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Another Book: Woman in White

This is a classic. Never thought I would pick up a classic after 10 years of leaving university. But there were these rows and rows of classic books on sale at MPH and at that moment of time I suddenly felt like reliving the old days. It proved to be an interesting book albeit the language and style of writing. Language is still OK, but the style needed a bit of time to get used to. It was written by Wilkie Collins (I think he was a lawyer or something) and he experimented this style where the characters of the book narrated the accounts of the story. Like I said, it needed some time to get used to the style and after some time it actually became interesting.

The story was a bit complicated about a woman named Laura Fairlie who was forced to marry this villain named Sir Percival who was in fact only after her money. Laura fell in love with her drawing master Walter Hartright. Then, there is Laura's half-sister Marian Halcombe who was really way, way ahead from the women at that time that she was likened to a man (right!). The name of the book came from Anne Catherick - a woman who has very similar resemblence to Laura - who only wear white. There were twists and turns with more characters like Count Fosco who in the end was actually a spy.

Anyway, one thing I picked up from this story is the power of documentation - what we now call knowledge management. The people in the 1850s (in this story), were very good in documentation - they wrote letters properly dated and signed, kept journals, etc. Walter Hartright managed to track events of 20-30 years back (we are talking about time as old as 1820s) and compiled letters, log books and journals as proof for him to bring to court.

It was a good book, a long-winded one but still good. Other than that little things I find irritating (to me personally) were the details on how these English people lived during that time - the luxury of their lives and their daily activities. I can't image how boring their days are - after elaborate breakfast the ladies will take a walk around the grounds, then "work" where they write journals or letters, then dress for lunch, after eating more walks, then maybe drawing class, next tea time and more walks, dress for dinner, and after dessert someone will play the piano and the others play card or boardgames or read, then bedtime.

After reading the book, I am so glad that I live in this century where women have more say and status then 2 centuries ago. And where life is certainly much more interesting and meaningful.