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The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins House and starts his new job, teaching art to two half
sisters, Laura Fairlie and Marian, whose parents are both
dead. He falls in love with Laura, who closely resembles
the woman in white, but Laura marries another man, as
she promised to her father. She is unhappy, as her husband
is interested only in her money. He also has a terrible
secret that the woman in white knows. He and his sinister
friend plot to steal Lauras money by substituting the
woman in white for Laura. But Lauras husband dies in a
fire trying to eliminate the traces of his forgery. Laura and
Walter reunite and get married.
PART 1
Chapter 1: One night Walter meets a strange woman
About the author dressed all in white. They talk together and Walter is very
Wilkie (William) Collins can be described as the author much surprised to hear the woman talking about the
of the first full-length detective stories in English. Born in place and the family he is on his way to see. Before he can
London in 1824, he was the son of a landscape painter. ask her any questions, she disappears.
He was educated at private schools, but received his real Chapter 2: Walter goes to Cumberland. At Limmeridge
education on a two-year tour of Italy with his family. He House he meets his pupils, Marian and Laura, who are
trained as a lawyer, but became a full-time writer in his half-sisters. Walter notices that Laura resembles the
early twenties. During the 1860s, with the publication woman in white very much. He tells Marian about the
of novels of mystery, suspense and crime, he became a strange woman. She is keen to help him solve the mystery.
household name. Of these novels, The Woman in White
Chapter 3: Walter enjoys his life at Limmeridge House.
(1860) and The Moonstone (1868) were the
He falls in love with Laura and makes friends with Marian.
most successful, and are still widely read today.
But Marian advises him to leave Limmeridge House,
Collins was very highly thought of by contemporary because Laura is engaged to baronet Sir Percival Glyde,
critics and his books were widely read in both America who is coming soon. Laura receives an anonymous
and Europe. The famous British author Charles Dickens warning against her future marriage, and Walter
was his friend and mentor, and like Dickens, Collins was remembers the woman in white talking about some
a tireless social campaigner. After 1870, Collinss novels wicked and cruel baronet. He thinks the warning letter
concentrated more on social issues such as prostitution is from that woman.
and vivisection than on good story-telling.
Chapter 4: Walter goes to the churchyard to see the
Collins suffered from gout, and was addicted to opium for strange woman who was seen there. They meet and she
the last twenty-seven years of his life (at the time, opium gives him her name, Anne Catherick, and that she has
was considered to be a safe painkiller). Collinss private life escaped from the asylum where Sir Percival shut her up.
was unconventional: he had two mistresses and married Then she gets frightened and runs away.
neither of them, although he had three children by one,
Chapter 5: Before Walter goes away, he and Marian go
Martha Rudd. He died in 1889.
to the village to find Anne Catherick to talk to her. When
they arrive, they find that Anne has already gone.
Summary
Late one night on a lonely road a young art teacher, Chapter 6: Mr Gilmore, the family lawyer, comes to
Walter Hartright, meets a strange woman dressed all in draw up the marriage settlement. He sends a copy of the
white. They talk together and Walter is puzzled by the warning letter to Sir Percival asking for an explanation.
fact that the woman knows a member of the family he Walter leaves Limmeridge House. Laura is very unhappy
is about to start work with. Walter goes to Limmeridge as she is in love with Walter.

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The Woman in White

Chapter 7: Sir Percival Glyde comes to Limmeridge there. But Anne never appears. Sir Percival reads Annes
House and explains that Annes mother used to be his note to Laura and becomes frustrated.
loyal servant. To thank her, he paid for her daughter Anne, Chapter 6: Marian eavesdrops on Sir Percival and Count
who has mental problems, to be placed in an asylum. Fosco plotting to obtain Lauras money in the event of her
Marian writes a letter to Mrs Catherick and receives death. Count Fosco asks about the woman he has seen
confirmation that this is true. After that Laura agrees with Laura in the boathouse. Sir Percival explains it is
to marry Sir Percival, as she does not want to break her Anne Catherick and says that by coincidence, she looks
promise to her late father. as if his wife would look after a long illness.
Chapter 8: When discussing the marriage settlement, Chapter 7: When spying on Sir Percival and Count Fosco,
Sir Percival insists on having his wifes money in case of her Marian becomes so terribly ill and is bedridden. Sir Percival
death. Mr Gilmore does not like the idea. As Laura is not closes up Blackwater Park, and Count Fosco moves to
twenty-one yet, he visits her uncle, Mr Fairlie, to discuss it. London. Laura is told that he has taken Marian with
But Mr Fairlie agrees to Sir Percivals claims. him and she also leaves for London. But Marian is still at
Chapter 9: Walter leaves for Central America for Blackwater Park. She had been moved to another room.
eighteen months. Lauras wedding date is decided Chapter 8: Lady Glyde arrives at Count Foscos house. She
22 December in four weeks time. Sir Percival tries to looks very frightened and very ill. The next day she dies.
find Anne Catherick, but she is gone. Sir Percival and Lady Glydes body is sent to Limmeridge and buried in her
Laura get married and leave for Italy. mothers grave.
PART 2 Chapter 9: Walter Hartright returns to Britain, where he
Chapter 1: Six months later Marian comes to Blackwater learns about Lauras death. He goes to Limmeridge to visit
Park, Sir Percivals house, where she learns that Mrs Lauras grave, as he still loves her. But in the churchyard he
Catherick has secretly visited to find out any news about meets Marian, and the still very much alive, Laura.
her daughter. Marian decides to visit Mrs Catherick.
PART 3
Chapter 2: Sir Percival and Laura come from Italy with Chapter 1: Marian, Laura and Walter rent a small flat
Count Fosco, Sir Percivals friend. Laura is very unhappy, its in London. Marian tells Walter their story. After she
clear now that her husband married her for her money recovered from her illness, she learned that Laura had
only. To clear out his debts he needs to obtain his wifes died of a heart problem. Anne Catherick had been found
money. Marian overhears a conversation and tells Laura and put in the asylum again. Her mental problems got
about it. worse and she thinks she is Lady Glyde. Marian went to
Chapter 3: Sir Percival learns about Mrs Cathericks visit the asylum and found Laura there. She helped Laura to
which makes him very angry. He tries to make Laura sign escape, and they went to Limmeridge, where they met
some document about her money but fails. Outraged, Walter.
Sir Percival leaves Blackwater Park. Chapter 2: Laura says that Count Fosco met her in
Chapter 4: Marian and Laura go to an old boathouse London and took her to some place to meet her sister.
and see a strange figure. They become frightened and go There he gave her a cup of strange tea, she fainted and
home, but someone is following them, and it is not Count recovered in the asylum. Using their similar appearance
Fosco. Laura goes to the boathouse again and meets Sir Percival and Count Fosco placed Laura in the asylum as
Anne Catherick there. Anne tells her she wrote the Anne Catherick, and moved Anne to Count Foscos house,
warning and followed her last time. She also says she know where she died as Lady Glyde.
a terrible secret about Sir Percival. Suddenly she gets Chapter 3: Walter wants to find out Sir Percivals secret
frightened and runs away without revealling the secret. so he can use it to destroy him and goes to see Mrs
Chapter 5: Sir Percival comes back. Count Fosco, who Catherick. At the end of a difficult conversation, she tells
has seen Lauras meeting with Anne, tells him about the him to go to the church and look at the book of marriage
meeting, and they go to the boathouse to wait for Anne records.

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The Woman in White

Chapter 4: Walter goes to the church and finds that Genre: Written in 1860, The Woman in White is one of
the entry for Sir Percivals parents marriage is a forgery the most successful examples of the novel of sensation.
his parents never married, which means that he is not This genre of fiction first started in the 1860s and was
a baronet and has no legal rights for Blackwater Park. characterized by stories of mystery and crime sinister
Moreover, he can be sent to prison. secrets that were slowly uncovered, in an atmosphere
Chapter 5: Sir Percival understands he is in danger and of great suspense. Even though the events were often
comes to the church to destroy the forged page. He unlikely and sensational, they took place in everyday
accidentally starts a fire, gets trapped inside and dies. settings of the time, and this created a feeling of greater
realism. Wilkie Collins was a master of this genre.
Chapter 6: Sir Percivals death is officially recognized
as death by accident. Walter receives a note from Mrs Modern detective novel: The novel of sensation gave
Catherick explaining the extraordinary resemblance of rise to the modern detective novel. Indeed, in The Woman
Laura and Anne they are half-sister, and have the same in White, Walter Hartright and Marian act as amateur
father. detectives. The Moonstone (1868), Collinss other huge
success, is even more of a detective story.
Chapter 7: Walter comes back to London. He tells
Marian the whole story, but they decide to tell Laura only Heroes and heroines: Novels of this kind generally
about her husbands death. Walter and Laura get married. have a hero, a heroine and a villain. In The Woman in
Walter brings Laura to Limmeridge House where he White, there are two heroines and two villains. Laura, the
explains what has happened. She is legally recognized woman Walter loves, is the type of woman popular with
as being alive, and after her uncles death, inherits Englishmen in the nineteenth century. She is very beautiful,
Limmeridge House. very feminine, and very inactive; she does almost nothing.
Lauras sister, Marian, on the other hand, is extremely
Background and themes clever, practical and active; she takes care of Laura. She is
Where the story came from: The plot of The Woman in also ugly. The novel demonstrates the strong tendency
White, although very exciting, seems unlikely: a woman is of men in nineteenth century England to see desirable
robbed of her money when her identity is confused with women as very feminine and passive.
another woman who looks like her. It is now known that Villains: The two villains in The Woman in White are
Collins found the basic plot for The Woman in White in a Sir Percival Glyde, Lauras husband, and his friend, Count
book of French crimes which he bought from a bookstall Fosco. Sir Percival, although evil, is not as clever as Count
in Paris. This book, Recueil des Causes Celebres, by Maurice Fosco. It is Count Fosco who thinks up the plan that
Mejan, gave an account of a sensational lawsuit which was substitutes the woman in white for Laura, and it is he who
strikingly similar to the events in Collinss novel. There are carries out the plan. This adds complexity and interest
even similarities between the people in the lawsuit and to the story; and what fun it is to have two villains rather
the main characters in the novel. than one!
Similarly, the dramatic meeting of the hero Walter Suspense: When Wilkie Collins wrote The Woman in
Hartright with the woman in white at night on a lonely White, he was at the height of his writing ability. The plot
road, also had a basis in real life. The famous English painter, is detailed and carefully worked out. The creation of
John Millais, tells the story of how he and Collins were suspense is extremely skillful. The book was first written
walking in North London one evening, when they heard a in serial form and consequently chapters often end
scream in a garden nearby. A young and beautiful woman on a note of suspense. The author uses the new and
in a long white dress came running towards them, begging experimental technique of different characters telling
for help. Collins followed her and did not return that the story at different points. This is a superb way of
night. The womans name was Caroline Graves and Collins creating greater interest, and Collins brilliantly creates an
subsequently lived with her for many years. atmosphere of fear. It is no surprise that the novel remains
so popular today.

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The Woman in White

Discussion activities 12 Write: Ask students to write an entry for Lauras
diary about Walters departure. Is she upset? Is she
PART 1 sad? What does she think and hope?
Chapters 13
Chapters 79
Before reading
1 Guess and discuss: Have students look at the cover Before reading
of the book and discuss the following: What genre is 13 Discuss: Ask students to discuss these questions:
this book? Why do you think so? What do you think Walter is going to do after he leaves
2 Discuss: Collinss novels are called novels of sensation. Limmeridge House? Do you think he was right to leave?
Ask students to discuss this: What do you imagine are Why/Why not?
the main features of his novels? While reading
While reading 14 Role play: In pairs, students plan and act out the
3 Discuss: Have students discuss the following conversation between Sir Percival and Mr Gilmore
questions: Whats Mr Fairlies attitude towards the about the anonymous letter Laura received. Student A
girls? How do you think it will influence their lives? is Sir Percival and explains why Anne was put in an
asylum. Student B is Mr Gilmore and asks Sir Percival
After reading questions.
4 Discuss: Put students into small groups, and ask them 15 Write: Ask students to imagine they are Marian.
to answer the following: Write a letter to Mrs Catherick asking for the
In each chapter, one or two strange things happen. Say information to prove Sir Percivals explanations.
what these strange things are. Is there an explanation for Dear Mrs Catherick,
these events? If so, what is the explanation or what might I am writing you to ask you about
it be? I hope to hear from you soon.
5 Write: Ask students to imagine they are Walter Warm regards,
Hartright. They write a letter to his mother describing Marian Halcombe
his life at Limmeridge House.
After reading
Chapters 46 16 Discuss: Have students discuss the following: What
Before reading ideas did Sir Percivals lawyers note give to Mr Gilmore?
6 Guess: Will Walter and Marian find the woman in 17 Research and discuss: Lauras marriage is an arranged
white? marriage in other words, a marriage where the
In pairs, students write five ideas for what might parents choose the marriage partner for their son or
happen in the next chapters. Have them compare daughter. Have students do research on arranged
their ideas in small groups. marriages on the Internet. What are the advantages
and disadvantages of arranged marriages?
While reading Do you agree with the idea of arranged marriages?
7 Check: In groups, students check their ideas from 18 Research: Ask students to find out and write about
activity 6. Who was most close to the book? the position of women in Britain in the nineteenth
8 Role play: In pairs, students plan and act out the century. What role did a marriage settlement play in
conversation about local news between the farmers their lives?
wife and Anne Catherick. Student A is the farmers
wife and tells Anne Catherick about the local news. PART 2
Student B is Anne Catherick who looks pale and sad. Chapters 14
While reading
After reading 19 Discuss: Have students discuss the following: Why do
9 Discuss: Have students discuss the following
you think Count Fosco came to the Blackwater Park?
questions: What is your opinion of the Woman in White
What role will he play in the story?
so far? Do you think she is mad? Give reasons for your
20 Discuss: Have students discuss the following: What do
opinions.
you think Sir Percivals terrible secret could be?
10 Group work: In small groups students decide on
an illustration for each chapter. The picture must After reading
illustrate the most important event in the chapter. 21 Group work: In small groups, students write one
Each group then describes their illustration to the sentence about each of the following characters. Each
class. group then reads their sentences out to the class and
11 Role play: Imagine Walter and Laura express the class votes for the sentence that best describes
their true feelings for each other before they part. each character:
In pairs, students plan and act out their conversation. Laura, Marian, Sir Percival Glyde, Count Fosco,
Student A is Walter and Student B is Laura. Walter Hartright
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The Woman in White

22 Discuss: Ask students to think about the following: 32 Write: Have students write an explanation of what
How do you feel about the book so far? Give reasons for Sir Percival and Count Fosco did to Laura, Marian and
your feelings. Anne Catherick. Do you think Sir Percival and Count
23 Write: Have students imagine they are Laura. Fosco are bad people? Why/Why not?
Students write a letter to Walter in which Laura
describes her present life and tells him her true Chapters 47
feelings towards him and Sir Percival. Before reading
33 Guess: Have students guess the following: What do
Chapters 59 you think will happen to Sir Percival? Will his secret be
While reading made public?
24 Write: Get students to see what happened in the
Blackwater Park through Count Foscos eyes and While reading
write them down. 34 Check: Have students check their answers to the
questions from activity 33.
After reading 35 Write: Ask students to imagine they are Walter.
25 Discuss: Ask students to discuss the following: In Write a message to Marian describing his first
your opinion, what is the main motive of the following meeting with Mrs Catherick.
characters? In other words, what is it that makes them
do the things they do? After reading
Marian, Laura, Sir Percival, Count Fosco 36 Write: Have students imagine they are Mr Gilmore.
26 Discuss: Have students discuss this: Both Sir Percival Write a letter to Mr Fairlie informing him that Laura
and Count Fosco are wicked men. Which man do you is alive and is coming to Limmeridge House.
think is worse? Give reasons for your opinion. 37 Group work: In small groups, students tell the story
27 Group work: In small groups, students discuss of these chapters from the point of view of the
the following question: What do you think is the following characters. Each student takes it in turns to
most dramatic moment in each of these chapters? Then say one sentence.
they put the dramatic moments in order from most a Marian
dramatic to least dramatic and compare their order b Laura
to other groups, giving reasons for their order. c Walter

PART 3 Extra activities

38 Project: In groups, students work on the following:
Chapters 13 What does this book tell us about the morals of the
Before reading nineteenth century? Compare the social situation of those
28 Guess: In small groups, students write three questions days with the present one. What has changed? Do you
they would like to know about what really happened think the changes are for the better? Why/Why not?
and why Laura was alive and standing in front of her Present your findings in a book or magazine format.
own grave. 39 Discuss and group work: Collinss advice to other
After reading writers was: Make em laugh, make em cry, make em
29 Check: Ask students to answer the questions they wait. (em = them, i.e. the readers)
wrote for activity 28. In small groups, students discuss how Collins does this
30 Role play: Each student chooses one of the in The Woman in White. Students can look through
characters from the book. Have students walk around the book to find examples. Then have a whole-class
the class asking each other yes/no questions. They discussion about it.
can ask up to five questions each. The other students
must guess who they are.
31 Discuss and write: In small groups, students discuss
whether or not they agree with the following
statement, giving reasons for their opinion. After
discussion, ask them to write one or two paragraphs
about it.
Marian is the real heroine of The Woman in White.

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