Book: "The Woman In White"

Ah, "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins.  If you'll remember from my last book post, I wasn't sure I could quite stomach a 600+ page book filled with that proper Queen's English that can make a book so hard to read as it did in "The Scarlett Letter" and "Frankenstein".  I mean 600 pages of that!  It would take me a year to read it, at least!

However, I started it anyway because the premise of the book was intriguing and all the reviews I found in the book and online were good.  Did you know that this book essentially changed the way crime/mystery books were written?  Well, it did.  Instead of having the story told from one main character, this book is told by many of the people involved.  That had never been done before.

I found that the writing was not as thick as "Frankenstein" or "The Scarlett Letter" and that it moved at a pretty good clip.  The characters were well developed and each had their own distinct voice when it was their turn to take up the story.

The story is fairly complicated, but I'll try to briefly describe it without giving away too much.  The book begins with Walter Hartright.  He is a drawing master and is hired by Mr. Fairlie to teach his nieces, Laura and Marian, how to draw, etc.  Before he leaves London to go to Cumberland, where the sisters live with their uncle, Walter has a chance encounter with a woman wearing a white dress as he walks back to London.  The woman asks for assistance in getting to London as she has encountered some trouble and needs to get to her friend's house.  It is late at night and the woman is so distressed so he gets her a carriage and off she goes.  She makes him promise not to tell anyone about their encounter and is altogether mysterious.  A short time later, two men run by and stop a police officer and ask if he has seen a woman wearing white, that she has escaped from an asylum and needs to be found immediately.

The next day, Walter leaves for Cumberland where he spends the summer teaching drawing and falling in love with Laura, who returns his love, but they can not marry or even speak of their love because they are not of the same social class and she's engaged to Sir Percival Glyde.  Walter leaves Cumberland in one of the most heartbreaking scenes I've ever read.

After that things get really complicated.  Sir Glyde is a bad man, his friend (and Laura's estranged Aunt's husband) Count Fosco is an even worse man and they both need money, which Laura has plenty of.  And then there is the woman in white, who turns out to be Anne Catherick who knows a secret about Sir Glyde that could be his ruin.  Oh, and she also has a striking resemblance to Laura.

It is a winding and twisted path this book follows, but it was interesting from beginning to end and I'm glad that I didn't wait to start it.

I'm not quite sure what is next on my list.  Maybe a trip to Barnes & Noble and their affordable classics section will help me decide.  Also, I came upon Rory Gilmore's book list.  Maybe I'll pick from there as well.