1、Contents I.About the author II.His Masterpieces III.The Woman in White IV.Character List V.Plot in the story VI.Themes Wilkie Collins 1.Known as the Father of modern detective novel writer 2.Born into an artists family in London.3.Educated privately and had a gift for story-telling.4.A close friend
2、of Charles Dickens,who had a great influence on him.Wilkie Collins 1.He wrote 27 novels,more than 50 short stories and at least 15 plays.2.His detective stories are famous for the unexpected suspense.4.His novel The Moonstone is considered as the first detective story in the history of England.The W
3、oman in White as his best novel.4.Almost all his books are in print,he is studied widely,and new films and TV plays have been made.About His Works Collins Masterpieces Characters List 1.Walter Hartright 2.Frederick Fairlie 3.Laura Fairlie 4.Marian Halcombe 5.Anne Catherick 6.Mrs Catherick 7.Sir Perc
4、ival Glyde 8.Count Fosco Walter Hartright?A?aged twenty-eight years,a poor artist teacher who has been employed to teach art to the nieces of Frederick Fairlie in the north of England.He falls in love with Laura Fairlie.Frederick Fairlie?A?He is Lauras uncle and the owner of Limmeridge House.He is a
5、bout sixty with a delicate,nervous voice.He is always complaining about the effect of noise on his nerves.His health is his only interest.Laura&Marian?A?They are half-sisters.They had different fathers.Marians was poor and Lauras rich.Marian Halcombe has thick black hair,dark shing eyes and an intel
6、ligent expression.Laura Fairlie is a good,happy and beautiful young woman who looks very similar to Anne Catherick.She is a good pianist.Anne Catherick?She is also called the Woman in White because she dressed in white clothes in memory of Lauras mother,who she knew in Limmeridge.She has escaped fro
7、m an aslyum;she says that Sir Percival put her there.Sir Percival Glyde?He is Lauras fiance and then husband.He is a forty-five-year-old baronet with a large house and a lot of land in the south of England.He has a cough and a mark on the back of his hand.There is some connection between him and Ann
8、e Catherick.Mrs Catherick?Annes strange and unsympathetic mother,somehow in league with Sir Percival Glyde.Professor Pesca?A teacher of Italian,and a good friend of Hartright.Finds him the Limmeridge job,and proves Foscos unexpected nemesis.Count Fosco?Sir Percivals friend.A grossly obese Italian wi
9、th a mysterious past.Eccentric,urbane,intelligent and menacing.Greatly admires Marian for her intellect.?Lauras aunt,once a giddy girl but now humourless,cold and in thrall to her husband and his schemes.Countess Fosco Summary of the Plot Summary(1)?Poor art master Walter Hartright encounters a myst
10、erious woman dressed all in white on a moonlit road in Hampstead.She is in a state of confusion and distress,and Hartright helps her to find her way back to London.In return,she warns him against a certain baronet,Immediately after they part,Hartright learns that she may have escaped from an asylum.
11、?He goes to Cumberland to take up a position as art tutor at Limmeridge House to two young women:Marian Halcombe and her wealthy half-sister,Laura Fairlie.?He finds to his amazement that the story of the woman in white,Anne Catherick,may be entangled with the lives of the two sisters.?Walter and Lau
12、ra fall rapidly in love but she is soon to be married,by her late fathers wish,to Sir Percival Glyde,a baronet.Hartright resigns and travels abroad to forget.Summary(2)?Marian moves in with Laura and her husband.The marriage is unhappy,and Marian soon realises that Sir Percival is attempting to gain
13、 control of Lauras fortune with the help of his Italian friend Count Fosco,a menacing yet charming and intelligent villain with an enigmatic past.Summary(3)?She also meets the mysterious Anne Catherick,who hates and fears Sir Percival,blaming him for sending her to the asylum to keep her from reveal
14、ing his secret.?Marian tries to untangle the mystery and protect her sister from Sir Percival and Fosco,but falls ill.?When she recovers she is told first that Laura has gone to London,and then that she has died there.?Anne Catherick,it appears,has been recaptured and is back at the asylum.Summary(4
15、)?Walter returns to England and visits Limmeridge to mourn at Lauras grave,only to encounter Marian and a living Laura at the graveside.?Lauras death has been faked:Anne Catherick,who greatly resembles Laura,died in London,and was buried as Laura.Lauras property has all passed to Sir Percival.Summar
16、y(5)?Laura herself was sent to the asylum as Anne,where her protestations were dismissed as proof of insanity,and the horrific experiece almost destroyed her before Marian discovered the substitution and bribed a member of staff to help her escape.Summary(6)?The rest of the novel traces the attempts
17、 of Marian and Walter to safeguard Laura from capture and return to the asylum,to nurse her back to health,to expose the plot and to force Lauras family and friends to acknowledge her identity.Summary(7)?In the process Walter meets Annes strange mother and uncovers Sir Percivals dark secret-his pare
18、nts were not legally married,so he is not the rightful owner of his property or title.?Walter tries to obtain church registers as evidence,in order to blackmail Sir Percival into confessing,but the baronet starts a fire to destroy them and burns to death in the ensuing blaze.Summary(8)?With his deat
19、h there is some hope of proving the plot and regaining Lauras fortune,but Walter does fulfil his vow that Laura-now Mrs Hartright-should be publicly acknowledged at Limmeridge as herself.?Nor is there any further threat from Fosco,who is murdered by an Italian secret society he has betrayed,and his
20、body is thrown into the river.Summary(9)Themes of The Woman in White?love and marriage?greed and murder?madness and mistaken identity?respectability and social class Styles?multiple first person?multiple viewpoints?drawbacks (1)(1)The Moonstone is a huge yellow diamond that was once part of a statue
21、 of the moon god in India.(2)(2)Before her birthday party,Rachels friend Franklin painteda door in her sitting room with flowers and birds.Some honored guests,relatives and friends arrived at the Verinders before the party began.(3)(3)(4)(4)All the guests are astonished by its size and rare beauty.B
22、ut from the moment Rachel fastens it to her dress,things start going wrong.Some Indians come to the house offering to entertain the guests,but they are not very skilled and behave strangely.(5)(5)(6)Rachels mother hires the famous detective Sergeant Cuff to investigate the theft.Rachel Franklin Godfrey Dr Candy Rosanna Sergeant Cuff Indian entertainers
