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Fiction » Crime Novels

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
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The Woman in White

by Wilkie Collins

Recommendations from our site

“It’s credited with being the beginning of the whole genre of suspense. That’s why I picked it. I’ve only read it twice, but it’s lingered in my consciousness: the images and the feel of it. He really is a master of the tricks. I read somewhere that there are 40 cliff-hangers in it—he sort of invented the cliff-hanger. And I like the Russian doll structure of all the different accounts. You gradually lift off each little doll’s body and find another plot strand and another secret. I love that. It’s very cleverly done.” Read more...

The Best Classic Thrillers

Lucy Atkins, Journalist

“Where do you start with the story of The Woman in White? What do you do with a novel that has so many strange characters? How do you even begin to define its plot?……The novel is told to us by a number of narrators—Walter Hartright, Marian Halcombe, Fosco—almost every three chapters they’re switching. The glory of it is you get this story as if it’s a court hearing, everybody is presenting their evidence from their own particular perspectives.” Read more...

The Best Books by Wilkie Collins

Jason Hall, Literary Scholar

” I just have more time for voices speaking from the past than I do contemporary fiction authors of whom, quite frankly, I have yet to discover one I like. This is perhaps why, for me, The Woman in White is the perfect book. I love the plot, I love the characters, I love the settings, I just absolutely adore it. If you haven’t read it yet, I envy you, that you still have that experience in life ahead of you.” Read more...

Favourite Books

Sophie Roell, Journalist

Other books by Wilkie Collins

Heart and Science by Wilkie Collins

Heart and Science
by Wilkie Collins

Poor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins

Poor Miss Finch
by Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins

Rambles Beyond Railways by Wilkie Collins

Rambles Beyond Railways
by Wilkie Collins

Jezebel's Daughter (Oxford World's Classics) by Wilkie Collins

Jezebel's Daughter (Oxford World's Classics)
by Wilkie Collins

Our most recommended books

  • The Hound of the Baskervilles
    by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  • The Talented Mr Ripley
    by Patricia Highsmith

  • The woman in white cover

    The Woman in White
    by Wilkie Collins

  • the moonstone cover

    The Moonstone
    by Wilkie Collins

  • The Lost Man
    by Jane Harper

  • The Return of Sherlock Holmes
    by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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