He is studied widely new film, television, and radio versions of some of his books have been made and all of his letters have been published. Most of his books are in print, and all are now in e-text.

Now, Collins is being given more critical and popular attention than he has received for 50 years.

But after his death, his reputation declined as Dickens' bloomed. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialisation history.Ī close friend of Charles Dickens from their meeting in March 1851 until Dickens' death in June 1870, William Wilkie Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and, for a time, best paid of Victorian fiction writers. Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white' More than one life will be lost before Walter’s mystery of the woman in white can be fully explained.Ī strong cast brings Wilkie Collins’ tale to life in this BBC Radio 4 production, recorded on location at Beacon Hill, London, in 2001.'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop. It appears that Anne’s recent incarceration in a mental asylum was at the behest of Sir Percival, who is all too aware of the secret she holds. Events at Limmeridge take a surprising turn when Anne Catherick arrives, and Walter recognises her as the mystery figure. She, however, is soon to marry the financially embarrassed Sir Percival Glyde. As he helps the woman to escape from unnamed pursuers, he has little understanding of the way she will affect his future.Īt Limmeridge House in Cumberland, Walter meets and falls in love with Laura, who strangely resembles the woman in white. Toby Stephens and Juliet Aubrey star in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins’ chilling Gothic drama.Ī lonely stretch of road on Hampstead Heath is the venue for Walter Hartright’s midnight first encounter with a mysteriously distressed figure in white.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins