How many English novels set in extravagent estates in the mid 1800s have made you wonder, "how come these people don't have jobs?" Sure there's the nannies and the pastors and the family attorneys and all the various servants, but most of the gentlemen and women prance around waiting for mail that tells of their beloveds also prancing around waiting for mail.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is a bit different. The story opens with Walter Hartwright accepting a position as an art teacher for a couple of country estate living daughters of a nervous wreck of a gentleman. En route to the new job, he runs into a distraught woman in white who needs directions to London and assurance that Mr. Hartwright will forget about her. He mentions the interaction to his new pupils, one, Laura, who bears astonishing resemblance to the Woman in White. And from this the stage is set for one of the first mysteries published-- and piles of letters that are sent back and forth between estates with replies that come quicker than our email of today. Collins was a trained lawyer and goes into detail about financial and inheritance law of the time-- important if you are just going to live off interest. A couple of notable characters are introduced along the way-- Sir Percival Glyde who is both obsequious and nervous, Count Fosco who is devious, and a slew of passerby who make the book a quick read.
Ultimately the denoument was well executed, but long! Like, 100 pages long. Other than that it was as good as the Millenium series for sure.
netflix stars: 4/5
