Books by Wilkie Collins

Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.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' Anne Catherick comes across Walter Hartright. Chilling, suspenseful and tense in mood, the novel remains as emotive for its readers today as when it was first published.

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Book SynopsisA fabulous yellow diamond disappears, the case looks simple, but in mid-Victorian England no one is what they seem, and nothing can be taken for granted.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Wilkie Collins The Moonstone Explanatory notes Index

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Book SynopsisEditedand with an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. ‘Have you ever heard of the fascination of terror?’ This is a unique collection of strange stories from the cunning pen of Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone. The star attraction is the novella The Haunted Hotel, a clever combination of detective and ghost story set in Venice, a city of grim waterways, dark shadows and death. The action takes place in an ancient palazzo coverted into a modern hotel that houses a grisly secret. The supernatural horror, relentless pace, tight narrative, and a doomed countess characterise and distinguish this powerful tale. The other stories present equally disturbing scenarios, which include ghosts, corpses that move, family curses and perhaps the most unusual of all, the Devil's spectacles, which bring a clarity of vision that can lead to madness.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.The horrid mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my head like liquor, and makes me wild.'Centred around a glorious yellow diamond that carries with it a menacing history, The Moonstone tells the story of Rachel Verinder, who inherits the stone on her eighteenth birthday. That very evening, the diamond is stolen and there begins an epic enquiry into hunting down the thief. At the same time, three Indian men, Brahmin guardians of the diamond are attempting to reclaim the stone in order to return it to their sacred Hindu Idol.Told from the perspective of 11different characters, Wilkie Collins' tale of mystery and suspicion was considered the first modern English detective novel at its time of publication.

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Book SynopsisA witty, intricately-plotted exploration of a sudden fall from grace, the Penguin Classics edition of Wilkie Collins''s No Name is edited with an introduction and notes by Mark Ford.Magdalen and her sister Norah, beloved daughters of Mr and Mrs Vanstone, find themselves the victims of a catastrophic oversight. Their father has neglected to change his will, and when the girls are suddenly orphaned, their inheritance goes to their uncle. Now penniless, the conventional Norah takes up a position as a governess, but the defiant and tempestuous Magdalen cannot accept the loss of what is rightfully hers and decides to do whatever she can to win it back. With the help of cunning Captain Wragge, she concocts a scheme that involves disguise, deceit and astonishing self-transformation. In this compelling, labyrinthine story Wilkie Collins brilliantly demonstrates the gap between justice and the law, and in the subversive Magdalen he portrays one of the most exhilarating heroine

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Book SynopsisThe Penguin English Library Edition of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins''Here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond - bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man''When Rachel Verinder''s birthday present - the Moonstone, a large Indian diamond - is stolen at her party, suspicion and the diamond''s mysterious curse seem set to ruin everyone and everything she loves. Only Sergeant Cuff''s famous detective skills offer any hope of peace and a future for them all. The intricate plot and modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collin''s 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings and a ''locked-room'' puzzle, The Moonstone was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century

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Book SynopsisWilkie Collins''s classic thriller took the world by storm on its first appearance in 1859, with everything from dances to perfumes to dresses named in honor of the woman in white.  The novel''s continuing fascination stems in part from a distinctive blend of melodrama, comedy, and realism; and in part from the power of its story.     The catalyst for the mystery is Walter Hartright''s encounter on a moonlit road with a mysterious woman dressed head to toe in white.  She is in a state of confusion and distress, and when Hartright helps her find her way back to London she warns him against an unnamed man of rank and title.  Hartright soon learns that she may have escaped from an asylum and finds to his amazement that her story may be connected to that of the woman he secretly loves.  Collins brilliantly uses the device of multiple narrators to weave a story in which no one can be trusted, and he also famously creates, in the figure

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Book SynopsisThe Woman in White (1859-60) is the first and greatest `Sensation Novel''. Walter Hartright''s mysterious midnight encounter with the woman in white draws him into a vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue.The novel 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''. A masterwork of intricate construction, The Woman in White sets new standards of suspense and excitement, and achieved sales which topped even those of Dickens, Collins''s friend and mentor.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, uTrade Reviewwith each volume having an introduction by an acknowledged expert, and exhaustive notes, the World's Classics are surely the most desirable series and, all-round, the best value for money * Oxford Times *Collins's mid-Victorian novel is one of the first, and possibly still the greatest, of all literary thrillers. * The Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisAn innovative novel featuring an astonishingly wicked female villain, Wilkie Collins''s Armadale was regarded by T.S. Eliot as ''the best of [his] romances''. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by John Sutherland.When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money - and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as ''One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction''. She remains among the most enigmatic and fascinating women in nineteenth-century literature and the dark heart of this most sensational of Victorian ''sensation novels''.John Sutherland''s introduction illustrated how Wilkie Collins drew on scandalous newspaper headlines and on new technology particularly the penny post and the telegraph - to lend extra pace and veracity to his tale. This edition also contains notes, further reading and an appendix on stage dramatisations of Armadale.Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln''s Inn, where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens, who produced and acted in two melodramas written by Collins, The Lighthouse and The Frozen Deep. Of his novels, Collins is best remembered for The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868).If you enjoyed Armadale, you might like Collins''s No Name, also available in Penguin Classics.

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Book Synopsis''A masterpiece'' The TimesAfter the tragic deaths of their parents, Magdalen and Norah discover the devastating news that they are both illegitimate and not entitled to any inheritance. Norah is forced to become a governess to earn her keep but Magdalen has grander plans and embarks on an elaborate scheme of revenge against her cold-hearted relatives.INCLUDES ''MRS ZANT AND THE GHOST''Trade ReviewA relatively unknown masterpiece * The Times *Magdalen, a woman who resists the Victorian idea of the angel in the house and proves to be unscrupulous in her fight for survival against poverty and prejudice, employing disguise and deceit to win back what she believes is rightfully hers * Observer *Dizzyingly readable, with a feminist anti-heroine up to all sorts of deception and skulduggery, cheered along by the reader every step of the way * Mail on Sunday *Two dispossessed sisters fight for their inheritance, the narrative snaking compellingly around Victorian Britain * Sunday Times *Collins explores the iniquity of Victorian morality by damning the future of his resourceful heroine at an early stage with the discovery of her own illegitimacy. Deprived of her inheritance and even her name, Magdalen Vanstone sets out with frightening courage to reestablish her fortune and reputation. The ingenuity and guile she employs to achieve her end makes her a rare figure in Victorian literature and one of Collins' most subversive characters * The Times *

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Book SynopsisIntroduction and Notes by David Blair, Rutherford College, University of Kent. The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond which had been brought to England as spoils of war, is given to Rachel Verrinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night, the stone is stolen. Suspicion then falls on a hunchbacked housemaid, on Rachel's cousin Franklin Blake, on a troupe of mysterious Indian jugglers, and on Rachel herself. The phlegmatic Sergeant Cuff is called in, and with the help of Betteredge, the Robinson Crusoe-reading loquacious steward, the mystery of the missing stone is ingeniously solved.

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Book Synopsis"She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have steeled his heart against her." In love with the beautiful heiress Laura Fairlie, the impoverished art teacher Walter Hartright finds his romantic desires thwarted by her previous engagement to Sir Percival Glyde. But all is not as it seems with Sir Percival, as becomes clear when he arrives with his eccentric friend Count Fosco. The mystery and intrigue are further deepened by the ghostly appearances of a woman in white, apparently harbouring a secret that concerns Sir Percival’s past. A tale of love, madness, deceit and redemption, boasting sublime Gothic settings and pulse-quickening suspense, The Woman in White was the first best-selling Victorian sensation novel, sparking off a huge trend in the fiction of the time with its compulsive, fascinating narrative.Trade ReviewFor sheer plotting genius, Collins had no rival. If you’ve never read this, I can promise you one of the most gripping stories of all time. -- Philip Pullman

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Book SynopsisArmadale tells the devastating story of the independent, murderous, and adulterous Lydia Gwilt. This traditional melodrama also considers the modern theme of the role of women in society.Trade ReviewA gloriously dark tale of mixed identities and the irresistible, wicked Lydia Gwilt. Forget Dallas and Eastenders, this has to be the greatest of all soap operas. * Steven Isserlis, The Week *

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Book SynopsisThe only edition in print, Man and Wife combines the fast pace and sensational plot of Collins's most famous novels with a biting attack on the inequitable marriage laws in Victorian Britain.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.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' Anne Catherick comes across Walter Hartright. Chilling, suspenseful and tense in mood, the novel remains as emotive for its readers today as when it was first published.

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Book SynopsisThe 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 is drawn into 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.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distTrade Review“Collins was a master craftsman, whom many modern mystery-mongers might imitate to their profit.” —Dorothy L. Sayers

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Book SynopsisIn Basil''s secret and unconsummated marriage to the linen-draper''s sexually precocious daughter, and the shocking betrayal, insanity, and death that follow, Collins reveals the bustling, commercial London of the nineteenth century wreaking its vengeance on a still powerful aristocratic world. Contemporary reviewers vehemently disapproved of this explicit treatment of adultery; and even today the passionate and lurid atmosphere he creates still has the power to disturb the reader. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Book SynopsisWilliam Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866), and The Moonstone (1868), considered the first modern English detective novel.

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Book SynopsisWith an Introduction and Notes by Scott Brewster, University of Central Lancashire. Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery, and The Woman in White is his first excursion into the genre. When the hero, Walter Hartright, on a moonlit night in north London, encounters a solitary, terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white, he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterised cast, from the peevish invalid Mr Fairlie to the corpulent villain Count Fosco and the enigmatic woman herself.

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Book SynopsisFrank Aldersley becomes engaged to Clara Burnham on the eve of his departure on a journey to discover the Northwest Passage. Unbeknownst to him, Richard Wardour, his spurned rival, joins the crew of another ship belonging to the same expedition. When the ships get trapped in the ice and the men are randomly drawn into the same search party, Richard finds himself torn between his desire for revenge and the need for solidarity in the face of adversity. Based on an actual doomed mission to the Arctic captained by Sir John Franklin, and initially written for the stage in collaboration with Dickens – who also acted in the play – The Frozen Deep is an action-packed tale of vengeance and sacrifice.Trade ReviewYou can’t help feeling that Wilkie Collins was more in tune with modernity than his friend Charles Dickens. * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisMarian and her sister Laura live a quiet life under their uncle's guardianship until Laura's marriage to Sir Percival Glyde. Sir Percival is a man of many secrets. Hence, Marian and the girls' drawing master, Walter, have to turn detective in order to work out what is going on, and to protect Laura from a fatal plot.Trade ReviewThe most popular novel of the 19th century, and still one of the best plots in English literature. Notable for its marvellous villains and, like all Collins's work, for its complex, spirited and believable female characters -- Sarah WatersThe various women of the book - in white and otherwise - are wonderfully real -- Elizabeth KostovaTo Mr Collins belongs the credit of having introduced into ficiton those most mysterious of mysteries, the mysteries which are at our own doors -- Henry JamesThe Woman in White...is a stay-up-all-night page-turner from 1859 that rivals any thriller written since -- Jennifer Egan, author of A VISIT FROM GOON SQUAD * Observer, *Summer Reads of 2023* *

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Book Synopsis''The first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels'' T S EliotWhen Rachel Verinder receives a gift of an astonishing yellow diamond from her bitter old uncle for her eighteenth birthday, she has no idea that the stone brings great danger with it. When the diamond goes missing during the night the ensuing investigations gradually bring to light the sinister history of the jewel and the passions and plots of those close to Rachel.''Probably the very finest detective story ever written'' Dorothy L. Sayers**AS DISCUSSED ON BBC2''S BETWEEN THE COVERS**Trade ReviewPerfect for long, cold, winter evenings * The Times *A whodunit about a lost jewel with several different narrators 'the first English detective story' is so ingenious, so melodramatically rational, so druggy and glittery and cleverly elusive, that it triumphs over all its impersonators * Observer *A great, bold, theatrical mystery story which never falters, written with huge confidence and style -- Joanna TrollopeWilkie Collins, along with Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens is generally acknowledged to be the great-great-grandfather of the modern mystery, but it's hard to think of many modern mysteries as skillfully shaped and psychologically keen as this one. The story flirts with the conventions of Victorian melodrama, but the characters that people it are truly vivid -- Elizabeth KostovaNo wonder 21st-century novelists are influenced by the great Victorian serial writers with their rip-roaring plots. A twisting detective thriller -- Joanna Briscoe * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThe Moonstone is one of the first true works of detective fiction, in which Wilkie Collins established the groundwork for the genre itself. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction by Sandra Kemp.The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand. The intricate plot and modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collins''s 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings and a ''locked-room'' puzzle, The Moonstone was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel.In her introduction Sandra Kemp explores The Moonstone''s the detective elements of Collins''s writing, and reveals how Collins''s sensibilities were untypical of his era.Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln''s Inn, where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens, who produced and acted in two melodramas written by Collins, The Lighthouse and The Frozen Deep. Of his novels, Collins is best remembered for The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868).If you enjoyed The Moonstone you might like Collins''s The Woman in White, also available in Penguin Classics.''Probably the very finest detective story ever written''Dorothy L. Sayers''The first, the longest and the best of modern modern English detective novels''T.S. EliotTrade Review"The first and greatest of English detective novels."--T. S. Eliot

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Book SynopsisThe structured approach to reading in English Dominoes is an enjoyable series of illustrated classic and modern stories in four carefully graded language stages - from Starter to Three - which takes learners from beginner to intermediate level. Each Domino reader includes:A good story to read and enjoy.Integrated activities to develop reading skills and increase active vocabulary. Personalised projects to make the language and story themes more meaningful. Seven pages of grammar activities for consolidationDominoes can be purchased as standalone readers or as part of an audio pack which includes the graded reader alongside downloadable MP3 audio.

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Book SynopsisValeria Woodville's first act as a married woman is to sign her name in the marriage register incorrectly, and this slip is followed by the gradual disclosure of a series of secrets about her husband's earlier life, each of which leads on to another set of questions and enigmas. Her discoveries prompt her to defy her husband's authority, to take the law into into a labyrinthine maze of false clues and deceptive identities, in which the exploration of the tangledworkings of the mind becomes linked to an investigation into the masquerades of femininity. Probably the first full-length novel with a woman detective as its heroine, The Law and the Lady is a fascinating example of Collins's later fiction. First published in 1875, it employs many of the techniques used in The Moonstone, developing them in bizarre and unexpected ways, and in its Gothic and fantastic elements The Law and the Lady adds a significant dimension to the history of detective fiction.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Note on the text; Select bibliography; A chronology of Wilkie Collins; The Law and the Lady; Explanatory notes

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Book SynopsisAt the centre of Hide and Seek (1854) a secret waits to be revealed. Why should the apparently respectable painter Valentine Blyth refuse to account for the presence in his household of the beautiful girl known as Madonna? It is not until his young friend Zack Thorpe, who is in rebellion against his repressive father, gets into bad company and meets a mysterious stranger that the secret of Madonna can be unravelled.Wilkie Collins''s third novel, dedicated to his life-long friend Dickens, is a story in which excitement is combined with charm and humour. In its mixture of the everyday and the extraordinary, Hide and Seek forms a bridge between the domestic novel and the sensational fiction for which Collins later became famous. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valu

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Book SynopsisPenguin Readers is an ELT graded reading series for teenagers and young adults learning English as a foreign language.- Carefully adapted text.- Accompanying audio and digital version with the print edition, accessed securely online.- The series includes popular classics, bestselling modern fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction.- The eight levels of Penguin Readers are mapped to the CEFR, and Lexile measured.- Beautiful new illustrations for levels 2 to 6. Starter and level 1 titles in graphic-novel format, for beginner learners.- Language practice exercises and a glossary in every book, additional activities and lesson plans online.- Visit the Penguin Readers website: www.penguinreaders.co.ukThe Woman in White, a Level 7 Reader, is B2 in the CEFR framework.One night when Walter Hartwright is walking home, he meets and helps the mysterious ''woman in white''. Soon after this meeting, Walter starts a job as a drawing teacher in the north of England and falls in love with his student, Laura Fairlie. But Laura is engaged to Sir Percival Glyde. Then Laura receives a letter warning her not to marry Glyde. Walter is sure that the letter comes from the woman in white...

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Book Synopsis'The Moonstone is a page-turner,' writes Carolyn Heilbrun. 'It catches one up and unfolds its amazing story through the recountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing and singular.' Wilkie Collins’s spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre-the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive 1871 edition.

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Book SynopsisWilkie Collins’ classic tale of murder, intrigue, madness, and mistaken identity ONE OF TIME’S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME “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 thefigure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments.” Generally considered the first English sensation novel, The Woman in Whitefeatures the remarkable heroine Marian Halcombe and her sleuthing partner, drawing master Walter Hartright, pitted against the diabolical team of Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. After more than a century since its publication, Wilkie Collins’s psychological thriller has never been out of print.

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