Author:Wilkie Collins,Matthew Sweet,Matthew Sweet
'The most popular novel of the nineteenth century, and still one of the best plots in English literature' Sarah Waters
The original 'sensation novel', The Woman in White opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter with a strange, solitary woman on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the corridors of English country mansions and the madhouse, this is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Matthew Sweet
A first-rate thriller-blending Gothic surrealism-with tropical depravities-Recommended.
—— GuardianAs usual, Rendell mirrors aspects of the case in the leading characters' personal lives and her cleverly understated writing bathes them and their actions in a glow of reality that sets her writing above that of her many imitators.
—— Time OutAs always with Ruth Rendell's intricately thought-out novels, nothing is as simple as it seems.
—— Sunday ExpressSuperb plotting and psychological insight make this another Rendell gripper
—— Woman & HomeUtterly absorbing
—— Sunday TelegraphRuth Rendell is not only the finest crime novelist there is, but one of the finest novelists writing in the English language
—— Gerald Kaufman, ScotsmanBrilliantly empathetic. Believe the hype: a brilliant, heart-warming book
—— ScotsmanIn telling a painful story in the voice of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's, Haddon broadens ordinary minds and helps to understand how they work, too.
—— Daily TelegraphMark Haddon's portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a superb achievement. He is a wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gifts of empathy
—— Ian McEwanI have never read anything quite like Mark Haddon's funny and agonizingly honest book, or encountered a narrator more vivid and memorable. I advise you to buy two copies; you won't want to lend yours out
—— Arthur Golden, author of 'Memoirs of a Geisha'Original, moving and entertaining for adults as well as for older children
—— Julia Donaldson , Daily ExpressA deservedly acclaimed read.
—— Time Out London