Wilkie Collins 
The Woman in White 

Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, written in 1859, is considered to be among the first mystery novels and one of the finest examples of the sensation novel, a genre blending realism and gothic romance, and exploring the artificiality of identity. In it, a young protagonist, Walter Hartright, meets a mysterious woman dressed all in white on a London street at midnight. After helping her return home, he learns from police that she has escaped from an asylum. Later, Walter takes a job as an art tutor to two young women, one of whom bears a strong resemblance to the woman in white. Considered to be Collins’ finest novel along with The Moonstone.

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William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. The son of painter William Collins, he lived in France and Italy as a child and became fluent in both languages. Abandoning a law career, his first novel, Antonina was published in 1850. That same year he met Charles Dickens and the two became friends and frequent collaborators. Collins best-known works were published in the 1860s, including The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868). The latter has been called the first modern English detective novel.