "truth" of the story at any given moment is the narrator. I can see why it was a bestseller when it was first published and why it has remained fairly popular ever since, even though I wouldn't put it on the same level with Charles Dickens' stuff (a contemporary of Wilkie Collins).
It wasn't until after I'd finished, and started to think about things more, that certain aspects started to bother me. Probably the main problem that I had was with the character of Marian being awesome but consigned to the role of spinster. Why does Marian have to be ugly and only appreciated as a woman by the Count, who is probably the primary villain in the novel? To make that even more annoying, you then have Walter Hartright, who is in love with Marian's rich blonde sister, Laura, who is sweet but doesn't seem to have any real personality. She's just a cardboard cutout. I guess that's just a reflection of women at the time this was written? A strong independent woman was too scary to be desirable?
Despite the simplicity of some of the characters, however, The Woman in White is worth the read as a page turning mystery thriller. You just have to accept it for what it is and not hope for it to challenge any conventional Victorian paradigms.
It wasn't until after I'd finished, and started to think about things more, that certain aspects started to bother me. Probably the main problem that I had was with the character of Marian being awesome but consigned to the role of spinster. Why does Marian have to be ugly and only appreciated as a woman by the Count, who is probably the primary villain in the novel? To make that even more annoying, you then have Walter Hartright, who is in love with Marian's rich blonde sister, Laura, who is sweet but doesn't seem to have any real personality. She's just a cardboard cutout. I guess that's just a reflection of women at the time this was written? A strong independent woman was too scary to be desirable?
Despite the simplicity of some of the characters, however, The Woman in White is worth the read as a page turning mystery thriller. You just have to accept it for what it is and not hope for it to challenge any conventional Victorian paradigms.
