The Woman in White in 101 Books to Read Before You Die

Sep 05, 2012 Alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, boxall-s-1001-books, foreign-culture, mystery, thriller-horror

October 2017
I enjoyed this re-read just as much as the first time through. This time I listened to a professional recording instead of Librivox, but the content, of course, is the same. Most of the characters are somewhat dynamic, although not the primary ones (Hartright and Laura, in particular, are very boring), but rather Marion and the villains and their cohorts.

While Collins' treatment of women is probably the standard of the time, it's still grating to modern sensibilities (so frustrating October 2017
I enjoyed this re-read just as much as the first time through. This time I listened to a professional recording instead of Librivox, but the content, of course, is the same. Most of the characters are somewhat dynamic, although not the primary ones (Hartright and Laura, in particular, are very boring), but rather Marion and the villains and their cohorts.

While Collins' treatment of women is probably the standard of the time, it's still grating to modern sensibilities (so frustrating to hear the phrase "only a woman" on multiple occasions, many of them actually uttered by a woman) to see them as more or less helpless creatures at the whim of the influential (or not, in the case of Mr. Fairlie) in their lives.

The conspiracy and the hunting down of the mysteries and evidence move along at a good pace and despite the novel's several hundred pages, the story never lagged for me. I will probably re-read it again at some point.

4/5 for fun, (the minus one being for lack of realistic circumstances and for a few undeveloped characters).

October 2012

I listened to this novel via Librovox. Most of the narration was good, although some of the tracks did not have as good of audio quality and it was not edited as well as other recordings I have heard. Nevertheless, the narrators did a good job on each of their characters. I particularly enjoyed Mr. Fairlie's section, as it was as dry and pathetic as I imagine him to be.

I knew nothing about this story when I started and was very pleasantly surprised at how much of a thriller/mystery/suspense it turned out to be. The danger elements were potent and the mystery intriguing throughout. I truly did not know how Mr. Hartwright was going to work it out all out in the end.

The narrative style, with each characters' perspective, was interesting, never being sure how accurate the memory or presentation of each person was. Interestingly, we never hear a first person account of the supposed heroine in the novel, Laura. We only learn about her through others. We also never hear from Ann. Arguably, though, the real heroine, who does much more planning and implementing than Laura, is her sister Marian, and we DO hear from her throughout a large portion of the story.

The novel is wordy at times, but it does not feel like it is bogging down the storyline, as in some of Dickens' works. It's a complex mystery that carries those elements of fear anyone can relate to: what if everyone thought I was crazy but I would only look crazy if I tried to prove otherwise?

5/5 ...more

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Nov 07, 2023 Anirban Nanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic, thrilling

Very nicely paced, well-designed thriller. I usually do not enjoy books written long back, but this was different. I thorougly loved it. I can only imagine the effect it would have produced during that time. Highly recommended.

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