THE WOMAN IN WHITE

Wilkie Collins

“Is that the road to London?”

 WILKIE COLLINS
• Born in 1824, London
• Attended Law school
• Published several short stories, essays, articles, plays
and over 30 major books
• Most famous for The Woman in White (1860), No Name
(1862),Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868).
• Friendship with Dickens; publication of The Woman in
White in All The Year Round.
 ABOUT THE BOOK

• Considered the first detective novel;

• Presents the reader a labyrinthic plot which runs
over 600 hundred pages;
• Epistolary structure – the story is told from diary
entries and others types of registers;
• Story is narrated by several points of views and
is divided in three epochs;
 WALTER HARTRIGHT
• Drawing-master of Clemment’s Inn, London
• Hired to teach two young ladies the art of water-
color painting in Limmeridge House, Cumberland.
• Meets a mysterious woman in his way to
Cumberland.
• Acts like a private detective, conducting
investigations in graveyards and questioning
people.
 MARIAN HALCOMBE

• Eldest daughter of Misses Farlie and her first

husband
• Left penniless (her father was a John Doe)
• Sharp minded and resolute
• Often feels powerless for being a woman and
unable to defend her sister.
• Plays an important role to uncover the mystery
surrounding the woman in white and the secret she
holds.
 LAURA FARLIE
• Daughter of Philip Farlie, a wealthy man, owner of
Limmeridge House.
• Pretty, lovely and innocent lady who plays piano and likes
drawing
• Adores and admires her sister
• Falls in love with Walter but must marry a man out of honor.
 THE BEGINNING

In his way to Cumberland, Walter meets this

strange woman asking for the road to London.
They talk, and the woman says she was very
fond of Limmeridge. Walter accompanies the
woman until she gets on a carriage, and
moments later overhears two policemen asking
for a woman dressed all in white who had
escaped an asylum.
• There’s a connection between the
mysterious woman and
Limmeridge; days pass by and
Marian and Walter put the subject
aside.
• Walter and Laura fall in love
• Walter is heartbroken because
he’s poor and could never marry
a woman in Laura’s position.
• Laura is engaged to Sir Percival
Glyde and is expected to marry
him whe she comes of age.
• Laura receives an anonymous letter basically telling her that she will
have a miserable life if she gets married. There’s no mention to names
but the description of the man in the letter matches Sir Percival;
• As no proofs against Sir Percival come up, Laura honors her promise to
her father and marries Sir Percival, marking the end of the First Epoch.
• In the second epoch, which is six months later, the woman in white
makes her appearance and tells Laura that she knows a dirty secret of
Sir Percival and that’s why he had put her on an asylum; she’s unable to
say more and runs away.
MEDIA
GAME
“You don't suspect me of doing anything wrong, do you?”