It feels a bit weird to be calling a Victorian-era book a page turner, but The Woman in White is definitely one. I got this partly because it was cheap and partly because it was famous, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

The Woman in White starts with Walter Hartright, getting a job via the recommendation of a friend (Pesca, remember this name!). On his way to his new employment, he comes across the titular woman in white and later discovers that she has escaped from an asylum. What did he do??

Well, the story actually takes off after he meets the woman in white because Walter Hartright falls in love with Laura, one of his students. Unfortunately, Laura is rich and engaged to be married to Sir Percival Glyde. She confesses her love of Walter to him, but he continues to hold her to the engagement and they are married (and Walter leaves). With only her half-sister, Marian, to help her, Laura comes under increasing pressure from Sir Percival and his good friend, Count Fosco, to relinquish her money.

As you can tell, there are many characters in this story and probably just as many narrators. One unique thing about this book is that instead of having one principal narrator, the story is told through a series of a narrators. Some of them, like Walter, get to speak more, but what this narrative style does is let us have a glimpse into the minds of almost everyone that’s important. It’s fascinating and Collins pulls it off amazing, in my opinion.

As for the story, it was gripping. It gets increasingly dramatic, but it never really becomes ridiculous. There are some pretty incredible twists and turns and they all made me want to read more of the book just so I could find out what was going to happen next.

The characters here were generally really interesting, probably because we also get a peek into their minds. The two most fascinating characters were Marian (also my favourite) and Count Fosco. As much as Marian hates it, she and the Count are the perfect heroine-villain combination. She is strong, smart, and determined, making her more than a match for the unfathomably charming and smart count. It’s no wonder that he admires her so much!

And because of this, it’s a bit of a pity that Walter ends up being the hero of the story. I get why this made sense – he is, after all, in love with Laura and he needs to do something after being absent for the majority of the middle part of the book – but I would have loved to see Marian being the one that takes the Count and Sir Percival down. I think she has the wits and the strength to do it.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this. It feels fresh, like a novel twist on the mystery story (even though it’s technically one of the forerunners of the genre!) and it really made me want to read The Moonstone. I think I have a copy lying around somewhere – I’ll have to dig it up. Finally, I want to end my review with one of my favourite character descriptions in the book. Mrs Vesey is Laura’s former governess and a minor character, but I love this description of her:

“Some of us rush through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs Vesey sat through life. Sat in the house, early and late; sat in the garden; sat in unexpected window seats in passages; sat (on a camp-stool) when her friends tried to take her out walking; sat before she looked at anything, before she talked of anything, before she answered Yes or No, to the commonest question – always with the same serene smile on her lips, the same vacantly-attentive turn of the head, the same snugly-comfortable position of her hands and arms, under every possible change of domestic circumstances.”

I don’t know about you, but this one passage (especially the first two sentences) gives me such a vivid impression of Mrs Vesey that I feel like I’ve met her! Also, note to self, bring a camp-stool if anyone tries to take me hiking again.