Why did I love this book?
Published 200 years ago, The Woman in White is still popular today and considered a masterpiece of the mystery and suspense genre.
It was one of the first novels with a female protagonist as a detective and blazed a trail for others to follow. The book follows the story of a young art teacher who encounters a mysterious woman dressed in white on a moonlit road. This chance encounter leads to a complex web of intrigue and deception that makes the book the ultimate page-turner.
I first read it about ten years ago and it still plays on my mind. It’s essential reading for anyone tackling the mystery genre.
8 authors picked The Woman in White as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
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'The woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy conceptions of beauty, fills a void in our spiritual nature that has remained unknown to us till she appeared.'
One of the earliest works of 'detective' fiction with a narrative woven together from multiple characters, Wilkie Collins partly based his infamous novel on a real-life eighteenth century case of abduction and wrongful imprisonment. In 1859, the story caused a sensation with its readers, hooking their attention with the ghostly first scene where the mysterious 'Woman in White'…