Oh, how perfect this book was! I have been in a bit of a reading funk lately -- reading too many books that I didn't love and in some cases barely even liked. But then East Lynne came into my life and reminded me that I love sensational Victorian novels!

East Lynne is the name of the estate just outside the town of West Lynne -- some miles from London. It is one of a few properties owned by Lord Mount Severn and one he must part with as he has run through all of his funds and needs the ready cash. He makes the sale in complete secrecy, even keeping his teenage daughter in the dark as to his financial woes. He sells the home to a respectable attorney, Archibald Carlyle, from West Lynne. Lord Mount Severn and his daughter, Lady Isabel Vane, return for a visit and Carlyle, in his generosity, allows them to stay at East Lynne to continue the protective secrecy of their agreement. Unfortunately, while they are there, Lord Mount Severn's gout gets the best of him and he dies, leaving his beautiful and gentle daughter with not a cent to her name. Carlyle is thoughtful enough to send her off with one hundred pounds to live with her uncle, the new Lord Mount Severn, and his dreadful wife. From this point on, Lady Isabel is ruled by inexperience and makes many decisions -- some that are fortunately in her best interests and others that are woefully bad.

[Another blogger] frequently called East Lynne "the mother of all sensation novels" and I will only dispute that to suggest that it is perhaps tied in that distinction by Wilkie Collins' Armadale. Any story with villains so despicable that it turns your stomach in knots and tragedies so painful that they bring tears to your eyes is a satisfying sensational read.

http://webereading.com/2009/12/in-eas... ( )

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/o... ( )

overwritten but engaging ancestor of sensational social fiction ( )

If Danielle Steele had lived in the 1860s, East Lynne is probably the type of novel she would have written. Murder, disguise, adultery, divorce, illigitmate children—and oh, yeah, a horde of bats—are at the center of this sensationalist novel that was in and of itself a reflection of the time period in which it was written.

When William Vane, Earl of Mount Severn, dies, destroyed by debt, his daughter, the Lady Isabel, marries a country solicitor, Archibald Carlyle. Later, she abandons her husband and children in favor of a well-known rake, Francis Levison. When he abandons her with her illigitimate child, Lady Isabel becomes, in an ironic twist of fate, governess at East Lynne.

It’s a pretty far-fetched book, all things considering, and the foreshadowing is laid on pretty thick. In one scene, a horde of bats appears at East Lynne one night; next thing you know, the Lady Isabel’s father is dead. The novel is full of people “screaming,” “crying,” “sobbing,” and “raving,” instead of simply “saying” things. It’s pretty much all the melodrama you could ask for, and more.

Ellen Wood wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, a good writer—at one point, when Francis Levison sneaks around in the bushes listening in on a conversation between Barbara Hare and Mr. Carlyle, the author describes him as “strolling down like a serpent behind the hedge.” Oh, if only serpents could stroll! There are also minor inconsistences; for example, when Mr. Carlyle marries a second time, his sister moves back to her old home; but later, the author tells her reader that Miss Carlyle vacated her room upstairs in favor of one downstairs. It’s a book that’s passed out of the canon because it’s so quaint and dated. But it seems as though Ellen Wood sure knew how to titillate her Victorian readers. ( )

This Victorian "sensation" novel, a huge bestseller in its time, has it all - murder, mystery, romance, elopement, deception, and a fallen woman. It was a gripping book. And since it was almost 700 pages I think I might take it along anytime I anticipate the possibility of being stranded on a deserted island. I thoroughly enjoyed it. ( )