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Title: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins ISBN: 0-553-21263-X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1985 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (75 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Clumsy plot, great characters, wonderful atmosphere.
Comment: It is rare for a heroine to be ugly. One of the elements that makes "Jane Eyre" a perfect romance is that Jane is physically unattractive, just as the author Charlotte Bronte perceived herself to be. In Collins' novel also, the heroine's plainness makes her a more sympathetic character.
Britain produced some great Victorian novelists and Collins is one of them. He is a superb stylist, making this book a pleasure to read. It does however, suffer from the 'curse of the coincidence', requiring the reader to believe that the hero just happens to be in the right place at the right time to meet the right person, not once but repeatedly. We also have to swallow the contrivance of two unrelated characters looking as identical as twins. In fact the opening episode contains a coincidence so great that I almost gave up on the book there and then. Despite this clumsy plotting, the story contains much that is good, not least one of the most memorable villains in all literature. I find the hero himself rather exasperating. He hesitates and dithers, insisting always on being the perfect English gentleman while the evil foreigners run rings round him. I kept wanting to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him.
British novels, probably more than those of any other culture, are notable for their character portraits. "The Woman in White" is a fine example of that, as well as being wonderfully atmospheric. By common consent, this and "The Moonstone" are the author's two worthwhile works, so if you enjoy one you can go on to read the other, and be satisfied that you have 'done' Collins.
Rating: 5
Summary: Can't Put it Down!
Comment: This is a great book. I was completely pulled into the world created by Wilkie Collins. The characters are great, the suspense is fantastic. The end notes were very helpful, as someone else said in their review. I just could not put this one down - I'd rush home from work every day and bury my head in this book. It is such a joy to find a book that has that effect!
Rating: 5
Summary: Penguin Classics Edition is an Easy Read
Comment: I'll keep this brief. This is an excellent book, as other reviews will tell you. This particular edition, Penguin Classics, is the one I read, and I enjoyed it all the more because of the endnotes. I don't know if endnotes are included in all editions, but they definitely helped clear up a few of the more obscure terms scattered throughout the book. The excerpt of the play at the end is also a good addition.
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Title: The Moonstone (Oxford World's Classics) by Wilkie Collins, John Sutherland ISBN: 0192833383 Publisher: Getty Ctr for Education in the Arts Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins ISBN: 0486243338 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1982 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: No Name (Oxford World's Classics) by Wilkie Collins, Virginia Blain ISBN: 019283388X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins ISBN: 0486237753 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 February, 1979 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Middlemarch by George Eliot, Rosemary Ashton ISBN: 0141439548 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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