East Lynne by Ellen Wood/Mrs Henry Wood (1817-1887)
1860's Best Seller -Now Forgotten
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East Lynne, the second novel by Ellen Wood, (Price), who was usually known as Mrs Henry Wood, was first serialised by Colburn's New Monthly Magazine in 1860. Then published in book form in 1861, going on to sell two and a half million copies, and translated into many languages. Also to become the best selling novel of the 1860's. Quite an achievement for a woman who was writing to earn money after husband went bankrupt. JAMES There were popular stage versions, five films, and a television series of the book in 1982. There was even a comedy -East Lynne on the Western Front (1931), set in 1915, in which soldiers decide to stage their own version.
East Lynne (1861) is regarded an exquisite mid-Victorian sensation novel. Instead of one country pile, there is both East Lynne and West Lynne, each with their own aristocratic family at the time the story begins, both are prone to scandal and drama largely set in the countryside. A gamekeeper was murdered before the novel opens, his supposed killer is at large.
One of the leading ladies, Miss Barbara Hare, lives with her sick mother and stern father who happens to be a local judge. The family have the shame of their son/brother being on the run, wrongly indicted for a capital crime ( Shades of Mrs Gaskell's North and South). Lady Isabel lives with her father who has incurred a mammoth level of debt, and a pack of rather unsympathetic creditors start to snap at his heels. Lord Hare has not got round to explaining their sorry predicament to his daughter or to make any financial provision for her if anything were to happen to him. This was before the passing of the 1869 Debtors Act which ended jail time for those in debt. Lord Hare is reminiscent of dissolute Georgian rural gentry that the Victorians would prefer to distance themselves from.
There is a strange combination of old and modern featured in East Lynne. Carriages are still in use, but the railway networks are starting to function, in fact there is a train crash later on into the novel. Telegraph is in use. One of the leading male characters is a very successful lawyer who can afford to become a country gentleman with servants of his own via following a strict work ethic and fixed set of morals. The theme of landed gentry having to rely on help from 'new' money, or even marrying into a different class is significant for this novel. A couple of members of the aristocracy tumble from status and position.
There is another male lead, originally appearing as Captain Thorn, who is one of the great dirty rotten scoundrels of Victorian literature, reminds one of Arthur Huntingdon of Anne Bronte's Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Or even Iago from Othello.
Without giving too much of the plot away, a major theme of the novel features a lady who deserts her husband and young children and runs off with a fancy man.Predictably he turns out to be a rotter, and the poor woman has to devise a way of being near her children without revealing her identity. Ellen Wood tries to portray her plight as sympathetically as it is possible, considering what was permissible for the time. Similar dilemma to Mrs Gaskell with her novel Ruth (1853) where a central character breaches the conventional morality, albeit in a different way, by becoming pregnant before marriage. Both writers had to ensure that a woman who offended current sensibilities is punished with unhappiness and regret if they wanted their work published. Yet they chose to portray female downfall as being due to trusting villainous men. Both women are shown as naive victims rather than being essentially terrible people. But they are contrite, and certainly not feminist rebels.
Modern day readers might find this guilt wallowing and regret process a bit laboured whilst the religious principle of redemption from sin that breaks into the story would not appeal to a 21st century readership. The novel has a reputation for melodrama. Yet alternately anyone studying fiction from a women's history standpoint will probably find some benefit: These is a case to consider women writing fiction and social commentary as means to impact society Whether Mrs Wood was merely
There are illogical plot developments of East Lynne, with an over reliance on 'destiny and coincidence' to borrow a term from Elisabeth Jay in her introduction. JAY There is also quite a tense courtroom drama, even though the verdict is not really in doubt. It is debatable whether East Lynne is really a crime novel but the trial is a strong element in the book.
But notice how there is a distinct lack of heroism: Meanwhile in Russia at this time Tolstoy was creating courageous figures such as Prince Andrei and the Rostov sons in War and Peace. In the world of East Lynne a 'good' man works hard, provides for his family, is dependable. And there is a coward who eventually steps up and faces his predicament. Conscience and doing the 'right' thing are important in the world evoked by East Lynne, but being adventurous and/or choosing to face virtually impossible odds,would probably be frowned upon.
Ends
Picture Credit
'Stapleton Park, Near Pontefract' , John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1836, in public domain courtesy of Wikipedia UK
Books
East Lynne , by Ellen Wood ,Edited with an introduction by Elisabeth JAY, Oxford World Classics edition, Oxford University Press, 2005
A Popular Encyclopedia of Victorian Women Writers, Russell JAMES, entry for 'Mrs Henry Wood' , Prospero Books, 2024
Links
Mrs Henry Wood Worcester (Worcester People).
Victorian Web Entry for Mrs Henry (Ellen) Wood,
East Lynne (1982) Television version of book on Youtube
Related blogs
Please note that any mistakes or schoolboy errors in this post are the responsibility of the writer and should not be attributed to any source or group cited above.
Worthing, England
7th August 2026
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