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  • Home
  • Bio
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    • By Cook or by Crook
    • Scam Chowder
    • Final Fondue
    • The Tell-Tale Tarte
    • Smore Murders
    • Crypt Suzette
    • For Book Clubs
    • Stories, etc.
  • Trivia
    • Sleuthing Sweethearts
    • Christie Weapons
    • Train Mysteries
    • Poe and His Stories
    • Girl Mysteries
  • Mystery 101
    • Mystery History Topics
    • Detective Story Origins
    • Mystery Fashions
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Poe and Lincoln
    • Holmes and Dracula
    • Christie's Clues
  • Extras
    • Book Club Topics
    • Five-Ingredient Recipes
    • Story: Delicious Death
    • Newsletter Sample
  • News/Contact
  • SmorgasBlog

The Fashionable Woman in White


Wilkie Collins' 1859 novel, The Woman in White, wildly popular when serialized in a journal, sold out the day it appeared in a bound edition. Like blockbuster movies today, the book spawned a line of products. Stores sold Woman in White cloaks, hats, and perfumes. Woman in White waltzes and quadrilles became popular dances.  

Though derided by some contemporary critics as sensationalist trash, the novel has remained popular for 150 years with adaptations for the stage, film, and television. It even inspired an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical (not very popular). 

At Collins’ request, the inscription on his tombstone reads: “In memory of Wilkie Collins, author of ‘The Woman in White’ and other works of fiction.” 
Portrait of Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

The Woman in White: Plot and Characters

Collins based the villainy in The Woman in White on an actual crime that occurred in France. He modified the story and added the trappings of the Gothic novel popular earlier in the 19th century: a claustrophobic setting, a spectral figure warning of danger, a beautiful woman victimized by powerful men, and the stalwart heroes who devote themselves to rescuing her. As the plot unfolds, social problems come under scrutiny, including the treatment of the mentally ill and the laws denying women rights. 

Following the example of his friend and mentor, Charles Dickens, Collins not only explored social issues, but filled his novel with quirky, memorable characters. The plucky Marian, who risks her life to save her half-sister, serves as a model for the brainy, courageous heroines of romantic suspense, though later writers wisely dropped Marian’s distinguishing feature, a faint mustache.

Marian has a worthy opponent in Count Fosco, whose wit, charm, and brilliance make him the archetype of the affable criminal. The obese count, his pet mice scampering over his huge body, simultaneously attracts and repels Marian—and the reader. According to Margaret Oliphant, a novelist and early reviewer of The Woman in White, “No villain of the century comes within a mile of him.” 
Caricature of Wilkie Collins, Frederick Waddy, 1872
Cartoon of Collins, F. Waddy, 1872

Other Works by Wilkie Collins

Cover of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone book cover
The Woman in White has never been out of print though Collins is better known for The Moonstone (1868), often cited as the first full-length detective novel in English.

Here is a selected list of Wilkie Collins’ other novels, some only recently back in print:

Armadale
The Lady and the Law
Hide and Seek
No Name

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