The Woman in White Part 3, Section 4, Chapter 1

The Count's Narrative

• So remember all those things we thought the count did over the course of the novel? Steal Marian's diary; drug Fanny, Anne, and Laura; open people's mail; steal people's letters; use his wife as a spy; develop a creepy crush on Marian; and commit some sort of crime against a political society?
• Well, it turns out he did all of those things.
• Except he had a totally good reason for all of it: he needed to show off his own power and he needed some quick cash.
• Fosco's narrative doesn't give us many new details, but it's probably the most entertaining chapter in the entire novel, because the count is flamboyant, crazy, and ridiculous.
• The count developed his (half-)sister swap plan after Marian fell ill and he had a very fortunate encounter with Anne and Mrs. Clements.
• The plan happened as Walter and Marian suspected:
• The count lured Anne to London, but she died ahead of schedule.
• He then hustled Laura to London, drugged her to the gills, and dropped her off at the friendly neighborhood asylum.
• The count then attended Laura's funeral in Cumberland and happily accepted his share of the money from Percival.
• But he's really not a bad guy, he says.
• He admits to psychologically manipulating his wife until she acted like a marionette, and he admits that he'd have killed Anne if she hadn't conveniently died on her own.
• But basically he never committed a serious crime, and anybody else would have totally done the same thing.
• And thus, Fosco signs off. So long, crazy.