East Lynne [Hardcover]

Mrs. Henry Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2009

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a splendid edition. Its introduction is an authoritative and up to date guide to the novel and its context. A generous and judicious selection of contemporary reviews of East Lynne and the sensation novel further amplify the context, and provide an excellent resource for students." (Lyn Pykett )

"In his introduction, Andrew Maunder suggests that East Lynne may be 'one of the most famous unread works in the English language.' This immensely readable and teachable edition should help to preserve its fame while increasing its readership. Maunder locates the novel in its various contexts—social, historical, and literary—focusing especially on the material conditions of the novel's publication, and the various "woman questions" of the middle nineteenth century. The supplemental materials are thorough and well-chosen, and for the selections from T. A. Palmer's theatrical adaptation alone, the Broadview edition would be my choice for teaching." (Elisabeth Rose Gruner ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

The Broadview Literary Texts series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, though lesser-known literature. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 648 pages
• Publisher: BiblioLife (April 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0559077904
• ISBN-13: 978-0559077906
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Classic" Victorian trash, March 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: East Lynne (Broadview Literary Texts) (Paperback)

Some popular fiction manages to stand the test of time, and EAST LYNNE falls into that category. For its contemporary readers, EAST LYNNE was one of the exemplars of that emerging genre, the sensation novel: its plot incorporates, among other things, murder, mistaken identity, bigamy, and adultery. Sitting awkwardly in this wild stew of criminal activity are the narrator's pious moral observations and the novel's didactic (and sometimes ponderously satirical) pronouncements on contemporary mores. The characters are mainly cardboard, with the possible exception of the termagant Cornelia Carlyle. The story remains highly readable, largely because the plot moves at a reasonably fast pace, but no-one should approach this book looking for high literature. Mrs. Wood wrote plain--some might say "simplistic"--prose with a minimum of stylistic embellishment, but most readers should find her writing tolerable. In other words, this novel exists in the upper reaches of Danielle Steele-land. It is, nevertheless, an essential text for understanding trends in Victorian popular culture during the 1860s and after.

This new edition, probably intended to replace the poorly edited Everyman version, contains a number of "extras." These include letters from Mrs. Wood, the report from publisher's reader Geraldine Jewsbury (herself a popular novelist), data on the novel's publication and serialization, contemporary reviews, contextual material, and selections from one of the many theatrical adaptations of the novel. Like most Broadview publications, this edition is obviously designed for classroom use, although casual readers should also find the additional material helpful.

Unfortunately, this edition has something in common with the Everyman version: the editing and proofreading. The text is rife with bizarre word substitutions, as if the MS had been run through a spellchecker without a second reading; typos; and improper accidentals (e.g., semi-colons for apostrophes and commas for periods). The often scattershot footnotes did not help: they were sometimes repetitive (e.g., annotating "Turk" more than once) and often too terse to be of much use. Many notes glossed old sayings whose meanings remain obvious even to today's students. To make matters worse, my own copy was badly printed. Instructors may want to keep these problems in mind.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless novel, March 1, 2002

By 

Kathleen M. Anez (Woonsocket, RI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: East Lynne (Broadview Literary Texts) (Paperback)

I loved the novel "East Lynne" and am now reading it for the 2nd time. I could not put the book down and kept reading and reading. I recommended it to my mother and she also read it and loved it. It is Mrs. Henry Wood's greatest triumph. The reader feels so greatly for Lady Isabel, one wishes the ending were happier for her. The deaths of little William and finally Lady Isabel bring many tears. No wonder it was such a success in the Victorian era and it should be printed again in this time, to counter so much trash and vulgarity that is written.
I certainly can believe how successful it must have been when it was first printed in 1861. I also believe anyone who reads it wishes Lady Isabel back in her ex-husband's life and Barbara Hare out! Wonderful!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good as a typical Victorian novel, February 15, 2011

By 

lesley9 (SF Bay Area, CA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: East Lynne (Kindle Edition)

I read the free public domain version of this book.
Its strength is its storyline. For modern readers, you may feel its weakness is in the context of its Victorian era, with the way it characterizes the actions, looks, and language of the people in it.

Children who say "hark", women who are constantly turning as pale as their clothes, men who shiver in horror, etc.

If you can get beyond this, you will find an enjoyable book with a fairly complex number of main characters with an increasingly twisty plot that solves a murder and at the same time adds a tale of love gone upside down. Mistaken identities, facts, motivations rule the plots.

A man is shot inside his house. The apparent murderer says he didn't do it but the one he accuses seems innocent, mostly because he couldn't be placed at the scene. On another front, a man and woman marry and start a family in happy circumstances. Then the man appears to fall for another woman, putting the wife in deep despair. She goes off with another man, later to regret abandoning her husband and children. Thinking her dead, the husband remarries only to have the first wife reappear in disguise to be the governess to their children.

The book sucked me in for hours at a time wondering what was going to happen next. Its also stayed with me well after I finished it.