For Christmas last year my brother and his girlfriend got me a one-year subscription to Audible and lately I have been taking full advantage of the sales they’ve been having where they offer two audiobooks from a selection for a total of one credit. Last month their special was spooky reads and this classic by Wilkie Collins was one of the offers. I had heard just enough about this book to recognize it when I saw it as an option and to be intrigued enough to use half a credit to buy it.
I’m not sure what to make of it.
Second of all, I’m not sure why this book is classified as a horror since I consider horror as having an element of the supernatural about it. Give me all the ghost stories!
But this isn’t a ghost story, it’s just a story of how women in mid-19th century England could be neglected and abused by the men in their life. As I did a little research, I found that this is considered to be one of the original mysteries, so maybe it’s just the fact that mysteries tend to get a bump in sales during Halloween.
To start with, the book is way longer than it needs to be. The audiobook is 24 hours and the physical book is around 700 pages. Ian Holmes narrated the audiobook, and while I appreciated that he did a great job with things like providing different voices for each character, he insisted on lots of long pauses for dramatic effect, even when nothing was particularly dramatic or suspenseful, and I could have done with much less of that.
The book is told from several perspectives with the idea that one of the main characters, Walter Hartright, is conducting an investigation and trying to find proof that his wife is Laura Fairlie and not Anne Catherick (a.k.a. the woman in white). We hear from him and Marian Halcombe, Laura’s half sister, Mr. Fairlie, Laura’s uncle (both her parents are dead, because of course), Count Fosco, Mrs. Michelson, a housekeeper, and Fanny, lady’s maid to Laura until she is summarily dismissed by Sir Percival Glyde, Laura’s husband. I just realized how interesting it is that we never hear from Percival, despite the rather large role he plays in the plot. Mostly, we hear from women and Hartright.
There’s a lot going on in this book: multiple escapes from an insane asylum; a neglectful uncle who can’t be bothered to make sure his niece has any protection whatsoever in her marriage contract, or even identify her when she makes her way back to him after having been switched with the half sister she never knew she had; half sisters everywhere; a forbidden love between members of two different classes; a husband who appears charming until he proves to be anything but; the death of an animal, which you just know is foreshadowing; a scheming foreigner who is just smart and slippery enough to get away with his dastardly plans; secret meetings in a boathouse; a secret brotherhood that murders members who betray said brotherhood.
Apparently this book is one of the first mysteries, although it’s hard to put it in the same category as Agatha Christie’s much shorter novels, which have much tighter plots. That said, I do have to admit I was intrigued by the mystery element of it. Count Fosco (clearly the smartest character in the book, except maybe for Marian Halcombe) was definitely up to something, but it was hard to tell exactly whose side he was on. Marian never trusted him, and while there were times it was clear he was working his own angle, it was never quite clear what that angle was, or if it would mean bad news for Marian and/or her sister, Laura.
On the other hand, it took so long for the full story of the mystery to be revealed that I definitely lost interest and let my mind wander multiple times before finally reaching the end.
In the end, this book was a solid 5/10 for me. I’m glad I read it because it’s a classic, and I did enjoy parts of it, but I think the same story could have been told in a much more efficient manner without losing anything.