"The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins  (1860, 617 pages in Barnes and Noble Edition)

A Woman in White  seems to have really set the book blog world on fire recently.   It looks like it is  among the most blogged about 19th century books in 2009.   Everyone pretty much  really enjoyed reading it.   For the majority it is the first book of Wilkie Collins they have read and it seems his consensus master piece.   For a lot of readers it seems to be among their first Victorian novels.   This was my first Collins.

The narrative of The Woman in White is carried out by numerous individuals.   Each narrator stood out well.    The story kept my interest to the end.   In fact I found I liked the last 100 pages of the novel more than the rest.   I enjoyed the character of Count Fosco a lot.    Given the large number of posts on this work I am more or less just adding my voice to the chorus on this work.   There are a lot of good blog posts on this work.   I enjoyed this book a lot.    I liked hearing about secret societies and would have liked a bit more focus on that but maybe that is another book. 

Wilkie Collins was a very good friend of Charles Dickens.    The Woman in White was first published in serial fashion in a publication run by Dickens.   In fact, the younger brother of  Collins married the youngest daughter of Dickens.    It is said that Collins always felt his writings were not in the same category as those of Dickens.   I would have to say that he was right with the qualifier that the same could be said of nearly anyone!     I liked The Woman in White and I am glad I read it.   

I read this book book for these challenges

Mutual Reads (Victoria Novels)

Typically British Challenge

Chunkster Challenge (over 450 pages)

Wilkie Collins mini-challenge

Read Before I Die Challenge

New Authors Challenge (refers to new to the reader)