The woman in white
The Woman in White is a Wilkie Collins novel published in 1860. The book is considered to be the first work belonging to the genre of the typical English “mystery novel”.
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Art teacher Walter Hartright is supposed to teach drawing to two half-sisters Marian Halcombe and Laura Fairlie , who live in Limmeridge House in Cumberland. On the evening before he leaves for Cumberland, Hartright says goodbye to his family and does not start on his way home until after midnight. In front of London, he is approached by a frightened woman in white , whom he accompanies into the city center and who leaves him there without having given him her name. However, she does mention that she was at Limmeridge House when she was a child . After her disappearance, he overhears a conversation that leads him to suspect that the woman has escaped from a madhouse.
Hartright arrives at Limmeridge House , still confused by the previous evening's encounter. He tells Marian Halcombe about his experience, and together they try to solve the mystery of the Woman in White . They identify her as a former student of Marian's and Laura's mother.
Walter falls in love with the beautiful Laura Fairlie, and she seems to be reciprocating, but Laura is already engaged to the opaque Sir Percival Glyde. Therefore, after Marian reminds him of his duty as a gentleman, the honorable Hartright decides to leave Limmeridge House without confessing his love to Laura.
Shortly before Walter Hartright's departure, Laura Fairlie receives an anonymous letter in which she is warned not to marry Sir Percival. It turns out that it was written in white by the woman who looks amazingly like Laura. Walter meets the enigmatic woman and she confides in him that Sir Percival Glyde has a terrible secret that could destroy him - but she disappears again without revealing the secret. Since there is not the slightest suspicion against Sir Percival Glyde, let alone evidence, he and Laura marry, who is already robbed of her property by her new husband in the marriage contract. After the honeymoon, she moves with him to his Blackwater Park estate; her sister Marian accompanies them. Hartright, on the other hand, first goes back to London and then decides to take part in an expedition to Central America in order to forget Laura.
At Blackwater Park, Percival's behavior changes, which was previously impeccable: he becomes brusque and irascible. The only one who can calm him down is his Italian friend Conte Fosco, who is visiting with his wife, Laura's disinherited aunt. When Percival tries to urge his wife to sign without showing her the contents of the document, as she would not understand it as a woman anyway, he gets violent and the energetic Marian turns to the old family lawyer as a last resort.
While taking a walk, Laura is surprised by the woman in white , who is now known to be Anne Catherick and her mother lives in the nearby village. Anne tells her about the secret again, but disappears again. Sir Percival is feverishly looking for Anne and succeeds in tricking her into London before she reveals the secret.
Percival is deeply in debt, so he's trying to get his hands on Laura's legacy right away. Marian overhears Conte Fosco rethinking various options, including Laura's death.
When Marian falls ill, however, the two men manage to take Laura to London, have her admitted to the sanatorium there under Anne Catherick's name, and Anne Catherick, who suffers from a serious heart defect and dies due to the excitement, in Laura's place bury. Sir Percival receives Laura's inheritance, and Contessa Fosco also inherits a larger sum as Laura's aunt.
Marian finds Laura in the sanatorium and helps her to escape, but not even her uncle believes the two of them that it is actually his niece. Only Walter Hartright, whom the two of them meet by chance, recognizes the woman, whom he of course could never forget, and now tries to prove her identity, which he finally succeeds in by meticulously collecting and comparing the statements and data. He also finds out Sir Percival's secret: Percival's parents were never married, which means that he was not the legal heir and was not entitled to the title.
Walter and Laura, meanwhile married and parents of one son, finally return to Limmeridge House with Marian and can finally enjoy their marital happiness.
Translations
- 1994: The woman in white: Criminal novel, translated by Ingeborg Bayr
- 1953: The woman in white, translated by Arno Schmidt
- 1861: The Woman in White, translated by Marie Scott
German editions
- dtv-Verlag, until 1994 using the translation by Arno Schmidt, then using a new translation by Ingeborg Bayr
- Fischer-Verlag, using the translation by Arno Schmidt
- Voigt-Günther-Verlag Leipzig, using the translation by Marie Scott
Adaptations
Movies
- The novel has been filmed several times: including 1912 (silent film USA), 1929 (silent film GB), 1940 (sound film USA), 1948 (USA - The Woman in White with Sydney Greenstreet as Conte Fosco), 1949 (Sweden by Arne Mattsson ), 1982 (USSR) and 1997 (England - BBC television production).
Series
- 1966: The Woman in White . Six-part British series, believed to be lost.
- 1971: The woman in white . A three-part television version by WDR .
- 1982: The Woman in White . A five-part BBC miniseries.
- 2018: The Woman in White . A five-part BBC miniseries.
musical
- In 2005, the musical ran in London The Woman in White by Andrew Lloyd Webber on.
Radio plays
- 1965: "Die Frau in Weiß", a detective radio play in seven parts using the translation by Marianne de Barde, produced by Saarländischer Rundfunk ( SR ), directed by Wilm ten Haaf
literature
- Kirsten Hüttner: Wilkie Collin's "The Woman in White". Analysis, reception and literary criticism of a Victorian bestseller . WVT, Trier 1996, ISBN 3-88476-227-3 (also dissertation, University of Gießen 1996)
- Guido Johannes Joerg: Conte Fosco alias Gioachino Rossini? - a sketch ; in: La Gazzetta (communication from the Deutsche Rossini Society), 1991, No. 1–2, pp. 3–5. - The figure of Conte Fosco was copied by Collins in appearance and quirks of the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, who was extremely popular in England at the time the novel was written .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information about the first translation
- ↑ ARD audio game database. Retrieved August 24, 2018 .
Web links
The Woman in White entire book, translated by Marie Scott, 1861 (as PDF)