Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to "The Woman in White", written in 1859 by Wilkie Collins. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels, and an early example of detective fiction. Modern critics and readers regard it as Collins's best novel, although at the time of publication, critics were generally hostile. The novel opens with Walter Hartright, a young art teacher, who encounters a mysterious and distressed woman dressed entirely in white, lost in London; he is later informed by policemen that she has escaped from an asylum.