East Lynne (novel)
East Lynne is a sensational novel by British writer Ellen Wood, published in 1861. Despite its unreliable plot, the novel was widely read in the 19th century, repeatedly brought onto the stage and ultimately filmed under the same title .
content
The beautiful, aristocratic Lady Isabel Vane commits adultery with the wicked Francis Leaveson in a moment of exuberance and abandons her husband Archibald Carlyle and her beloved children for him. She follows Leaveson to France, where she is soon abandoned by him. Shortly afterwards, it was disfigured in a railroad accident and wrongly counted among the fatalities of the accident. Lady Isabel returns to East Lynne to take care of her own children as a governess . Due to her facial injuries and her strange clothes, she remains unrecognized in her own household. Her husband remarried after her supposed death. Barbara Haar, the second wife of Archibald Carlyle, is a role model for distinguished qualities. From the point of view of Kathryn Hughes, Barbara hair with her loyalty to her husband and her maternal qualities represents the ideal of British motherhood. Ultimately, Lady Isabel is recognized by her ex-husband, who forgives her. A little later she dies.
With the advent of sensational and detective novels, narrative elements from these literary genres are also taken up in the Victorian governess novel . Lecaros also counts the sensational novel East Lynne, which was widely read in the 19th and early 20th centuries, despite its plot, which is atypical for a Victorian governess novel, because the heroine as governess experiences situations that are part of the narrative canon of this genre.
literature
- Kathryn Hughes: The Victorian Governess . The Hambledon Press, London 1993, ISBN 1-85285-002-7
- Cecilia Wadsö Lecaros: The Victorian Governess Novel . Lund University Press, Lund 2001, ISBN 91-7966-577-2