Lady Audley’s Secret

By Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Published in 1862 after appearing in a serial form in several publications – both partially and in whole – Lady Audley’s Secret falls squarely into the category of "the sensation novel”.

As Braddon’s most successful and well-known work – it was wildly popular, even though it took most of the comfortable and accepted Victorian standards and tipped them on their proverbial ears. Morals, ethics, criminal behavior, encroaching urbanization and its effects on good society, class divisions and roles – Braddon wrote about them all and had possibly written much of it from some questionable experiences of her own. There were several real-life cases of the time that have been conjectured to have set some of the plot lines of Lady Audley’s Secret into action, having fermented in this author’s head. Were the themes inspired by real-life Constance Kent and her case, which captured the English public’s avid attention during the summer of 1860?

During the Victorian age, there were some things that were just not discussed. There were morals and standards and ideals that were held sacred whether they originated in Scripture or were just products of the time. Class structure, the view of women and how they were to deport themselves, marriage, home as a “safe haven”, gender roles…. With the British society in the midst of an industrial age upheaval, life as a comfortable known quantity was becoming a thing of the past. Did these insecurities find their way into the exploits and misadventures of Lucy and meet with a level of recognition as the book passed from one avid reader to the next?

And a Victorian novel with the theme – “accidental bigamy”? ...Really?

Let’s read and discuss over an afternoon High Tea on Saturday, July 16th, 2011.

This book may not be the easiest to find… so you might start checking now!

The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

"But Arthur dislikes me to talk to him (Mr. Hargrave), and is visibly annoyed by his commonest acts of politeness; not that my husband has any unworthy suspicions of me - or of his friend either, as I believe - but he dislikes me to have any pleasure but in himself, any shadow of homage or kindness but such as he chooses to vouchsafe: he knows he is my sun, but when he chooses to withhold his light, he would have my sky to be all darkness; he cannot bear that I should have a moon to mitigate the deprivation..."

Helen

As women of today's modern world, have we not all met an Arthur Huntington during our lifetimes... at least once... or someone fearfully like him? The date who cannot bear for someone else to make us laugh? The boyfriend who enjoys our devotion while glancing about the room for a prettier face?

While nightly television and the films of our age parade Huntington-esque male villains and heartbreakers past us with a tiresome frequency, making them begin to be commonplace, I asked myself throughout this read of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall where the young Anne Brontë found the inspiration for Helen’s husband and his reckless, immoral friends? As the sheltered, motherless daughter of a curate, or humble governess – what did she see? What did she hear from her quiet corner?

It is as important today to recognize the valuable and honorable men that walk through our lives and avoid the dangerous Arthurs as it was over 160 years ago in Anne's day, but today we have the ability to support ourselves and can therefore make independent decisions. How much more vulnerable did the women of the Brontë's day find themselves when their only protection was from a man and their choices may have been few due to their range of acquaintances?

But was Helen's ultimate error the misguided belief that she could change Huntington? Redeem him herself? Her eyes were certainly blinded by her initial love for him but how willfully dangerous to choose to marry someone with the firm belief that you could turn him away from folly and evil and bring him into goodness. This is certainly not a pitfall limited to the Victorian Age but is one that has ruined many a life.

"When I tell you not to marry without love, I do not advise you to marry for love alone - there are many, many other things to be considered. Keep both heart and hand in your own possession, till you see good reason to part with them; and if such an occasion should never present itself, comfort your mind with this reflection: that, though in single life your joys may not be very many, your sorrows at least will not be more than you can bear."

Helen

At times this book was a bit melodramatic and I found myself uncomfortable with misguided actions by both hero and heroine in addition to various characters filling out the story, but the study of the time period and recognizable actions and motives that were familiar to my own era were deeply interesting.

Did you feel the same way? Whether or not you will be someone joining us in our book tea this next weekend or not, let me know what you think and I'll read your comments as The Jane Austen Tea Society meets to discuss The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on April 9^th, 2011.

If you are not finished - KEEP READING!

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Originally divided into three volumes, this second published novel by Anne Brontë was released in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell to wild acclaim and was sold out within six weeks.

There were severe vocal critics of this work, however. Did this youngest Brontë sister approve of the dissipation and debauchery woven throughout the storyline - or – was she warning against it? Was it powerfully & deeply crafted or simply… “coarse”?

And - did this quiet living Yorkshire woman intend to openly challenge the prevailing morals of the Victorian Era through protagonist Helen Lawrence HuntingtonunHunHun? Should this novel be considered one of the first feminist novels because of the heroine’s radical overturning of sexual politics?

At some point after publication of the second edition, ladies were warned against reading it, saying that it was not “fit subject matter for the pages of a work… to be obtruded by every circulating library-keeper upon the notice of our sisters, wives, and daughters”. One critic pronounced it “utterly unfit to be put into the hands of girls”…

Really?!?

Am I wrong in telling the gentle ladies and tender young women in our Jane Austen Tea Society to make sure you pick up this next read for our book group? Will I be shunned from all good society?

Perhaps…

Mark your calendars --

The next Book Tea will focus on The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë on Saturday – April 9^th. So pick up a copy or simply check with your local circulating library-keeper.

The Silas Marner Tea – January 22, 2011

George Eliot is not one of my favorite authors. I recognize that her works are proven literary classics. I understand that her writing is solid, deeply developed and knowledgeable.

Is it her technique that I don’t relish? Is it her delivery that seems sere…too lacking in emotion?

In the midst of her novels there are bright, stirring plotlines with characters that ache with longing, grapple with guilt and shine with loving innocence. Why do they seem to stand behind the pages of Eliot’s description waiting patiently for entrance?

(Sigh.)

The moving storyline regarding Silas Marner and his sweet adoption of little Eppie is one of my George Eliot favorites. Poor lowly weaver of Raveloe – reclusive and crushed by society – broken free from his isolation by a lost and friendless little toddler. Shimmering golden locks replace piles of glinting gold. The guild-ridden anonymous father watching from his squire’s mansion… throwing money and gifts at a daughter he was without the courage to claim.

Is it possible that we all know a Nancy – the one who stands on principle but misses the passion of Right? Are we fortunate to have Dolly Winthrops in our midst waiting with common sense and compassion? How much to we reach out to those around us – risking disapproval or standing in vulnerability so that the kindness and goodwill of our neighbors can thaw our locked & frigid hearts?

As The Jane Austen Tea Society - we have found that thoughts and ideas sound better & flow more freely over bone china cups of Cream Earl Grey, Yorkshire Harrogate and Baroness Grey teas.

It was a small group of us for this snow clad January Silas Marner Book Tea – only five tea-bibbers. But we had a superb time nibbling goodies and sharing our thoughts.

Next – The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë in April…

Silas Marner Tea and Book Discussion - January 22, 2011 - 1pm

“Marner took her on his lap, trembling with an emotion mysterious to himself, at something unknown dawning on his life. Thought and feeling were so confused within him, that if he had tried to give them utterance, he could only have said that the child was come instead of the gold -- that the gold had turned into the child.”

Silas Marner – Chapter 14

Upcoming Silas Marner Tea - January 22nd!

... Also, by way of throwing further light on this clue of the tinder-box, a collection was made of all the articles purchased from the pedlar at various houses, and carried to the Rainbow to be exhibited there. In fact, there was a general feeling in the village, that for the clearing-up of this robbery there must be a great deal done at the Rainbow, and that no man need offer his wife an excuse for going there while it was the scene of severe public duties...

Chapter VIII - Silas Marner

A Paris Christmas – Immoveable Feast by John Baxter

The Christmas holidays didn’t leave me much time for writing, but I did manage to capture some precious, hide-in-the-corner-and-read time fortunately. It has always been a habit to happily contemplate which books I might read on vacation and it is crucial to match the event. A “beach book” to take to the Carolina coast or Florida panhandle is a different animal from the novel or travel read that might take you somewhere your heart yearns to go while the snow falls outside and a fire crackles on the hearth.

In a book lover’s life you run through many beloved and rare books but you also happen upon some that you would have done well to not spend valuable reading time wading through. Well, before the holidays came I started and finished a book that was both tedious and dry…sigh… so it made this John Baxter holiday read all the better.

A Paris Christmas – Immoveable Feast was fun to read as Christmas week approached and we headed out on vacation for a long-awaited visit with family and friends. I was able to curl up in happy proximity to a lovely sister and sweet, laughing nieces and then in the fragrant, pine scented cottage of dear friends and savor the preparations for a sumptuous Christmas dinner that Mr. Baxter was planning for his family outside of Paris.

“Ernest Hemingway called Paris “a moveable feast.” He meant to compare it to those events of the Christian calendar – Lent, Pentecost – that change their date depending on when Easter falls. There is, the term implies, no “right” time to discover Paris. Its pleasures can be relished at any moment in one’s life.

But the phrase is subject to another interpretation. At certain times of year, the spirit of Paris moves elsewhere. It’s soul migrates, and this most beautiful of cities briefly falls empty.

One such moment is August, when Parisians reaffirm their cultural roots by returning to the regions of their ancestors.

Another is Christmas.

But where do the French go at Christmas? And what takes place there?

That, among other things, is what this book is about.”

From the Preface

This book is wonderfully atmospheric. From descriptions of a table set up in a generations old French mansion to dishes well planned and prepared. It’s a delicious slice of French life… exactly what I like to read.

“That night, I pan-fried two pork chops in a little butter, peeled and sliced one of the apples (a ‘clochard’), scattered the pieces over and around the pork, reduced the heat almost to nothing, and put on a lid.

When I lifted it twenty minutes later, a wave of steam carried the odors of fruit and meat through the house. Cooked in their own juices, the chops were succulent and tender. The pieces of apple, far from turning to mush, were translucent and intact. Better still, heat at the bottom of the pan had caramelized their sugar, turning the lower surfaces a rich brown.

Lifting the chops onto a plate, I surrounded them with the apple pieces, deglazed the pan with a little Calvados, tossed in a pinch of salt, and poured the sauce over the dish.

It was the kind of simple cooking France has made its own: local ingredients, bought fresh, prepared quickly and simply, and served with care.”

I was not reveling in French food in the sensory paradise of Paris this Christmas, but thanks to this book – the gift of a friend who knows me very well – I was able to taste, smell and imagine the experience while having my own memory-forged time with people I love and tasting the foods of home and friendship.

Booklovers – find this book and tuck it away on a shelf to pull out next December for your holiday reading list!

A Paris Christmas – Immoveable Feast

By John Baxter

Harper Perennial © 2008