The Woman In White, by Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White was one of the books that my online book club read this year.

This book was one I'd been curious about for a while. It was made into a Masterpiece Theatre presentation a few years ago, and I knew that some folks feel that it's the first detective novel. One writer opined that it is not really a detective novel but an example of an extinct genre, the "sensation novel."

Wikipedia explains the "sensation novel" this way: "Typically the sensation novel focused on shocking subject matter including adultery, theft, kidnapping, insanity, bigamy, forgery, seduction and murder.[1] It distinguished itself from other contemporary genres, including the Gothic novel, by setting these themes in ordinary, familiar and often domestic settings, thereby undermining the common Victorian-era assumption that sensational events were something foreign and divorced from comfortable middle-class life."

Sure enough, The Woman in White does include adultery, theft, kidnapping, forgery, seduction and insanity. I don't think that there's any bigamy. Oh, I forgot, there is murder...and a fire! I suppose a scene with a fire, especially if it's a major plot point, should score extra points.

Some of the sensation of the novel left me cold. I found myself looking for something I could identify with and found very little. This is not really a criticism. My feelings about the novel are really a reflection of my personal taste, and as we know, "there's no accounting for taste."

The novel concerns itself primarily with one man (who's offstage for much of the novel) and two sisters. One of the sisters is a very strong person, and I find myself feeling that you could argue that she explodes the convention of Victorian womanhood by being strong and independent.

I found myself feeling a little uncomfortable with her characterization, however. Her only aspiration for herself was her wish to remain close to her half-sister. That certainly was consistent with the Victorian ethos. One of the villains of the piece frequently mentions how much he admires her yet he certainly sees her as a threat to his own plans. Is his admiration sincere? I think it is actually an expression of hostility.

The novel was serialized, as many novels were at that time. As a result, it's probably longer than it otherwise would have been (writers were paid by the word) and its plot might have been more cohesive had it not been serialized.

Wilkie Collins was not a conventional person. His father had been an accomplished painter. Collins had two mistresses and never married. That Bohemianism does not appear in the novel; in fact, the heroine rejects the man she loves to marry a man chosen by her father who has much more money (or is thought to--the perils faced by an heiress in the marriage market is a theme that makes an appearance here).

What I do love is Marian's character. She is brave. She is a realist. She does try to temper her realism with kindness and restraint.