malalai khan

There, in the middle of the broad bright high-road—there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven—stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments, her face bent in grave inquiry on mine, her hand pointing to the dark cloud over London, as I faced her.

These words were enough to grab my curiosity.

The Woman in White is a classic mystery novel written by Wilkie Collins, who also happened to be a very close friend of Charles Dickens.

(Skip if its boring–>) It starts with our protagonist, Walter Hartright, an art-sketching tutor who is sent off to Limmeridge (countryside) to teach two female students. On the way, while walking at night, he encounters our Woman in White (she does not mention her name). She is clad, as described, all in white. She has a sickly pallor and is desperate to go to London (again, she refuses to give any reason except that she goes on raving about a baronet man who did her wrong). She asks for directions and is grateful for Hartright’s kindness. Just then, when he watches her go away, some men ask a nearby policeman for a WOMAN IN WHITE who happens to have ESCAPED FROM AN ASYLUM.
Later, when Hartright comes to Limmeridge, an intimacy is develops between him and Miss Laura Fairlie (his student-their age group is very close). Whilst all this, Miss Marian Halcombe, half-sister of Laura, helps Hartright with finding the identity of the Woman in White, discovering her as Anne Catherick. Right then, he is struck with realization of how Laura resembles similar to Anne in looks.
After that, Hartright faces the heart-breaking truth that Laura was to marry Sir Percival Glyde (baronet) as it was sworn in her father -Mr. Philip Fairlie’s- will. Hartright and Laura give each other farewell etc etc etc and we move on to the mystery of Anne Catherick.

This book was long and so will be the summary. Hence, I won’t bother for the rest. Just go read the novel then 🙂

Okay, this book flowed with gothic vibes.
★ Spooky woman in the middle of nowhere = check
★ Escapee from a mental asylum = check
★ Encounter at a graveyard = check
★ A foreign Count = check
★ A dark manor surrounded by deep forest and huge swampy lake = check
★ Eavesdropping from a terrace in the rain just to gain information and later become sick but still it was worth it (and it was done by a woman, heck yeah! :D) = check
★ A fire inside a church = check
★ Secret cult/society = check
★ An assassination in France near Notre Dame (djkasjdasjdkjasndksa *my fav*) = check

I LOVED MISS HALCOMBE’S CHARACTER.
I don’t need to explain but she is the strongest, most brilliant and wittiest classic female character I have ever read. She is an amateur sleuth. She sat crouched on a verandah in rain for nearly two hours just to get information by spying on the villains. She sacrifices her whole life for Laura; her loyalty is unmatchable.
Read this fierce quote of hers:

“So much the better!” I cried out passionately. “Who cares for his causes of complaint? Are you to break your heart to set his mind at ease? No man under heaven deserves these sacrifices from us women. Men! They are the enemies of our innocence and our peace—they drag us away from our parents’ love and our sisters’ friendship—they take us body and soul to themselves, and fasten our helpless lives to theirs as they chain up a dog to his kennel.

Miss Laura Fairlie is really quite useless. She is “fair”, “slender” and in my opinion utterly stupid. Quite like Wilkie Collins’ other heroines.

Lady Glyde (being no longer in Sir Percival’s service, I may, without impropriety, mention my former mistress by her name, instead of calling her my lady) was the first to come in from her own bedroom. She was so dreadfully alarmed and distressed that she was quite useless.

Walter Hartright’s character was okay. Reminded me of Jonathan Harker from Dracula, though.
Count Fosco was really creepy. Good for a villain. Madame Fosco is a strict and submissive woman; she literally lets Fosco puppet her around and use her under the false pretext of ‘love.’
I LOATHED SIR PERCIVAL GLYDE. Who wouldn’t hate that cheating, hypocrite, two-faced, greedy fraud. Learnt his lesson in the end.

For some reason, I found Mr. Frederick Fairlie really funny. Here are some pieces from his narrative that got me laughing soooo much xD

Nothing, in my opinion, sets the odious selfishness of mankind in such a repulsively vivid light as the treatment, in all classes of society, which the Single people receive at the hands of the Married people. When you have once shown yourself too considerate and self-denying to add a family of your own to an already overcrowded population, you are vindictively marked out by your married friends, who have no similar consideration and no similar self-denial, as the recipient of half their conjugal troubles, and the born friend of all their children. Husbands and wives talk of the cares of matrimony, and bachelors and spinsters bear them.

“As usual,” I said. “I am nothing but a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man.”

“Pray accept my apologies,” I answered. “You have said and done nothing. I make it a rule in these distressing cases always to anticipate the worst. It breaks the blow by meeting it half-way, and so on. Inexpressibly relieved, I am sure, to hear that nobody is dead. Anybody ill?”

Accept his assurances! I never was farther from accepting anything in my life. I would not have believed him on his oath. He was too yellow to be believed. He looked like a walking-West-Indian-epidemic. He was big enough to carry typhus by the ton, and to dye the very carpet he walked on with scarlet fever. In certain emergencies my mind is remarkably soon made up. I instantly determined to get rid of him.

The plot seemed bit slow in the beginning but gradually sped up. In the end, I thought the scandal was at the heart of the fraud, but little Professor Pesca was quite useful actually and his secret was so unexpected.

Really couldn’t put the book down.
So, of course its one of my favourites.

Giving it 4.5 (probably 5 later on):
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Recommend it to every single mystery lover. This is a foundation of classic suspense! ❤

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