Publisher's Note

Walter Hartright, a drawing instructor, comes to Limmeridge House to teach Laura and Marion Halcombe. He falls in love with Laura, but she is betrothed to someone else, and he must therefore leave Limmeridge. Before he goes, he tells Marian about his encounter with a beautiful woman dressed entirely in white, whom he later discovers escaped from an insane asylum. Here the mystery begins: Who is the woman in white? And is she truly insane?

Synopsis

Still unsurpassed as a masterpiece of narrative drive and excruciating suspense, 'The Woman in White' is also famous for introducing, in the figure of Count Fosco, the prototype of the suave, sophisticated evil genius. The first detective novel ever written, it has remained, since its publication in 1860, the most admired example of the genre.

威爾基·柯林斯(Wilkie Collins)，於1824年1月8日生於倫敦，1889年9月23日死在倫敦。父親是個風景畫傢。他12歲時隨父母遷居意大利，三年後迴國，就讀於海伯裏私立寄宿學校，曾在茶葉公司工作，後改學法律，在倫敦林肯法學協會當過律師。1847年，父親死後，他纔開始以寫作為生。第一部作品是《威廉·柯林斯》傳，不久就從事小說創作。一開始成績平平，後來他結識瞭當代文豪狄更斯，成為莫逆之交，並為狄更斯主編的，當時最風行的雜誌經常撰稿。他的長篇小說往往在這本雜誌上先發錶，然後齣單行本。這期間他寫瞭不少小說，大都以偵破犯罪事件為題材，柯林斯即以此種小說蜚聲社會，享譽30餘年，但他作品雖多，而得以流傳後世並得到肯定的僅有《月亮寶石》和成名作《白衣女人》兩部。