WomanInWhitealong readalong 2022/3

[Piggywaspushed]

After several years of Dickensalongs, we have decided to ring the changes and read The Woman in White together. All welcome - old faithfuls and newcomers!

This was published in 40 instalments which is a bit much!

So I have tried to split it via the various voices as follows -

The First Epoch :
June - The Story begun by Walter Hartright
July - Vincent Gilmore
Marian Halcombe
The Second Epoch:
August - Marian
September - Frederick Fairlie
Eliza Michelson
October - The Story continued in several narratives : Hester - Walter (takes us up to end of second epoch)
The Third Epoch :
November - Walter
December - Mrs Catherick ; Walter
January 2023 - Fosco ; Walter

Eight months in total.

I hope all the editions match this. The Collins has these parts clearly marked at the beginning - in amongst all this are chapters so it is touch confusing and the Penguin edition is less clear. I tried to do something with original instalments but some of them ended mis chapter (as Collins changed his chronology in 1861!) . My instalments do vary quite wildly in length.

We begin this month so grab a copy and join me!

Ooh I’ve got Unwell Women somewhere!

I think I have, too <rubs hands in anticipation>

This section was brilliant. I did have half a hope that Laura actually was dead so that Walter could get together with marvellous Marian - but am very intrigued by how it's all going to be resolved now that Laura is legally dead. Literally had to put the book away in a less-used room so that I didn't read on past this month's section.

I have Unwell Women on my kindle too (like most things on there, it was a 99p deal at some point... 😳)

The next section is LONG!

It is Walter up to Mrs Catherick. Should be intriguing but get reading as it's over 100 tightly packed pages in my Penguin.

So, chapter three going back to Walter will be the final installment?

I don't have the same things in my book but it is as shown in the OP but with different months because we amalgamated !

Sorry, I had a proper look.

We're moving on to Walter and Mrs Catherick next.
After that it will be Walter, Fosco and Walter again.

Walter this month!
Then Mrs Catherick and Walter

Then Fosco and Walter.

I think...

Ah...gosh. Gotcha. Just stick to Walter.

Sorry for the confusion 😊

As you were everyone!

I’m really looking forward to our next discussion but can I just double-, triple-check that I’ve read to the right point, @Piggywaspushed ? Just Walter's bit, not going on to Mrs Catherick? It’s a real cliff-hanger!

Yes, that's right!

Thanks, Piggy!

Place-marking with this fine line;

'I had stirred in its lair the serpent-hatred of years, but only for a moment'.

At first, I found this section slow going with a lot of backfill but, my, what a riproaring end it has come to! And Mrs Catherick is a
good Victorian odious creation.
I am obviously being slow but how exactly does the entry in the ledger prove Percival to be not who he says he is? I presume Mrs Catherick’s letter will reveal some of the intricacies to us.

I was tickled by Shmoop’s description of Walter as: Our favourite drawing teacher/amateur detective/boxer (for two seconds)/Olympic running star.
He does seem to have rather good skills – it’s that stint in Central America it seems! Shame that the Americas didn’t have quite the same toughening effect on sodding Angel Clare and then poor Tess would have been fine.
The little bits of context – like Victorian men going off adventuring in the Americas and railways ruining once lovely towns are interesting parallels with Hardy. Collins clearly didn’t think much of the sprouting up of ugly new builds everywhere either in a little bout of NIMBYism. I liked the clerk banging on with wide eyed enthusiasm about ‘London’. It made me think about how different lives were there. News from London only arrived to the sticks if
a Londoner came to the village, otherwise they were different worlds. Collins does reflect a time of rapid social change.

We have indeed been left desperate to read that letter!

I know I keep saying this but wow! what a corker of an episode (and it strikes me as interesting that 'episode' is the word that springs to mind, as it feels very televisual). Good old Collins is really getting into gear with his story now.

Piggy, I’m also slightly confused over the exact nature of Sir Percival's Secret; the marriage entry in the register was clearly faked after the fact (as it didn’t appear in the copy) - so I guess the Secret could simply be that he was illegitimate and therefore everything including his marriage and his appropriation of Laura's money is a crime because he isn’t who he said he was, and therefore wasn’t entitled to any of it? Or is he a total imposter, like the Tichborne Claimant of the famous Victorian court case (which I think happened after TWIW, actually)? That’s probably unlikely, as he clearly lived in some style and had properties and money to start with, so I’d assume illegitimacy. Which would be bad enough, for the Victorians!

What fascinated me was the conundrum Walter faced of proving Laura was who she said she was. How could you do that, in the age before fingerprints, before DNA, before any sort of reliable records? You just couldn’t. What a thought.

Yes, that all confuses me too. At one point, Walter mentions another person as if there is someone Percival is conning out of the title and money. Presumably an actual legitimate heir exists.

At first I thought Percival was an imposter in the sense of him being a complete crook, but I agree with Terpsichore that it looks like he was illegitimate and he swindled someone else out of their inheritance. He was literally making a name for himself by falsifying the register and writing his parents' marriage into that gap.

It was a slow start, but what an exciting episode it turned out to be. The burning of the vestry took me by surprise. That was horrifying. Walter was amazing. That voyage to Central America was the making of him! I also thought about how impossible a task it was to prove one's identity before the advent of forensic science.

Mrs Catherick was indeed an odious Victorian creation. She reminded me of Mrs Sparsit from 'Hard Times'. Cut from the same cloth. I found it amusing how she went into mourning by changing her mittens! Not that she meant it! Always prepared too.

I liked what you said Piggy about Collins' dislike of the building of new towns. The clerk's awe to get the news from London also brought to mind the distances between places and the time-lag in getting the news.

I'm looking forward to the next installment. It's getting close to the end, although our hero still seems to have a long way to go.

Incidentally, I loved the way (yet again) that Collins undercuts his most tense/serious moments with humour and little touches of true-to-life character - thinking of the clerk wittering on and on when Walter's just desperate to get his hands on the register. We've all known people like that!

Mind you, I had to laugh a bit at his heavy scene-setting for the fire with all the descriptions of the packing-cases lying around in the vestry with all the WOOD and the SHAVINGS (hint, hint). He might as well have had a giant flashing sign with FIRE RISK!!! spelt out in neon.

Yes exactly 😅still took me by surprise though 😂

I'm very behind this month unfortunately but am still reading all the comments. I'm surprised how much I've forgotten from my first read, am looking forward to catching up with you all.

I’m another one who is a bit confused about why the missing marriage register proves that Percy isn’t who he says he is. Hopefully the next section will make things a bit clearer! I am really enjoying this though, it’s a gripping story so thanks to whoever had the idea to do this as our read through!

Are we finishing the book in November? I think originally what’s left was split between November and December but as what’s left is less than we read in October (and splitting it would mean one very short instalment) I will be happy to just read to the end (I’ll probably do that anyway).

I'd rather split it as school is very full on in November and I find the darker evening s hard on my eyes...

I think I was the one who suggested TWIW 🤗

Percival is illegitimate. Massive issue in Victorian times and is a plot point in several of Collins's novels. He couldn't inherit the title if he was illegitimate although he could possibly inherit the money but it would require a very well written will and possibly a court case. But there was such disgrace associated with illegitimacy that he'd not be able to marry into the aristocracy if it was well known.

John Bowes is an interesting comparison, his parents married when he was a child but he still moved to France because despite being the very rich and educated son of an Earl he still was rejected by polite society.