Wilkie Collins, THE WOMAN IN WHITE

Thanks for having joined last Thursday for our discussion of Wilkie Collins' THE WOMAN IN WHITE. Cynthia, Robin, Caroline, Philippe, Monika, Helen and myself have enjoyed a quiet (we supposed school holiday induced) "English" evening at the T'Cup which had the thumbs up from all attendants. There was a general agreement that this place was much more suited for us than the often overprized traditional brasserie, although Collins and Dickens liked to take a break from England and enjoy the liberal Parisian air at their time. 

Also all thumbs up - in general - for this month's book selection (correct me if I'm mistaken - I had the impression of a very positive reception). Although it is an English classic, it was not known to everybody or a welcome opportunity to come back to it for others. On the side of the English native speakers even some small personal stories related to the book were shared - in short: A very good and appreciated choice!

Only "negative" remark came from Philippe, who found the book somewhat meaty and even bulky, seeing the large vocabulary (with many unknown words Kindle kindly provided explanation and translation for). On the other hand it was judged to be a pageturner, easy to read with a very enjoyable style. Good to know: It's first publication took place in chapters as a series in the newspaper! Apparently it is Collins' most easy to read novel, but it was not excluded to put another of his oeuvres later on the list.

Surprising for that period is the inventiveness and freedom of writing of the author: The format of the diary, enriched with the accounts, notes and letters in different styles from the different figures participating in the story!

The descriptions of places, nature and situations were very well done. Monika felt almost like being in Blackwater forest with Marian and Laura! Some also had the same effect we had about Zola's Paris in NANA when reading about St John's Wood: Strange to think of the place as only a suburb of London when it is now entirely part of the city!

Of course we also talked about the fate of women in England's mid-nineteenth century. Robin shed light on how easy it was to shuffle off women to an asylum and how corsetts constrained their physical well-being and capacity to move.  

We discussed Marian and here admirable force to take things in hands. Easy to think that she would be the real hero of the story. We know much more about her character than about Laura's.

The men in the novel were rather shortly discussed: We shared our different ideas about how Walter Hartright would look like. And Fosco's corpulence lead us to envision the actors who incorporated him in the different television screen plays.

All in all a very enjoyable evening - for the book and the venue!

 Maren