27 h 51 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 27 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A frightened woman steps onto a road near London, and a drawing teacher’s life turns toward secrets, danger, and love.
In Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, Walter Hartright stops to help a stranger dressed entirely in white. Soon he meets Laura Fairlie, a young heiress who looks strikingly like her, and Laura’s determined half-sister, Marian Halcombe. The stranger, Anne Catherick, fears the man Laura is promised to marry: Sir Percival Glyde.
Anne’s warnings cast a shadow over Laura’s future. Sir Percival wants access to her fortune, while his charming friend Count Fosco has a disturbing gift for manipulation. Through Walter’s account, Marian’s diary, and other voices, you piece together a case in which money, marriage, and control threaten a woman’s safety and identity.
What you’ll discover
- A stranger’s troubling warning Follow Anne Catherick’s fear into questions that polite society would rather leave unanswered.
- A sister who resists Meet Marian Halcombe, whose sharp observations and determination challenge the men threatening Laura.
- Charm with a darker purpose Watch Count Fosco combine social ease with calculation, making every friendly gesture feel uncertain.
- A case to piece together Connect diaries, accounts, documents, and omissions as each voice reveals another part of the mystery.
- Marriage under a shadow Explore how money and marriage leave Laura vulnerable to another person’s power over her life.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love a mystery with secrets, forged papers and a villain with real charm. It also suits anyone drawn to Victorian drama and brave heroines.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A grateful professor sends Walter north
- A woman in white appears on a midnight road
- Limmeridge House brings Marian, Laura, and a nervous uncle
- Love grows, and Marian sends Walter away
- A strange letter leads Walter to Anne Catherick
- Sir Percival answers every charge with perfect grace
- Laura marries, and Blackwater Park closes around her
- Count Fosco charms Marian and Marian spies on him
- Money, law, and women without power drive the plot
- Many voices tell the tale like witnesses in a court
Who’s who
- Walter HartrightA young drawing master who meets the woman in white, loves Laura Fairlie, and sets himself to uncover the truth behind her troubles.
- Marian HalcombeLaura's half-sister, plain, sharp, and fearless, who keeps a diary and uses every wit she has to protect the woman she loves.
- Laura FairlieA gentle heiress who keeps a promise made to her dying father and wants only to be honest and to stay near her sister.
- Anne CatherickThe pale woman in white, devoted to the memory of Mrs. Fairlie, whose supposed knowledge of a secret frightens a powerful man.
- Sir Percival GlydeA baronet with a handsome manner, a bad temper, and debts, who needs Laura's fortune and fears what Anne might say.
- Count FoscoA huge, courteous Italian who loves his pets, quotes poetry, and plans each move with calm intelligence.
- Frederick FairlieLaura's uncle and guardian, an invalid collector of art who wants only to avoid noise and trouble.
- Professor PescaA small, excitable Italian teacher who owes Walter his life and wishes to repay him in any way he can.
Formats and delivery
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La Femme en blanc
by Wilkie Collins · 1859
A drawing teacher meets a woman dressed all in white on a moonlit London road, and nothing is safe afterward.
Challenging10–20 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
It is nearly one in the morning, and a young drawing teacher walks home across the moonlit edge of London. A hand touches his shoulder.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A grateful professor sends Walter north
Walter Hartright is a drawing teacher of twenty-eight, short of money and worn down by a hot London summer. One evening he walks up to his mother's cottage in Hampstead. At the gate he is met by Professor Pesca, a tiny Italian language teacher bursting with news.
Pesca once nearly drowned while bathing at Brighton, and Walter dived down and brought him up from the pebbles. Ever since, Pesca has begged for a chance to repay the debt. Now he has found one. A friend of a rich merchant needs a drawing master at Limmeridge House in Cumberland, the home of Mr. Frederick Fairlie, for four guineas a week.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1859
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 18 h 10 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woman-in-white.
Collins, W. (2026). The woman in white. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woman-in-white (Original work published 1859)
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woman-in-white.
@book{collins2026woman,
author = {Collins, Wilkie},
title = {The Woman in White},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woman-in-white},
note = {First published 1859}
}
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What is The Woman in White about?
It follows a drawing teacher named Walter Hartright, who meets a mysterious woman dressed in white on a London road. He then finds her tied to a wealthy family and to a baronet with a dangerous secret.
Who is the woman in white?
She is Anne Catherick, a frightened woman who once received kindness from Mrs. Fairlie and who knows something that threatens Sir Percival Glyde. She also bears a startling likeness to Laura Fairlie.
Why is the story told by different narrators?
Walter Hartright says he wants to present the facts as a court would, with each witness telling only what he or she knows. That is why a lawyer, a diarist, and others each take a turn.
The author
Wilkie Collins
1824–1889 · English mystery novelist
Wilkie Collins was a British novelist and playwright born in London in 1824. He lived mainly in London and died there in 1889. His novels include The Woman in White (1859–1860), The Moonstone (1868), The Law and the Lady (1875), and The Black Robe (1881).
More by Wilkie Collins
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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