The Woman in White

Last night, I finished an excellent, old novel called The Woman in White.  When I picked it up initially, I presumed I was diving head-first into a creepy, ghost story.  As it turned out,  I didn't properly do my homework, but was pleasantly surprised to find myself immersed in a Victorian mystery told from the perspective of a handful of characters (archetypes, really).  It is this shifting vantage point that makes the story particularly compelling.  As a reader, the story is revealed in layers which are then peeled away as each character gets his or her chance to contribute to the overall plot.  The threads of each character are tightly woven together through written testimonials that are composed, in places, like defense statements.   As you travel through the story, you are rewarded with new characters who are all folded into a complex history of lies and betrayals.

In reading some of the supplemental material, I learned that this novel was the first "sensation" novel, the beginnings of a sub-genre that fuses together the atmosphere and suspense of Gothic literature with the "psychology" of what was then new literature.  This new way of telling a story feels like the beginnings of what we know as our modern mystery genre. 

When it was first written, the novel was published in serial format.  I think it's this format which allowed the author, Wilkie Collins to really map out this web of intrigue, populating it with some of the most perverse and melancholy characters in modern literature. 

For me, the result of this shifting, intricate puzzle is like marvelous pieces of candy that you keep popping in your mouth -- deep down, hoping your fingers will never place their tips on the final sweet morsel sitting at the bottom of the bag.