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Wow, it feels so weird to be able to write that once more. It seems like just yesterday I was typing it for the first time on my old rickety desktop, and now I'm writing it once more, at the start of a new (hopefully marvelous) year, 2009, on my old rickety laptop.
As I've said elsewhere, my goal for this year (bookwise) is to read 75 books and over 15,000 pages (as expressed by my new section that tallies my progress in pages). I want to read more female authors, and read more nonfiction. Other than that, anything goes, although I should try and make a dent in my TBR list.
Book: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Genre: Mystery
Length: 609 pp.
Progress (pages): 305/15000 (I read 304 pages in 2008)
Grade: A+
Amazon Summary: "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." Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero's foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collins' narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing. Collins' other great mystery, The Moonstone, has been called the finest detective story ever written, but it was this work that so gripped the imagination of the world that Wilkie Collins had his own tombstone inscribed: "Author of The Woman In White. . . "
My Thoughts: I spent the last day and a half reading the last 450 pages or so of this book, barely putting it down for anything, not even food. There are some books that just grab you from the instant you hear the title, and this was one of those for me. As soon as I heard of this book, I knew I had to pick it up at the first available opportunity. I was not disappointed by its content.
Before I checked it out of the library, and while reading it, I heard it referred to as one of the first (and finest) mystery novels ever written. This opinion is fully supported by me. From start to finish, I was intrigued, and at times, I was giving myself a headache, trying as hard as I could to figure out the big mystery, the big "WHY?" just lurking in the background—and yet I never could.
Just when you think you've finally figured it out, Collins pulls you in the exact opposite direction. Just when you say, "I just need a few more pages of this character's narrative, or this character's conversation with that character, and I'll figure it out," Collins pulls you into another character's narrative, or brings the conversation to a surprising end that gives away nothing of what you wanted him to, and then the cycle starts over again.
There are so many aspects of this book that surprised and thrilled me. The characterization is some of the best I have ever seen (in just a couple of pages, you know exactly what Hester Pinhorn is like), the descriptions are bright and engaging and, just as I said, when you think you've figured something out, the plot moves in the exact opposite direction.
Walter Hartright and Marian Halcombe, the two main narrators of this fabulous novel, perhaps pulled at my heartstrings the most. Through each word of their narratives, you could feel the love they had for Laura, the curiosity they had about the woman in white, and the immense distrust (no pun intended) of Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. They moved the story along with their witty expressions, their unexpected actions, and their devotion to Laura.
Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco, though, are perhaps some of my favorite fictional villians of all time. The ill-tempered and devilish Sir Percival made me want to throw something at him, but when a certain event occurred, I felt sympathy rise up despite myself—and then disappear just as I realized just what he had done. Count Fosco, that rotund and (in my view) contradictory man, is truly one to loathe, but grudgingly admire. As Marian said, I would not want to have him as my enemy. My inner feminist also cries out at the way he changed his wife so dramatically over the years, how he now makes her do his bidding without any protest from her.
There is really no criticism I can say I had for this book. Although it is toted as a mystery novel, there are many elements of the Gothic in this novel, and for that, I appreciated it all the more for being able to recognize some of them. The twists and turns in the narrative, the richly layered plot, and the characters that sprang to life in my mind have all made this book the perfect one for starting out the new year. May this new year of reading present more gems such as this one!
Highly, highly recommended.
Next Up:
Either Saturday by Ian McEwan or The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson. Am leaning towards the latter, although Good Omens is lying on my bed right now and I have the strangest urge to pick it up...
As I've said elsewhere, my goal for this year (bookwise) is to read 75 books and over 15,000 pages (as expressed by my new section that tallies my progress in pages). I want to read more female authors, and read more nonfiction. Other than that, anything goes, although I should try and make a dent in my TBR list.
Book: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Genre: Mystery
Length: 609 pp.
Progress (pages): 305/15000 (I read 304 pages in 2008)
Grade: A+
Amazon Summary: "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." Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero's foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collins' narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing. Collins' other great mystery, The Moonstone, has been called the finest detective story ever written, but it was this work that so gripped the imagination of the world that Wilkie Collins had his own tombstone inscribed: "Author of The Woman In White. . . "
My Thoughts: I spent the last day and a half reading the last 450 pages or so of this book, barely putting it down for anything, not even food. There are some books that just grab you from the instant you hear the title, and this was one of those for me. As soon as I heard of this book, I knew I had to pick it up at the first available opportunity. I was not disappointed by its content.
Before I checked it out of the library, and while reading it, I heard it referred to as one of the first (and finest) mystery novels ever written. This opinion is fully supported by me. From start to finish, I was intrigued, and at times, I was giving myself a headache, trying as hard as I could to figure out the big mystery, the big "WHY?" just lurking in the background—and yet I never could.
Just when you think you've finally figured it out, Collins pulls you in the exact opposite direction. Just when you say, "I just need a few more pages of this character's narrative, or this character's conversation with that character, and I'll figure it out," Collins pulls you into another character's narrative, or brings the conversation to a surprising end that gives away nothing of what you wanted him to, and then the cycle starts over again.
There are so many aspects of this book that surprised and thrilled me. The characterization is some of the best I have ever seen (in just a couple of pages, you know exactly what Hester Pinhorn is like), the descriptions are bright and engaging and, just as I said, when you think you've figured something out, the plot moves in the exact opposite direction.
Walter Hartright and Marian Halcombe, the two main narrators of this fabulous novel, perhaps pulled at my heartstrings the most. Through each word of their narratives, you could feel the love they had for Laura, the curiosity they had about the woman in white, and the immense distrust (no pun intended) of Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. They moved the story along with their witty expressions, their unexpected actions, and their devotion to Laura.
Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco, though, are perhaps some of my favorite fictional villians of all time. The ill-tempered and devilish Sir Percival made me want to throw something at him, but when a certain event occurred, I felt sympathy rise up despite myself—and then disappear just as I realized just what he had done. Count Fosco, that rotund and (in my view) contradictory man, is truly one to loathe, but grudgingly admire. As Marian said, I would not want to have him as my enemy. My inner feminist also cries out at the way he changed his wife so dramatically over the years, how he now makes her do his bidding without any protest from her.
There is really no criticism I can say I had for this book. Although it is toted as a mystery novel, there are many elements of the Gothic in this novel, and for that, I appreciated it all the more for being able to recognize some of them. The twists and turns in the narrative, the richly layered plot, and the characters that sprang to life in my mind have all made this book the perfect one for starting out the new year. May this new year of reading present more gems such as this one!
Highly, highly recommended.
Next Up:
Either Saturday by Ian McEwan or The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson. Am leaning towards the latter, although Good Omens is lying on my bed right now and I have the strangest urge to pick it up...
