The Woman in White (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Softcover

Collins, Wilkie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1593082800 ISBN 13: 9781593082802

Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005

Synopsis

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RThe Woman in White&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RWilkie Collins&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&R

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences―biographical, historical, and literary―to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&ROne of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, &&LB&&RWilkie Collins&&L/B&&R’s &&LI&&RThe Woman in White&&L/I&&R was a phenomenal bestseller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Dickens, Collins’s friend and mentor. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall readers today. &&LP&&RThe story begins with an eerie midnight encounter between artist Walter Hartright and a ghostly woman dressed all in white who seems desperate to share a dark secret. The next day Hartright, engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half sister, tells his pupils about the strange events of the previous evening. Determined to learn all they can about the mysterious woman in white, the three soon find themselves drawn into a chilling vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue. &&L/P&&R&&LP&&RMasterfully constructed, &&LI&&RThe Woman in White&&L/I&&R is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction―Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant “Napoleon of Crime.”&&L/P&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LSTRONG&&RCamille Cauti&&L/B&&R&&L/B&&R earned a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. Her dissertation concerns the Catholic conversion trend among the London avant-garde of the 1890s. She has also published articles in Italian-American studies. She works in New York City as an editor and critic.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

About this title

From the Publisher

"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 Collin's 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. . . "

From the Back Cover

On a lonely moonlit road, a young drawing teacher meets a mysterious woman, dressed all in white, only to be struck by her eerie resemblance to his pupil, the beautiful heiress Laura Fairlie. Who is this ghostly woman in white? And what secret does she hold over Sir Percival Glyde, Laura s sinister fiancé? This gripping dramatization of the classic Victorian suspense novel opens in a London courtroom, where an inquiry into Laura s suspicious death is underway. As various characters recount the weeks leading up to her marriage and sudden illness, Collins s chilling tale of love, greed, and insanity springs to life with the aid of a brilliant cast, including Stratford Festival star Douglas Campbell as the diabolical Count Fosco.

About this edition

• Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1593082800
• ISBN 13: 9781593082802
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 672