"The Woman in White" is considered a classic of English literature for a reason. It has everything that should be in a classic novel (at least in my mind). A beautiful protagonist, a faithful lover, delicate feelings, sublime relationships, villains not without nobility, unhappy lunatics, judgment, wealth, poverty, a madhouse, an old castle. The novel is written in beautiful, ornate language, with detailed descriptions and attention to detail. Not everyone likes this style of narration, to many it will seem drawn out and old-fashioned, but that, as they say, to the amateur. I like this style, although I can not help but admit that in some places even I found some moments too drawn out and secondary. For example, the writing of Count Fosco.
A close friend of Charles Dickens from their meeting in March 1851 until Dickens' death in June 1870, William Wilkie Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and, for a time, best paid of Victorian fiction writers. But after his death, his reputation declined as Dickens' bloomed.
The point is that it is as if we are reading the records (diaries, letters, reports) of various characters. A similar technique was used by Collins in another of his novels, Moonstone. The reception is interesting, it gives us the opportunity to look at the events from different points of view. The main thing here, in my opinion, not to go overboard, and Collins got a little carried away. We already have a picture before our eyes of what happened, and the author chews it all up and chews it all up. So, Count Fosco tells us what we already know the second time, and decorates his story with all sorts of verbal tricks and arguments.
Although, on the other hand, if the author expected his novel to be read by girls like Laura Fairley, perhaps he could have chewed up some more. Laura Fairley is one of the main characters, one falls in love with her, there is a whirlpool of events around her and because of her, passions blaze and secrets swirl. She is sweet, charming and kind, but also infantile, helpless and catastrophically stupid. In other words, she is a kind and beautiful fool. The twenty-year-old girl has remained at the developmental level of a fourteen-year-old teenager. As luck would have it, the painter Hartright falls in love with her, and she has a half-sister, Marian, who is smart, brave, and ugly. On the other hand, if it were not for the impenetrable stupidity and characterlessness of Laura, in fact, the novel would not have been. Or there would have been, but not like this. No, I understand, girls of high society almost two hundred years ago and today, it's not the same, but still!
She is betrothed to a certain Sir Percival, but she doesn't want to marry him because she loves another man. All she has to do is refuse him and that's it! No one is forcing her to marry. But the easy way, that's not for us. She is so infantile that she cannot even do that. Instead, she wants to tell her fiancé that she loves someone else, and then (in her mind) he will turn her down himself. The silly young lady doesn't know that rich heiresses aren't rejected because of this kind of crap.
- The whole truth, Laura? What are you talking about? All you have to do is tell Sir Percival that you are engaged to him against your will, that's all. Then he will give you your word back - he told me so himself.
- But how can I do that when my father has blessed us with my consent? And I would keep my word, not rejoicing, I suppose, but not grumbling..." She was silent, leaning against me and leaning her cheek against mine. - I would have kept my word, Marian, had not another love grown in my heart, which was not there when I agreed to be Sir Percival's wife.
- Laura! Will you be so humiliated before him as to tell him so?
- I would be humiliated if I were to cheat him of my freedom and hide from him what he has a right to know.
Or, for example, Marian becomes seriously ill - fever, delirium, severe condition. The housekeeper and Count Fosco's wife (a guest, by the way) take care of her until a nurse arrives. These women do not allow Laura to attend to her, because she can do nothing and only gets underfoot. All she is allowed to do is to check on her sister twice a day (morning and evening). After a few days, Marian is feeling better, and Laura has fallen ill. From overwork and frustrated feelings. For three days she lay in bed, not even going down to the dining room to eat. Why she was overworked is unclear.
Feelings there were upset at one time or the other. Both men and women. They all have such exquisite sensitivity there that it's easy to hug and weep.
In the novel, everyone is constantly writing something: letters, diaries, reports, and the like. Some moments made me laugh. For example, Laura gets a letter and shows it to Marian. She decides that the letter must be destroyed, just in case the enemies don't find out, but before destroying it, it is carefully copied into the diary. Eightieth-level conspiracy. I was reminded of Stoker's novel "Dracula," where the main characters also wrote letters all the time and copied them into diaries. That's hard to understand these days.
In such books I am always interested in the details of life, everyday life and rules of the time. "The Woman in White" fits that perfectly. Collins tells in detail and understandably about the law of succession, customs, laws and manners of 19th century England. And it is served unobtrusively, woven into the events and adventures. Personally, in this regard, I have learned a lot. And it becomes clear that our mentality is so different that "West is West, East is East, and together they will not get along". (с)
Here is the situation. A man is walking along the road in the countryside. Another man overtakes him and pushes him. The first one gets offended and punches him in the ear. The second is also offended, calls his companion and then... What do you think will happen? Well, you guessed it wrong. They grab the first by the arms and drag him into town, to the police, and write him up for insult by action.
The characters are written out quite vividly and vividly, evoking a heartfelt response, who is positive, who is negative. And the positive hero can begin to irritate, like the half-dead oyster Laura, and the negative can evoke something akin to respect, like Count Fosco.
I can recommend this book with a clear conscience to lovers of beautiful language, unhurried reading, old-fashioned intrigue and to those who want to know more about life in England in the century before last.
This article was sponsored by Ovidiu Grecu
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