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Persona and performance: Count Isidore Fosco in The Woman in White

‘A man of rank and title’

Sir Percival Glyde in The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins’ bestselling sensation novel The Woman in White (1859 – 60) famously features two conniving villains working together to bring about the destruction of the innocent heroine, Laura Fairlie. In the following paired articles, Jonny Patrick and Nicola Onyett contrast Collins’ freewheeling presentation of two memorably wicked characters (see also pp. 33–35)

Oliver Darley as Sir Percival Glyde (right) and Edward Petherbridge as Mr Fairlie

Most readers of the The Woman in White find that Sir Percival, odious though he may be, is eclipsed by the more outlandish, original and charismatic figure of Fosco.

In fact, the novel features several contrasting pairs:

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Symbolism

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Persona and performance: Count Isidore Fosco in The Woman in White

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