The Woman in White: Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins’ novel took the fashionable world by storm on its appearance in 1860 when everything from dances to dresses was named after the ‘woman in white’. Its continuing power to fascinate stems in part from a distinctive blend of melodrama, comedy and realism; and in part from the power of its story. Yet The Woman in White is more than just a classic thriller, and contemporary critics have found in it a feminist parable for our times.