October Group Read - The Woman in White

I don't know when everyone else is starting their read but since my copy is over 600 pages I am starting today.

I read The Moonstone many, many years ago and I vaguely remember enjoying it so I am looking forward to this read.

If you want to post about anything in the book, perhaps we should start with noting the chapter, then people who are reading at a slower pace can avoid reading Spoilers.

Thanks for setting this up. I have just opened my copy, the cheap, lime green Penguin edition, and it looks like the book could be broken into sections. If we broke up the comments into sections, that would minimise spoilers. There is no contents page, neither in the book nor on Wiki, so I have tried to copy them from the book, but may have missed some. What do you think about splitting the book up: The First Epoch, The Second Epoch 1st - 4th, The Second Epoch 5th - conclusion. This would give us 3 roughly equal parts. Then having a thread for overall book comments. I'd be happy to make the threads.

In my edition:
The First Epoch:
1st part: The story begun by Walter Hartright.
2nd part: The story continued by Vincent Gilmore (pg 109 in my book)

The Second Epoch:
1st part: The story continued by Marian Halcombe pg 173
2nd: The story continued by Frederick Fairlie p304
3rd: Eliza Michelson p321
4th: several narratives p360

5th: Mrs. Catherick: p479
6th: Isidor, Ottavio, Baldassare Fosco p543
and concluded Walter Hartright p557

I like the idea of breaking the book up into sections with different threads. Especially with a mystery, we don't want to give away any spoilers. I'll be starting to read in a couple of days.

Just wanted to say, too, that I read this several years ago and even though it's long, it reads very quickly. Definitely a page turner!

I'm on board! I have the Wordsworth Classics edition, which runs 503 pages. I'm about twenty pages in.

Great idea, Soffitta. I realized after I started my version that my idea of noting chapters was out the window as my book isn't really broken into chapters! Dividing it into sections makes much more sense.

That's what I thought when I looked at my copy! Here are the threads, I am just about to crack my copy open.

The First Epoch Thread - http://www.librarything.com/topic/124530
The Second Epoch (1st to 4th) Thread - http://www.librarything.com/topic/124531
The Second Epoch (5th to end) Thread - http://www.librarything.com/topic/124532
General discussion after reading the whole book - http://www.librarything.com/topic/124533

I read this earlier in the year, but I'll be following along and throw my 2 cents in now and then.

I'm just waiting for my copy to show up at the library.

Yahoo, I didn't even know about the group read. I think I'm loving this book, glad to be aboard.

I've been stuck on the halfway point of The Woman in White for far too long. I think it may be time to pick it up, dust it off, and hope I haven't forgotten too much. :)

10 Hope you do! I can see how someone can put it down. It's got that 19th century pacing, and I find I get used to a particular narrator and resent all of a sudden having to get to know an "interloper" as the new narrator.

I also have problems with Victorian morality and society (especially as regards women's role: to be a perfect wife and mother and nothing else). I find it quite stifling to read, at times.

I much prefer my Victorian literature to be modern pastiche, hello Lady Julia Grey and Sarah Waters, etc. :)

There are *always* exceptions, however. I still love Jane Eyre, but she was such a great character, she talked back.

I find it quite eye opening to be listening to The Age of Innocence while reading The Lady in White. The lovely Laura Fairlie is exactly the self sacrificing, obedient martyr that the Countess Olenska's family keeps wanting her to be. At least through the beginning of the second epoch that's what it seems. Will she grow a backbone? Need we send the Countess to tutor her?

Jane Eyre is an interesting one to mention when talking about The Woman in White. Rochester had a mad woman in his attic, but nobody thought that made him an ogre. ;)

Ah, but Mr Rochester was duped by the madwoman's evil family! He was an innocent! (Who then went and had a string of lovers, so not that innocent, maybe. :)

Ah, nice complex, believable characters! I do love Jane Eyre. :)

LOL!!! Even Mr Rochester's bad temper must not have been his fault.

I'll be joining in but I'll probably lag a little behind since I have a few other books for group reads in face=to-face groups this month.

Women really had so few options in those days. Also they were raised to believe that being a good wife and mother was a worthy goal. The women that didn't get married most often had to rely on the kindess of relatives for a home and sustenance (like Marian).