Literary The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

[sun surfer]

"'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism."

Goodreads


This book is available in the MR Library!
Kindle prc download, uploaded by HarryT (thread)
ePub download, illustrated, uploaded by AlexBell (thread)


Anyone can discuss any part or aspect of it at any time, although a softly recommended discussion timeframe is given below.
-The first quarter within a week
-The second quarter within two weeks
-The third quarter within three weeks
-The fourth quarters within four weeks


This is the MR Literary Club selection for May 2019. Everyone is welcome so feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time; the more the merrier!

[sun surfer]

I downloaded the kindle version from the MR library and have started on it. I'm enjoying it so far. I noticed when looking at covers that one had the quote (from author Sarah Waters) proclaiming The Woman in White as having, 'One of the best plots in English literature.'

[AnotherCat]

I started it late last night after finishing another book. What I have read so far I have enjoyed; but took a while and some lack of sleep to get to 3% though .

On the basis of that I now have The Moonstone as well as, I think, a biography on my "to read" list.

[fantasyfan]

There are some excellent audio versions of this great novel. I like those which have both a male and female reader. There is a good version available on Audible.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

There are some excellent audio versions of this great novel. I like those which have both a male and female reader. There is a good version available on Audible.

Thanks for the tip! I just took a look at the list on Audible. I plan to read the book, but it might be fun to mix in some audio during my commute.

The Blackstone audiobook looks like a good cast and is whisper-synced to the Vintage Classics ebook that I am reading.
Narrated by: Roger Rees, Rosalyn Landor, John Lee, Judy Geeson

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

I started it late last night after finishing another book. What I have read so far I have enjoyed; but took a while and some lack of sleep to get to 3% though .

Every percent counts!

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

There are some excellent audio versions of this great novel. I like those which have both a male and female reader. There is a good version available on Audible.

Which is the version you like best? I've decided audiobooks are something that, for me, are better with less choice. When a book is under copyright, it generally has one professionally done audiobook to choose and that's it (sometimes two if for instance they have separate across the pond versions), while those out of copyright have so many choices and it's hard to decide on a version or to know which are the better done from samples. Then, once I choose I sometimes second-guess if I should've went with another. For that reason I've drifted towards limiting my audiobooks to mostly in-copyright options and that's actually the reason I decided to read The Woman in White in ebook.

[fantasyfan]

In fact it is the same version mentioned by Bookworm Girl. 😊 I also tend to switch between audio and reading. Librivox has some audio versions as well but they can be of inconsistent quality.

[Bookworm_Girl]

The combo of the Vintage ebook with the Blackstone audio with whispersync is about $10.50. I thought that was a good combo price!

[fantasyfan]

I got the audio with a credit from Audible and the book was only about £1.00. That comes to about the same price as you paid, Bookworm girl. It is good value.

[Bookworm_Girl]

sun surfer, when there are too many choices for audiobooks I usually look for bigger name publishers and then if there are any narrator names that I recognize to narrow the choices. I also listen to the samples to see what sounds most pleasing to my ear.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

In fact it is the same version mentioned by Bookworm Girl. �� I also tend to switch between audio and reading. Librivox has some audio versions as well but they can be of inconsistent quality.

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

sun surfer, when there are too many choices for audiobooks I usually look for bigger name publishers and then if there are any narrator names that I recognize to narrow the choices. I also listen to the samples to see what sounds most pleasing to my ear.

Thanks both of you!

fantasyfan, I've never done the listening/reading combo though I've been meaning to try it out for awhile.

Bookworm_Girl, with having been somewhat new to audiobooks it hasn't been so easy for me to recognise the better narrators or publishers by name so I hadn't thought of that, though now that I am getting the hang of things after a few years of listening I'm going to keep that in mind. As for the samples, I often listened to every (well, every unabridged English-language) sample of a non-copyright audible title which can be quite exhausting, heh. Sometimes that would equal 20, 30, even 40 or more! Then even after I chose I sometimes wasn't sure if I'd made the better decision for my listening enjoyment. I just found it all a hassle that I could do without by mostly listening to copyright audiobooks.

[Bookworm_Girl]

The paradox of choice. It paralyzes me too, and I certainly appreciate the theory that less can be more.

I'm a newbie to audiobooks too. I've listened to them for years and years but not in significant quantities until the last 2 years. I have learned a lot about narrators from following threads in the Audiobooks forum and seeing what narrators or publishers people recommend. Also, when I find a narrator that I really like, I look at what else is in their catalog. Another tip is to look at what audiobooks are at your local library to reduce the choice.

In this case, I saw John Lee's name and knew that I had listened to him read classics in the past. Also the majority of classics that I have are Blackstone audiobooks. I also have several Tantor audiobooks. The two other publishers that I like for classics are Recorded and Brilliance. Lastly, I really enjoy the special Audible versions of the classics read by famous people such as favorite actors of mine.

Hope that helps!

EDIT: Just looking through my audiobook library, I also have some classics published by Naxos.

[Bookworm_Girl]

One could spend a lot of time clicking on links on the Victorian Web, which can be described as collated links to mostly scholarly input.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/collins/index.html

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Thanks for the tip! I just took a look at the list on Audible. I plan to read the book, but it might be fun to mix in some audio during my commute.

The Blackstone audiobook looks like a good cast and is whisper-synced to the Vintage Classics ebook that I am reading.
Narrated by: Roger Rees, Rosalyn Landor, John Lee, Judy Geeson

This version is terrific. The style of the novel is perfect for multiple narrators, and these particular readers are excellent.

[Bookworm_Girl]

It's been a beautiful weekend here so I was able to spend many hours relaxing in my garden with this book. I am really enjoying it and so far not too many details are returning to my memory. I am nearly done with Part 1, Section 1 so about 20%. I can understand why I remember reading it quickly or the sense of reading it voraciously. I don't want to put it down now to go eat my dinner, but I think my husband may feel neglected if I take my Kindle to the table. This book was originally published in serial format, and I can imagine the excitement waiting for the next installment.

I had forgotten about the writing style too. As gmw mentioned, Collins is "adventurous" with his punctuation. There are a lot of long sentences with semi-colons and an abundance of commas!