Mrs. Henry Wood (1814–1887)

Nothing like the odd interlude of Victorian melodrama, enfolding the reader in a soothing world of absolute truths, Reaping What One Sows and unswerving moral conviction (in some.)
Mrs Henry Wood takes as her theme alcoholism; by page 24 the reader is very clear on that, after an inebriated nurse has given baby laudanum in error, after Mrs Danesbury has startled the dinner guests by announcing her children should not drink wine and ale (never realised this was so prevalent in 19th century!) show more and a drunken gate keeper has precipitated a deadly accident...
The tale covers some decades, and illustrates drunkenness in its many forms- the wasted money, imprudent activities under its influence, wretched marriages, harrassed relatives.Three latter chapters- "An Evil Death", "Another Deathbed" and "One More Death" leave one in no doubt of the results...and yet it finishes on a hopeful note.
VERY well written! show less

Mrs. Wood manages sterlingly to keep many pots on the boil at the same time as keeping a complicated plot stirred to the satisfaction of her readers. This is a high paced high action Victorian novel well suited to serialization, I would think. The characters are wonderful types and they are drawn with an expert eye, from the deeply loathsome , the sublimely tragic, the bad tempered and the completely noble.
The novel has everything to keep a reader interested and willing to continue. Those show more Victorians - they knew their language so well, they were inventive and understood perfectly what the reading public wanted - adultery, murder, rowdiness, fraud, cads aplenty, beautiful women, It's a triumph of good old story-telling. show less

A sensational Victorian novel that tackles jealousy, love triangles, mistaken identities, murder, and divorce, East Lynne was seven hundred pages of unputdownable. I was enthralled by the character of Lady Isabel Carlyle and her ill-fated life story. Not that she doesn’t hold some responsibility for her own fate, but was there ever a woman born under a less auspicious star?

For the Victorians, marriage was still a sacred institution and inviolable, divorce was a new idea and allowed only show more for the most immoral of infractions. For someone who wrote under the appellation, Mrs. Henry Wood, it must have been a struggle to understand what forces could compel a decent woman to end up with one. While there could be no doubt where Mrs. Wood stood on this, I thought she handled the subject in a fair and thoughtful manner and painted a sad and tragic, but not a villainous, figure in Lady Isabel.

I followed the story with relish beginning to end, and just when things seemed predictable, I found they weren’t. For anyone who enjoys the works of Elizabeth Braddon, Elizabeth Gaskell or Wilke Collins, I would say this book is a must. show less

Another Goodreads reviewer likened this book to a Victorian soap opera, and I think that is a very good description. It is dramatic and fast-paced, often utterly unlikely and outrageous. There is adultery, assumed identities, a murder-mystery, an election, a murder trial and so on and so on. Until the last few chapters I was ready to give this novel five stars, but unfortunately the ending with the two pious deaths was a bit too sentimental even for me.

I spent most of the story wondering show more what sort of a name Afy was - turns out it's short for Aphrodite. The writing is extremely accessible for a Victorian novel.

Highly recommended. show less