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A review by sarahcoller
East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood
3.0
Apparently there is a racier, slang-ridden first edition of this that was later edited to be more "appropriate". I'm not sure which version I got but it was terribly tedious. It really took about 200 pages before it became the least bit interesting and then it was just one ridiculous impossibility after another after that. Why am I giving it three stars? Because it's sort of like a super cruddy soap opera---it goes on and on so unbelievably that you can't help but be hooked and by the time you realize you've been had, you're emotionally invested and have to keep at it. The morals of the story are 100% right on and I'm impressed to see a woman writing about a strong, Godly, sensitive, leader of a husband and father, but it does all seem a bit far-fetched. Still, this was on the "Best 100 Books List" published in 1899 so I suppose it was dear to at least a generation or two.
I was not at all pleased with the way it ended---I really wanted "Madame Vine" to have a happier ending. There were several memorable moments and lines that I appreciated. This was my favorite:
"The very hour of her departure she awoke to what she had done...Oh, reader, believe me! Lady--wife--mother! Should you ever be tempted to abandon your home, so will you awake. Whatever trials may be the lot of your married life, though they may magnify themselves to your crushed spirits as beyond the endurance of woman to bear, resolve to bear them; fall down upon your knees and pray to be enabled to bear them; pray for patience; pray for strength to resist the demon that would urge you to escape; bear unto death , rather than forfeit your fair name and your good conscience; for be assured that the alternative, if you rush on to it, will be found far worse than death."
This book hit home a little and maybe I'm expressing that in my cynical attitude. I was that kid from that family whose mother/wife ran off with another man. All has been forgiven but can't be forgotten and sometimes the grief is overwhelming. I can't help but wonder how our world would look now had the Victorian sense of morals and duty been promoted into the 20th and 21st centuries.
I was not at all pleased with the way it ended---I really wanted "Madame Vine" to have a happier ending. There were several memorable moments and lines that I appreciated. This was my favorite:
"The very hour of her departure she awoke to what she had done...Oh, reader, believe me! Lady--wife--mother! Should you ever be tempted to abandon your home, so will you awake. Whatever trials may be the lot of your married life, though they may magnify themselves to your crushed spirits as beyond the endurance of woman to bear, resolve to bear them; fall down upon your knees and pray to be enabled to bear them; pray for patience; pray for strength to resist the demon that would urge you to escape; bear unto death , rather than forfeit your fair name and your good conscience; for be assured that the alternative, if you rush on to it, will be found far worse than death."
This book hit home a little and maybe I'm expressing that in my cynical attitude. I was that kid from that family whose mother/wife ran off with another man. All has been forgiven but can't be forgotten and sometimes the grief is overwhelming. I can't help but wonder how our world would look now had the Victorian sense of morals and duty been promoted into the 20th and 21st centuries.