the assigment don bosco

The woman in white

The Woman in White is ” Wiklie Collins” fifth published novel, written in 1859. 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.

The story is sometimes considered an early example of detective fiction with protagonist Walter Hartright employing many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narrators (including nearly all the principal characters) 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”. 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.

mid a midnight stroll, Walter Hartright, comes in contact with ghostly woman dressed all in white. After walking her to London, he learns the woman had just escaped an asylum, but before he could ask anymore questions, she disappeared.  The next day Hartright arrived at Limmeridge house working as a drawing teacher. After meeting his students, he becomes extremely confused because one of his students, Laura,  looks identical to the woman in white he met the night before.

After two months of teaching at the house, Hartright acquires feelings for Laura, but is disappointed when he learns that her father is forcing her to marry Sir. Percival Glyde. Laura’s half sister Marian advises Walter to leave the house and he complies.  But before he has a chance to leave, he is informed of a mysterious letter sent from the woman in white, Anne Catherick, to Laura. The letter repeatedly warns Laura not to marry Sir Percival. Seeing an opportunity to answer unsolved questions, Hartright meets with Anne and discovers that Sir Percival locked Anne in the asylum.  Despite Anne’s warnings, Laura goes through with the marriage.

After the couple’s honeymoon, a con scheme is revealed and Sir Percival tries to get Laura to allow him to use her marriage settlements. The attempt is unsuccessful and Laura’s sister realizes  something evil is being plotted.  Soon after, Marian is hit by Typhus and is bed-ridden. While her sister is ill, Sir Percival tricks Laura into travelling to London. There Sir Percival switches the identities of Anne and Laura. This is followed by the death and burial of Anne, as Laura. And Laura is put into the asylum, as Anne.

After Marian becomes well again, she visits the asylum hoping to see Anne but finds Laura instead, who is under the illusion that she is actually Anne.  Both escape from the asylum, and live with Walter Hartright among the poor. In an attempt to recover Laura’s identity, Hartright discovers a document that was forged by Glyde. Sir Percival fears that others will discover his secret so he tries to burn the document, and only succeeds in catching the church on fire and killing himself.

The novel contains a happy ending and Walter retrieves Laura’s identity. The two get married and eventually have a son. Together they live where it all started: Limmeridge House. 

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