---
product_id: 6192013
title: "The Woman in White (Penguin Clothbound Classics)"
price: "€ 33.61"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.fr/products/6192013-the-woman-in-white-penguin-clothbound-classics
store_origin: FR
region: France
---

# The Woman in White (Penguin Clothbound Classics)

**Price:** € 33.61
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## Description

The Woman in White (Penguin Clothbound Classics) [Collins, Wilkie, Sweet, Matthew, Sweet, Matthew, Sweet, Matthew, Bickford-Smith, Coralie] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Woman in White (Penguin Clothbound Classics)

Review: A rich, absorbing mystery from a true master - The Woman in White opens with a mysterious encounter between artist Walter Hartright and an unnamed woman dressed entirely in white. Hartright runs into her late at night along the dark road from Hampstead Heath to London. The woman is clearly frightened, fleeing some unseen pursuer. She asks Hartright for directions, which he gives. He doesn’t know who she is, but his instinct tells him to help her. In her disconcerted ramblings, she tells him she had spent a brief portion of her youth in the country house he is planning to visit, and she warns him of an evil man he will soon encounter. After helping her on her way, Hartright eavesdrops on her pursuers: wardens from the insane asylum from which she escaped. Although he knows she’s distraught and probably not in her right mind, he can’t entirely dismiss what she’s told him because she has correctly named the inhabitants of the distant house to which he is about to travel. How’s that for a setup? The great thing about Wilkie Collins at his best is that he sets the highest expectations in the reader and then exceeds them on every level. Here, as in The Moonstone, he’s at his best. The breadth, intricacy, and coherence of his plots are extraordinary, the quality of his prose is superb, his characters are vivid and alive, and the worlds he creates are richly textured and utterly absorbing. As in The Moonstone, this story is told from multiple perspectives. In fact, it may be the first novel to be told by multiple narrators. The primary narrator, Hartright, makes a disclaimer up front, saying that the story will not be told in the usual novelistic form, but more in the form of a court case, in which each of the key players testifies in their own words about what they know. Collins shows an extraordinary range of styles as each narrator has a distinctive voice and perspective. Two of the least likable characters, the cunning and evil Count Fosco and the whiny, selfish Mr. Fairlie, offer up the funniest narratives in the book. Before we get to hear their sides of the story, we have seen them both act heartlessly, inflicting cruelty in their various ways on poor, virtuous Laura Fairlie. If these two were given a chapter to narrate in a contemporary mystery, the author would probably have them tell their story in nasty tones and malevolent terms to reinforce the reader’s hatred of them. But what, at bottom, allows one person to treat another heartlessly? In many cases, it’s a sense of arrogance, a sense that one is so far above the person they mistreat that the victim doesn’t matter and that all consideration is due to the perpetrator. This kind of arrogance is ripe for satire, and when Count Fosco and Mr. Fairlie do finally get their turns to narrate, we see the story through their hilariously distorted perspectives. The way they see the world around them is disturbing, to be sure, but they’re so self-absorbed and so colossally egotistical you can’t help but laugh. These chapters are some of the funniest I’ve ever read. The hardest thing about reading Collins is that the next book you read after his feels pale and thin. He truly was a master, and you can see in his works the pattern upon which almost all subsequent mystery and thriller writers built their work. I won’t try to summarize this one. I’ll just say that if you’re looking for a deeply absorbing read in which to immerse yourself, put this on your list.
Review: Beautiful 19th century writing - This book is an amazing teaching tool. Not because it conveys any great lessons in life or exhibits profound understanding and insight but because it so clearly delineates the beauty and differences in 19th century writing and 21st century writing. The story is definitely very gothic and one of the best mysteries available. It is in the length of the story - most especially the length of the writing that will probably cause many readers to balk. The descriptions, the conversations, the ideas... virtually everything is pondered at length. Reading this in today's society, where TV, the internet, pictures, videos etc. etc. grant us instant understanding and gratification, can be a tedious and boring job. In order to truly appreciate Collins writing, one must put themselves in the shoes of a reader amid 19th century standards. Most people knew little of life outside their small communities. Few traveled or had experience with people and places beyond the immediate. Thus the need for long explanations and descriptions. It was the only door open for a reader to experience life beyond. A perfect example would be the description of Count Fosco, a very large Itallian man. His description was so intricate and detailed as to take pages (not paragraphs - pages.) To us, that description might seem never-ending. To one who had probably never seen, let alone known an Italian man - good or bad - it described one so perfectly that the reader (without our modern day photography) could picture him with ease. Therefore, any accurate review of this book must allow for those differences. Readers who enjoy the beauty of the written word just for itself will absolutely revel in this story. Those who are more story driven will need to put on their patience caps to get through it. The story itself is immaculately well-done, it is dark without being terrifying, riveting without being graphic. It is just couched within a style long forgotten and truly appreciated.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #66,060 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #220 in Classic Literature & Fiction #730 in Gothic Fiction #2,508 in Psychological Thrillers (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 14,437 Reviews |

## Images

![The Woman in White (Penguin Clothbound Classics) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/915d3++HEeL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A rich, absorbing mystery from a true master
*by A***D on September 2, 2020*

The Woman in White opens with a mysterious encounter between artist Walter Hartright and an unnamed woman dressed entirely in white. Hartright runs into her late at night along the dark road from Hampstead Heath to London. The woman is clearly frightened, fleeing some unseen pursuer. She asks Hartright for directions, which he gives. He doesn’t know who she is, but his instinct tells him to help her. In her disconcerted ramblings, she tells him she had spent a brief portion of her youth in the country house he is planning to visit, and she warns him of an evil man he will soon encounter. After helping her on her way, Hartright eavesdrops on her pursuers: wardens from the insane asylum from which she escaped. Although he knows she’s distraught and probably not in her right mind, he can’t entirely dismiss what she’s told him because she has correctly named the inhabitants of the distant house to which he is about to travel. How’s that for a setup? The great thing about Wilkie Collins at his best is that he sets the highest expectations in the reader and then exceeds them on every level. Here, as in The Moonstone, he’s at his best. The breadth, intricacy, and coherence of his plots are extraordinary, the quality of his prose is superb, his characters are vivid and alive, and the worlds he creates are richly textured and utterly absorbing. As in The Moonstone, this story is told from multiple perspectives. In fact, it may be the first novel to be told by multiple narrators. The primary narrator, Hartright, makes a disclaimer up front, saying that the story will not be told in the usual novelistic form, but more in the form of a court case, in which each of the key players testifies in their own words about what they know. Collins shows an extraordinary range of styles as each narrator has a distinctive voice and perspective. Two of the least likable characters, the cunning and evil Count Fosco and the whiny, selfish Mr. Fairlie, offer up the funniest narratives in the book. Before we get to hear their sides of the story, we have seen them both act heartlessly, inflicting cruelty in their various ways on poor, virtuous Laura Fairlie. If these two were given a chapter to narrate in a contemporary mystery, the author would probably have them tell their story in nasty tones and malevolent terms to reinforce the reader’s hatred of them. But what, at bottom, allows one person to treat another heartlessly? In many cases, it’s a sense of arrogance, a sense that one is so far above the person they mistreat that the victim doesn’t matter and that all consideration is due to the perpetrator. This kind of arrogance is ripe for satire, and when Count Fosco and Mr. Fairlie do finally get their turns to narrate, we see the story through their hilariously distorted perspectives. The way they see the world around them is disturbing, to be sure, but they’re so self-absorbed and so colossally egotistical you can’t help but laugh. These chapters are some of the funniest I’ve ever read. The hardest thing about reading Collins is that the next book you read after his feels pale and thin. He truly was a master, and you can see in his works the pattern upon which almost all subsequent mystery and thriller writers built their work. I won’t try to summarize this one. I’ll just say that if you’re looking for a deeply absorbing read in which to immerse yourself, put this on your list.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beautiful 19th century writing
*by T***Y on October 26, 2011*

This book is an amazing teaching tool. Not because it conveys any great lessons in life or exhibits profound understanding and insight but because it so clearly delineates the beauty and differences in 19th century writing and 21st century writing. The story is definitely very gothic and one of the best mysteries available. It is in the length of the story - most especially the length of the writing that will probably cause many readers to balk. The descriptions, the conversations, the ideas... virtually everything is pondered at length. Reading this in today's society, where TV, the internet, pictures, videos etc. etc. grant us instant understanding and gratification, can be a tedious and boring job. In order to truly appreciate Collins writing, one must put themselves in the shoes of a reader amid 19th century standards. Most people knew little of life outside their small communities. Few traveled or had experience with people and places beyond the immediate. Thus the need for long explanations and descriptions. It was the only door open for a reader to experience life beyond. A perfect example would be the description of Count Fosco, a very large Itallian man. His description was so intricate and detailed as to take pages (not paragraphs - pages.) To us, that description might seem never-ending. To one who had probably never seen, let alone known an Italian man - good or bad - it described one so perfectly that the reader (without our modern day photography) could picture him with ease. Therefore, any accurate review of this book must allow for those differences. Readers who enjoy the beauty of the written word just for itself will absolutely revel in this story. Those who are more story driven will need to put on their patience caps to get through it. The story itself is immaculately well-done, it is dark without being terrifying, riveting without being graphic. It is just couched within a style long forgotten and truly appreciated.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Wilkie at His Best, Again - Great Villian You Love to Hate
*by J***. on March 17, 2005*

Let me first state that this is the fifth book that I have read by Wilkie (Dead Secret, Haunted Hotel, Moonstone, and No Name). I went into this book with some bias since I have very much like the other stories that I have read by him. I will say that this book did not disappoint. This is a very good book that I would recommend. With that being said, the book does begin a little on the slow side. However, after the first 100 pages or so the story really begins to pick up and does not stop until the end. This is a story, not so much about the Woman in White, as it as about Laura and Marian. Marian, although being somewhat "ugly", turned out to be my favorite character, along with Count Fosco. The Woman in While plays a small but key role in the book. The mystery surrounding her makes the book very interesting since she seems to hold the key to the demise of Sir Percival Glyde. Percival has a secret that can cause him great pain and social harm. This is the mystery of which the Woman in White knows and is trying to communicate to Laura so to save her from Percival and Count Fosco. Also, it does come out in the end how Laura and the Woman in White look so much alike. You must put aside your doubts about so many conincidences and remember this is just a story. If you can do this, the book will be so much better. Count Fosco: what can I say about him. He is one of the best villians in literature. Deep down you know he is bad guy. Deep down Laura and Marian knows he is a bad guy but he is such a gentleman. He can talk in a way that is degrading but he does it in such a way that the characters don't even realize they are being insulted. He is also very cunning and smart. However, he does have one weakness that comes through in the end. It is not the looks of a woman that is his weakness but an admiration of this person on an intellectual level. This woman, and I will not give it away, is his match when it comes to cunning and wit. He realizes this and acknowledges it. In the end, you love to hate Count Fosco since you know he is the brains behind the whole conspiracy but what a gentleman. After the slow beginning, the book picks up and does not disappoint. If you have read the Moonstone or No Name, which in my opinion are equal to or better than this book, the Woman in White will not let you down. If you have read Woman in White and are thinking about Wilkie's other works, then I sugget the Moonstone and/or No Name. In the end, read this book. You will not be disappointed that you did. It is a little long (645 pages in the modern library edition) but I read it in a week. It is an easy, enjoyable read and worth the time.

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*Store origin: FR*
*Last updated: 2026-03-02*