Tag: Victorian

East Lynne by Ellen Wood

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About the book

Coward! Sneak! May good men shun him, from henceforth! may his Queen refuse to receive him! You, an earl’s daughter! Oh, Isabel! How utterly you have lost yourself!’ When the aristocratic Lady Isabel abandons her husband and children for her wicked seducer, more is at stake than moral retribution. Ellen Wood played upon the anxieties of the Victorian middle classes who feared a breakdown of the social order as divorce became more readily available and promiscuity threatened the sanctity of the family. In her novel the simple act of hiring a governess raises the spectres of murder, disguise, and adultery. Her sensation novel was devoured by readers from the Prince of Wales to Joseph Conrad and continued to fascinate theatre-goers and cinema audiences well into the next century.

Reviewed by The Benches

Although this 19 Century novel was more than 600 pages, the consensus was that it was an ‘easy’ read, well strung together with strongly developed characters – The Judge: A pompous fellow – Cornelia: A sharply spoken Harridan: Barbara: only happy when she had her own way: and Isobel: a rather feeble heroine. An obvious plot, probably originated as a weekly journal and conveniently some of the story was repetitive. A victorian’soap’ Appealing more, perhaps to women readers.”

star rating ***

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Tennyson’s Gift by Lynne Truss

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In July 1864, a corner of the Isle of Wight is buzzing with literary and artistic creativity. A morose Tennyson is reciting ‘Maud’ to empty sofas; the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron is white-washing the roses for visual effect and the mismatched couple, actress Ellen Terry and painter G. F. Watts, are thrown into the company of the remarkable Lorenzo Fowler, the American phrenologist, and his daughter Jessie. Enter mathematician Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), known to Jessie as the ‘fiendish pedagogue’, and Lynne Truss’s wonderfully imaginative cocktail of Victorian seriousness and riotous farce begins to take flight.

Reviewed by Chineham Book Group

Only 4 out of 15 group members finished this book and no-one enjoyed it. ‘For a comedy with 260 pages I don’t expect my first laugh on page 250’ was one quote”

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The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles

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About the book

Charles Smithson, a respectable engaged man, meets Sarah Woodruff as she stands on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, staring out to sea. Charles falls in love, but Sarah is a disgraced woman, and their romance will defy all the stifling conventions of the Victorian age. Widely acclaimed since publication, this is the best-love of John Fowles’ novels.

Reviewed by Bridewell Beauties

“Mixed reviews – an unusual approach. Half the group were unable to read the book but this was because the size of the print was too small”

star rating ***

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After Such Kindness by Gaynor Arnold

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About the book

When the writer, Oxford scholar and photographer John Jameson visits the home of his vicar friend, he is entranced by Daisy, his youngest daughter. Jameson charms her with his wit and child-like imagination, teasing her with riddles and inventing humorous stories as they enjoy afternoons alone by the river and in his rooms.

The shocking impact of this unusual friendship is only brought to light when, years later, Daisy, unsettled in her marriage, rediscovers her childhood diaries hidden in an old toy chest.

 

Reviewed by Bridgemary Bookworms

“Well written but shocking to be made aware of the connection to Alice Liddell (Alice in Wonderland) An insight into Victorian values and behaviours in supposedly law abiding middle class family life. Not universally enjoyed and caused some discussion regarding ethical conduct”

star rating ****

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The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon

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About the book

In 1855 Rosa Barr, a headstrong young woman, travels to the Crimea, against the wishes of her family, determined to work as a nurse. She does not return.Three people have been intimately connected with her. One, her brother, a soldier and adventurer; the second a doctor, traumatized by the war, and harbouring a secret passion, and the third, Mariella, her cousin and childhood friend, who must now uncover the truth about what has happened to the missing nurse.Mariella’s epic journey takes her from the domestic quiet of London to the foothills of Italy, and on to the ravaged Russian landscape of the Crimea, where she must discover what has happened to her captivating and mysterious cousin and uncover the secrets of those who loved her..

Reviewed by New Forest/Waterside U3A Reading Group:

This was a very romantic Victorian tale related with all the false modesty of the period: the constricted lives of women, oblique hints at lesbianism, paedophilia and class distinction. The main characters are all dispatched on pointless quests which succeed only in revealing that war is brutal and bloody, that the British army succeeds by default and that Florence Nightingale was not quite the angelic force history portrays her. The descriptive writing is at times powerful but the novel’s structure is such that for many, only the group allegiance got them thought the first third of the book and left them undecided about who qualified as the heroine. The need constantly to explain character motivation by flashback to earlier times suggests a lack of confidence in telling a straightforward story.

Star rating: ***

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The Somnambulist by Essie Fox

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When seventeen-year-old Phoebe Turner visits Wilton’s Music Hall to watch her Aunt Cissy performing on stage, she risks the wrath of her mother Maud who marches with the Hallelujah Army, campaigning for all London theatres to close. While there, Phoebe is drawn to a stranger, the enigmatic Nathaniel Samuels, who heralds dramatic changes in the lives of all three women. When offered the position of companion to Nathaniel’s reclusive wife, Phoebe leaves her life in London’s East End for Dinwood Court in Herefordshire – a house that may well be haunted and which holds the darkest of truths…

Reviewed by U3A1 Petersfield:

This novel is a Victorian melodrama, however we felt that the characters lacked substance. It has the makings of a good book but is not wholly sucessful. Some favourable comments about language but others had felt it used too many cliches.

Star rating: **

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The Mesmerist by Barbara Ewing

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About the book

London, 1838: the controversial practice of Mesmerism, with its genuine practitioners and its fraudulent chancers, has hypnotised the city. Miss Cordelia Preston, a beautiful, ageing, out-of-work actress terrified of returning to the poverty of her childhood, suddenly emerges as a Lady Phreno-Mesmerist. In her candle-lit Bloomsbury basement she learns to harness her talent – and to finally look towards the future. But success is fragile when you have a past filled with secrets. On a wintry, moonlit night a body is found in Bloomsbury Square, and what began as an audacious subterfuge erupts into a scandal. Cordelia’s past is revealed, bringing not only heartache but terror – and the mystery of a cloaked figure who waits for her in the shadowy London streets.

Reviewed by Fawley/Holbury U3A Reading Group:

On the whole we found this an easy read, which was interesting because of the details about ‘alternative medicine’ in Victorian times. However, we did find the story a bit simplistic, with an all-too conveniently happy ending!

Rating: 3 Stars

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The Great Stink by Clare Clark

Karin, Hampshire Libraries2 Comments

About the book

William May returns to London after the horrors of the Crimean War. Scarred and fragile though he is, he lands a job at the heart of Bazalgette’s transformation of the London sewers. There, in the darkness of the stinking tunnels beneath the rising towers of Victorian London, May discovers another side of the city and remembers a disturbing, violent past. And then the corruption of the growing city soon begins to overwhelm him and a violent murder is committed. Will the sewers reveal all and show that the world above ground is even darker and more threatening than the tunnels beneath? Beautifully written, evocative and compelling, with a fantastically vivid cast of characters, Clare Clarke’s first book is a rich and suspenseful novel that draws the reader right into Victorian London and into the worlds of its characters desperately attempting to swim the tides of change.

Reviewed by Fleet U3A reading group:

The description of the Victorian sewers was very evocative and you could imagine the smell in your own nostrils. Too much build-up, with the ending rather rushed. Book would have benefitted from more editing. The relationship between Tom and his dog, Lady, very well written. Rose was another interesting character but there was too little of him. A good debut novel though.

Star rating: ***

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