Publisher's Note Walter Hartright, a drawing instructor, comes to Limmeridge House to teach Laura and Marion Halcombe. He falls in love with Laura, but she is betrothed to someone else, and he must therefore leave Limmeridge. Before he goes, he tells Marian about his encounter with a beautiful woman dressed entirely in white, whom he later discovers escaped from an insane asylum. Here the mystery begins: Who is the woman in white? And is she truly insane? Synopsis Still unsurpassed as a masterpiece of narrative drive and excruciating suspense, 'The Woman in White' is also famous for introducing, in the figure of Count Fosco, the prototype of the suave, sophisticated evil genius. The first detective novel ever written, it has remained, since its publication in 1860, the most admired example of the genre.