The Woman in White

By: Wilkie Collins

Narrated by: Josephine Bailey, Simon Prebble

One of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White was a phenomenal best seller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Charles Dickens. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall audiences today.

The story begins with an eerie midnight encounter between artist Walter Hartright and a ghostly woman dressed all in white who seems desperate to share a dark secret. The next day Hartright, engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half sister, tells his pupils about the strange events of the previous evening.

Determined to learn all they can about the mysterious woman in white, the three soon find themselves drawn into a chilling vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue.

Masterfully constructed, The Woman in White is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction: Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant "Napoleon of Crime".

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

Gripping novel, excellent production

This was my first exposure to Wilkie Collins, after someone recommended "The Woman in White" as a good followup to going through most of Dickens on audiobook. I can now thoroughly second the recommendation. Marion Halcombe and Count Fosco are two of the most memorable characters I've encountered in English fiction, and Collins's mastery of plotting and suspense leaves most contemporary authors in the dust (I've just given up on Brad Meltzer's chaotic "The Inner Circle", but that's another story).

The use of dual male and female narrators takes some getting used to but in the end works well. The rationale is that the entire novel is constructed as a sequence of "narratives" by various characters of both sexes. Simon Prebble is uniformly excellent; Josephine Bailey starts out a bit woodenly but soon picks up in intensity, and does a fine job voicing range of characters from different classes and regions. Count Fosco's accent wavers more than a little between (and even within) narrators, but he's such an outlandish piece of work that this is hardly a distraction.

Gloriously gothic and a fabulous tale

I was hooked so quickly and was, from that moment on, on the edge of my seat. I listen to books as I work. Listening to The Woman in White had me frozen in place listening in awe as to the next twist or the next wicked deed, my work lying forgotten on the table.

Its a cracker of a story and wonderfully narrated by both Josephine Bailey and Simon Prebble. The novel is written in several parts as journals or statements and the different readers makes the narration so much more dynamic.

There are some wonderful characters in this book and Wilkie Collins describes scenes so well that you can clearly see the action in your minds eye. There are many apparently modern devices used by the author in this book to drive the action along and appear to confuse the reader or dupe the reader in believing they know the next part of the plot only to surprise them that it is easy to forget that it was written in the mid 1800s.

I loved this book both for the story, the edginess of the gothic setting, the wonderful characters, the melodrama and the writing. There should be 6 stars and even then this would deserve 6 and a half!

British High Society and a Mystery

Two identical women, apparently unrelated by blood? A great love, set aside due to the rules of high society? A great fortune side by side with common poverty? A baronet with a great secret? A mysterious foreigner who may be a member of a secret Italian society? Yes to all of these compelling elements of a novel written in 1859 and considered by some to be a forerunner to the modern detective story.

In 2003, Robert McCrum writing for The Observer listed The Woman in White number 23 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time," and the novel was listed at number 77 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. Many movies have been made of this story over the years.

It is simply a great tale. I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Good but long

This book was interesting but it should have been a lot shorter. They went over the same ground too many times. I liked the switching of story tellers and I thought the story was good.

Extremely British

Twenty-four hours of British dialogue (circa 1850.) It's very tedious, but I got through it. It's told through the perceptions of various characters, each giving testimony in extreme detail, of the unhappy marriage of a young woman of the higher class and how she was deceived. If one can stick with the story, the characters are well developed and believable for the time period, and the deception is most interesting.

Poor Narrative by Josephine Bailey

Josephine Bailey’s narration was not very expressive. Something she sounded somewhat robotic making her voice sound computer generated

Overall, the story was good, but the story telling could have been much better.

Wonderful recording of a classic

Woman in White did not disappoint! A pioneering work in the suspense genre, the influence of Dickens is unmistakable in the vivid characters and intricate plotting. Best of all, the narrative unfolds from the point of view of many narrators, so the actors on the audio have a chance to create many different characters with their voices. It’s a long book, but worth the time invested.

Early Crime, and Sensation, Fiction

Where does The Woman in White rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's not the very best, but certainly very good.

What did you like best about this story?

Best of all, I love its history and the fact that I'd never heard of it! Nor of its author, whose name must be American, I thought. Always happy to learn. Wikipedia sold this book to me. First published as a book in 1860 London, it was written throughout 1859 as a serial for monthly or weekly newspaper.

From Wikipedia: "It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of 'sensation novels'." This sentence convinced me: "The use of multiple narratives draws on Collins's legal training, and as he points out in his Preamble: 'the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness'."

At the time of purchase, I was researching family history in England and Australia during the 1850s. What better way to gather a feel for the class and gender inequalities of 1850s England, than through its fiction. I wasn't disappointed.

What about Josephine Bailey and Simon Prebble ’s performance did you like?

The readings were exceptional. I absolutely detested the sound of the most loathsome male character in the book. Likewise I detested the voice of the superior house keeper of the property and her inability to distinguish between nobility and decency. Where each participant is given the time and opportunity to tell their story uninterrupted, the bore or the shrew will be difficult to tolerate in an audio book. As it is in life. Sigh.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

35 hours would be difficult at a sitting but I must confess that I do have my books playing night and day. These readers use the nuances of the language rather than volume to control the variations of pitch, tone and accent.

Any additional comments?

I'm surprised that it wasn't heralded during struggles for women's rights, votes and legislation. Maybe it was. I missed it. I'm glad that I've found it and I do recommend it.

A classic that I had never heard of

What made the experience of listening to The Woman in White the most enjoyable?

This was mentioned as a favorite of many famous writers. I had never heard of it. But I am glad I did and finally picked it up. Very deep, very intense yet moderately paced. Keeps you guessing and trying to figure out the secrets. Anything but predictable.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Woman in White?

Never-ending true love and perseverance.

Held my interest throughout!

If you could sum up The Woman in White in three words, what would they be?

Very enjoyable!

What does Josephine Bailey and Simon Prebble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Nice vocal characterizations, enunciation, easy to follow story

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Mystery! Romance!

Any additional comments?

I couldn't wait to turn it on for my daily drives, hard to stop when arriving at my destation; beautifully performed, great character & plot development.