The Woman in White- Play by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

By Wilkie Collins

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Woman in White- Play by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Wilkie Collins’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Collins includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Woman in White- Play by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Collins’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781788770958

Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins, hijo del paisajista William Collins, nació en Londres en 1824. Fue aprendiz en una compañía de comercio de té, estudió Derecho, hizo sus pinitos como pintor y actor, y antes de conocer a Charles Dickens en 1851, había publicado ya una biografía de su padre, Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R. A. (1848), una novela histórica, Antonina (1850), y un libro de viajes, Rambles Beyond Railways (1851). Pero el encuentro con Dickens fue decisivo para la trayectoria literaria de ambos. Basil (ALBA CLÁSICA núm. VI; ALBA MÍNUS núm.) inició en 1852 una serie de novelas «sensacionales», llenas de misterio y violencia pero siempre dentro de un entorno de clase media, que, con su técnica brillante y su compleja estructura, sentaron las bases del moderno relato detectivesco y obtuvieron en seguida una gran repercusión: La dama de blanco (1860), Armadale (1862) o La Piedra Lunar (1868) fueron tan aplaudidas como imitadas. Sin nombre (1862; ALBA CLÁSICA núm. XVII; ALBA CLÁSICA MAIOR núm. XI) y Marido y mujer (1870; ALBA CLÁSICA MAIOR núm. XVI; ALBA MÍNUS núm.), también de este período, están escritas sin embargo con otras pautas, y sus heroínas son mujeres dramáticamente condicionadas por una arbitraria, aunque real, situación legal. En la década de 1870, Collins ensayó temas y formas nuevos: La pobre señorita Finch (1871-1872; ALBA CLÁSICA núm. XXVI; ALBA MÍNUS núm 5.) es un buen ejemplo de esta época. El novelista murió en Londres en 1889, después de una larga carrera de éxitos.

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The Complete Works of

WILKIE COLLINS

VOLUME 35 OF 47

The Woman in White- Play

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2015

Version 1

COPYRIGHT

‘The Woman in White- Play’

Wilkie Collins: Parts Edition (in 47 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 095 8

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Wilkie Collins: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 35 of the Delphi Classics edition of Wilkie Collins in 47 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Woman in White- Play from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Wilkie Collins, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Wilkie Collins or the Complete Works of Wilkie Collins in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

WILKIE COLLINS

IN 47 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, Antonina

2, Basil

3, Hide and Seek

4, A Rogue’s Life

5, The Dead Secret

6, The Woman in White

7, No Name

8, Armadale

9, The Moonstone

10, Man and Wife

11, Poor Miss Finch

12, The New Magdalen

13, The Law and the Lady

14, The Two Destinies

15, The Haunted Hotel

16, The Fallen Leaves

17, Jezebel’s Daughter

18, The Black Robe

19, Heart and Science

20, I Say No

21, The Evil Genius

22, The Guilty River

23, The Legacy of Cain

24, Blind Love

The Short Story Collections

25, After Dark

26, The Queen of Hearts

27, Miss or Mrs.? and Other Stories in Outline

28, The Frozen Deep and Other Stories

29, Little Novels

30, Miscellaneous Short Stories

The Plays

31, The Frozen Deep

32, No Thoroughfare

33, Black and White

34, No Name- Play

35, The Woman in White- Play

36, The New Magdalen- Play

37, Miss Gwilt

38, The Moonstone- Play

The Non-Fiction

39, Memoirs of the Life of William Collins Esq, Ra

40, Rambles Beyond Railways

41, My Miscellanies

42, Miscellaneous Essays and Articles

The Biographies

43, Wilkie Collins’ Charms by Olive Logan

44, Men of Mark: W. Wilkie Collins by Edmund Yates

45, Wilkie Collins by William Teignmouth Shore

46, Extracts from ‘Memories of Half a Century’ by Rudolph Chambers Lehmann

47, Extracts from ‘Life of Charles Dickens’ by John Forster

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The Woman in White- Play

A DRAMA IN A PROLOGUE AND FOUR ACTS.

CONTENTS

PERSONS REPRESENTED IN THE PROLOGUE.

PROLOGUE.

ACT I.

ACT II.

ACT III.

ACT IV.

PERSONS REPRESENTED IN THE PROLOGUE.

SIR PERCIVAL GLYDE.

WALTER HARTRIGHT.

PROFESSOR PESCA.

MRS. CATHERICK.

ANNE CATHERICK.

DATE: March 31,1862.

PLACE: The village of Old Welmingham in Hampshire.

PROLOGUE.

The action takes place partly in the burial-ground of Old Welmingham Church, partly in the vestry of the church. Time, morning. The sky bright, a fine spring day. The stage is divided into two portions. The portion on the actor’s right hand represents part of the interior of the vestry, the remainder being supposed to be continued off the stage on the right. The portion on the actor’s left hand, in like manner, represents part of the churchyard, showing the low grassy graves, the yew-tree, and the country beyond. An old oaken door leads from the churchyard into the vestry. A second door, inside the vestry, at the back, is supposed to communicate with the church. Above this second door an arched opening appears, used to light the vestry from the church. The only articles of furniture visible are an old flat-topped oaken press, containing the church registers, and an open iron stove. In the churchyard ANNE CATHERICK and SIR PERCIVAL are discovered. SIR PERCIVAL, dressed in mourning for his father, stands at the side on the left, looking towards ANNE. ANNE, dressed entirely in white of cheap and poor material, is seated, with her back turned on SIR PERCIVAL, and with a book in her hand, on one of the low graves near the vestry-door, looking at the distant view.

Sir P. (to himself). What is the crazy fool doing there? If I don’t get rid of her she will see me open the vestry-door. (He advances, and calls to her.) Anne! Anne Catherick!

Anne (turning towards him). You know my name? (She rises.) I know yours. Sir Percival Glyde.

Sir P. What are you doing in the churchyard?

Anne. Thinking of the dead.

Sir P. Suppose you try a change. Take a walk in the village, and think of the living.

Anne. I have no friends among the living. My friend is in heaven. Here is the book that she gave me. (She points to the distance.) There is the view which she said was the prettiest in all Hampshire. I look at it every day for her sake. Dear Mrs. Fairlie!

Sir P. (surprised). Mrs. Fairlie? The late Mrs. Fairlie, of Limmeridge House?

Anne (eagerly approaching him). Yes, Limmeridge House, Cumberland. You knew her? I didn’t like you at first. I like you now. Let’s shake hands.

Sir P. (putting her hand away from him contemptuously). Where can Mrs. Fairlie have picked up this half-witted creature? Not in Cumberland, surely?

Anne. Mrs. Fairlie didn’t always live in the north; she once lived here in Hampshire, in the time when her husband the captain was alive, in the time when I was a little girl. I’ll tell you all about it.

Sir P. (to himself). How the devil am I to get rid of her?

Anne (eagerly). It’s long since. I was only nine years old. I’m not happy at home now, and I wasn’t happy then. Mrs. Fairlie made up for it all. She pitied me, she taught me, she let me play with her little daughter —

Sir P. (interrupting her). Very interesting! (Pointing off on the left.) There’s a bird in the lane; go and tell the rest of the story to the bird.

Anne (not heeding him). Wait! you haven’t heard the best of it. Mrs. Fairlie used to dress me all in white, just as her own little girl was dressed. It amused her to see us together, we were so like each other. The cleverest people were taken in by it, they couldn’t tell which was which. Do you know Miss Fairlie? Are we like each other still?

Sir P. (to himself, interested for the moment). They are as like as two peas. And Miss Fairlie is said to be the image of her father! The captain’s character was notorious among the women; Mrs. Catherick must have had attractions in her time —

Anne (repeating her question). Am I like Miss Fairlie now she has grown up?

Sir P. (pursuing his thought). Are they half-sisters without knowing it?

Anne. You don’t notice my dress. I always wear white in remembrance of Mrs. Fairlie and her little girl. Why should they call me mad for doing that? Is it mad to be grateful to the only friend I ever had? Oh, how I cried when Mrs. Fairlie went away to Cumberland! I should like to see her grave, sir, in Limmeridge churchyard.

Sir P. This is beyond endurance. (To ANNE.) Here, didn’t you say Mrs. Fairlie gave you that book? Let’s look at it.

Anne (giving it him). Isn’t it pretty?

Sir P. (opening the book). Beautiful! Show it to the bird in the lane. (He throws the book off on the left.) Follow your book. Good morning.

Anne. You brute! How dare you treat Mrs. Fairlie’s gift in that way? (She looks off.) Oh, my poor book!

(She hurries out on the left. SIR PERCIVAL takes a large key from