Hartright also leaves England, joining an expedition to Honduras.Īfter their honeymoon, Sir Percival and Lady Glyde return the following June to his family estate in Hampshire, Blackwater Park. Laura and Glyde marry in December 1849 and travel to Italy. Anne Catherick, after sending a letter to Laura warning her against Glyde, meets Hartright who is convinced that Glyde was responsible for shutting her in the asylum. Laura, however, has promised her late father that she will marry Sir Percival Glyde, and Marian advises Walter to leave Limmeridge. The simple-minded Anne had lived for a time in Cumberland as a child and was devoted to Laura's mother, who first dressed her in white. Hartright finds that Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white, called Anne Catherick. The household comprises Mr Frederick Fairlie, a reclusive valetudinarian Laura Fairlie, his niece and Marian Halcombe, her devoted half-sister. The next day he travels north to Limmeridge House. He helps her on her way but later learns that she has escaped from an asylum.

While walking home from Hampstead on his last evening in London, Hartright meets a mysterious woman dressed in white, apparently in deep distress. Walter Hartright, a young drawing-master, has secured a position in Cumberland on the recommendation of his old friend Professor Pesca, a political refugee from Italy. (from: Wilkie Collins: An Illustrated Guide © Andrew Gasson 1998, used with permission)

The story of the woman in white