威基柯林斯这部惊悚小说被视为是维多利亚时代最具代表性的同类作品，发行至一直是市场上的畅销作。人鬼难辨的“白衣女郎”用尖细的声音哼唱着：“请听我悲惨的故事吧”。正待听她开始说的时候，白衣女郎却被别人的声音从中打断，悄然消失得无影无踪。与沃尔特热恋的绘画家庭教师罗拉，被迫嫁给贪图钱财的帕西沃尔·格莱特爵士。这个时候，白衣女郎又飘然登场。然而，每当白衣女郎准备向众人诉说悲惨身世之际，不是黎明到来，就是村人出现，观众总是无法得到获悉真相的机会。

Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery，and The Woman in White is his first excursion intothe genre．

When the hero，Walter Hartright，on a moonlit night in north London，encounters a solitary．terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white．hefeels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress．The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterised cast．from the peevish invaIid Mr FairIje to the corpulent ViIlain Count Fosco andthe enigmatic woman herself．