#the woman in white

[thedailydescent]

My mum said last night, “If I was a gothic heroine I’d simply live, because if a creepy Victorian lady offered me tea I’d simply say no thank you, I have no taste for puddle water.”

[peggy-elise]

Eleanor Parker in The Woman In White 1948 🌬

[renegadesstuff]

TV SHOWS' (SHIP) WEDDINGS 🤍

BONES (2005 - 2017)

TEMPERANCE BRENNAN & SEELEY BOOTH (B&B)

[scarlet-came-back-wrong]

Reading Dracula fanfiction from the 2000s is a wild ride sometimes. Vlad III hangs out with Tod from Elisabeth. Seward cucks Henry Wotton and Arthur marries Marian Halcombe. Dracula and Lucy split the Crew between their respective harems. There is a retelling from Dracula POV written by a fourteen year old that is miles better than The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen, the published book with a similar premise. Erik and Christine are also here somehow (and both are vampires, of course).

[viillette]

I had mechanically turned in this latter direction, and was strolling along the lonely high-road – idly wondering, I remember, what the Cumberland young ladies would look like – when, in one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop by the touch of a hand laid lightly and suddenly on my shoulder from behind me. I turned on the instant, with my fingers tightening round the handle of my stick. There, in the middle of the broad, bright high-road – there, as if it had that moment sprung out the earth or dropped from the heavens – stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments; her face bent in grave inquiry on mine, her hand pointing to the dark cloud over London, as I faced her.

— The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

[pawswithprose]

Lately 💫💕

[lordansketil]

anyway if you like sophisticated fat villains you should definitely read The Woman in White because both the hero and villain are so attracted to each other it's insane.

[paris-in-space]

The idea for this has been circling around my head since I finished listening to the audiobook.

[oscarwetnwilde]

Villain role: Sir Percival Glyde in The Woman In White, 1997.

[alioshakaramazov]

[costumeloverz71]

Marian Halcombe (Jessie Buckley) Green (or tan) embroidered coat & red vest.. The Woman In White (2018).. Costume by Susan Scott.

[pasdetrois]

the woman in white, wilkie collins ⬧ deathless, catherynne m. valente

[ofliterarynature]

JULY 2024 WRAP UP

Overall this was a very good month, so rather than italicizing everything I decided to note my favorites :)

[loved liked ok nope bookclub* (reread)]

Come Tumbling Down • Fly Trap • In an Absent Dream • The Orchard • (Beneath the Sugar Sky) • Vanishing Monuments* • Fly by Night • What Feasts at Night • The Woman in White • (Down Among the Sticks and Bones) • A Grave Robbery • (Every Heart a Doorway) • Dandelion Fire

* * * * *

Dandelion Fire (4 stars) - book 2 of the 100 Cupboards series. Not much to say, honestly - it's an interesting story, but the writing doesn't always give it the life it needs and drags sometimes. A solidly serviceable mid-tier middle grade fantasy that hasn't aged too poorly.

Every Heart A Doorway/Down Among the Sticks and Bones/Beneath the Sugar Sky/In an Absent Dream (4 stars) - I've been meaning to catch up on this series forever (I only read the first 3 books? really?), and luckily I can count at least 5 of them towards my physical tbr goals, so here we go! I don't think they shine quite as bright as they did in my memory, but honestly I don't think I've tried any Seanan McGuire that I didn't enjoy reading. In An Absent Dream is the earliest one I hadn't yet read, and it was ok - seeing individual character's stories is proving interesting, but there's something about the ensemble novellas that I think just hook me more.

A Grave Robbery (4.5 stars) - what can I say, it was fun! I'm coming to realize that this series is pulling plots from a very specific type of sensational classic novel that I don't know enough about to name, but I very much want to read some of them.

The Woman In White (4 stars) - my second Wilkie Collins! If I could rate this based ONLY on the portion narrated by Marion this would be my new favorite book, 5 stars, no notes. Unfortunately we do have Walter, blandly nice and polite and heroic Walter, narrating most of the book, and he is SO boring, and I hate that his role as a love interest is supposed to be this great moving thing? I'm glad the book skipped most of the "romance" actually, but ultimately I was extremely uncomfortable with the circumstances under which he and Laura eventually marry (did I also kind of want him and Marion to get married instead? Maybe). Also extremely disappointed in how Laura and Anne were both completely sidelined in a story that is ultimately theirs (if anyone knows of a retelling that improves on things let me know!!). The highs were high and the lows were low, but overall I did enjoy reading this. Now to figure out what Wilkie Collins to read next now that I've read the two I'd heard of.

What Feasts at Night (4 stars) - I didn't reread the first book so I can't really compare them, but I liked it! A good spooky time that I did partially listen to while walking through the woods, which was maybe not my brightest idea haha.

Fly by Night/Fly Trap (4.5/5 stars) - FANTASTIC. I've discovered that there's a specific blend of things that I look for in middle-grade books these days (as an adult), and these completely nailed it - characters (not just kids!) who are flawed and selfish and petty but capable of kindness or doing the right thing, and writing that is not only smart and intelligent but funny! There are (maybe) too many layers going on in Fly by Night, but I still really enjoyed it (and Mosca's attack goose), and I think where Fly Trap really pulls ahead is that it has all of the introductory spiel out of the way and the story is allowed to be much more focused. Did we really need a second book? No, but I'm glad we have it and would be happy to read more!

Vanishing Monuments (4 stars) - This month's read for book club, by the author of previous favorite, My Volcano! It felt deeply personal, intimate, dark, and harder to process all the intense emotions, but still showed as much depth of craftsmanship and artistry in its writing. I didn’t love it as much, but I hope someday I’ll feel smart enough to understand it more. cw for unreality, mental illness, and all kinds of gender stuff.

The Orchard (4 stars) - this the (unfinished!) memoir of a young woman who tried to single-handedly run her family's orchard during the Great Depression, and the events that lead to the manuscript's publishing are nearly as interesting! I didn't leave myself notes, so I'd say positive feelings, but I'm learning I don't really like memoirs the hard way (I'm always a sucker for tough women doing the hard things though).

[pippersmcgee]

“when I think of him up here, in my own room” marian, PLEASE!!!!

[derangedrhythms]

My mind, in that breathless interval, felt like a total blank. I was conscious of nothing but a painful intensity of all familiar perceptions. The sun grew blinding bright; the white sea birds chasing each other far beyond me, seemed to be flitting before my face; the mellow murmur of the waves on the beach was like thunder in my ears.

Wilkie Collins, from 'The Woman in White'