Victorian Sensation Bookclub

The Victorian Sensation Bookclub is a group I found recently, and it is so fun! Every few months the two ladies in charge choose a book that we read over the course of the month. They have been reading for a while, and I have had a chance to join in for Wilkie Collins' The Dead Secret and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Henry Dunbar. 

"'The Secret must be told,' answered Mrs. Treverton. 'My husband ought to know it, and must know it. I tried to tell him, and my courage failed me. I can not trust you to tell him, after I am gone. It must be written. Take you the pen; my sight is failing, my touch is dull. Take the pen, and write what I tell you.'” ― Wilkie Collins, The Dead Secret⁠ ⁠🤫 Wilkie Collins, I think you're maybe my favorite Victorian author. (Just don't tell Gaskell.) Was the secret all that surprising? Nah. But I also think it is not supposed to be. The suspense is in how everyone is going to react to the unveiling of said secret. Is this his best novel? No. Was it sometimes melodramatic? Sure. But I was INVESTED. Eccentric secondary characters provided so much humor, from the dyspeptic Mr. Phippen, to the misanthropic Andrew Treverton and his sidekick Shrowl, to the pedantic and stodgy steward, Mr. Munder. And Uncle Joseph was absolutely delightful. I want an Uncle Joseph to play me Mozart on his music box. ⁠🤫

"That which would have been called a crime in a poorer man was only considered an error in the dashing young cornet of dragoons..." ― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Henry Dunbar⁠ ⚖️⛓️🤫🔍 Henry Dunbar, first published in 1864, includes all the classic ingredients of a sensation novel including murder, fraud, mistaken identity, and a train accident. Is there anything better? Plus, we are (eventually) treated to a clever, relentless detective, Mr. Carter. "... little by little, I put my questions, and keep on putting ’em till every bit of information upon this particular subject is picked clean away as the meat that’s torn off a bone by a hungry dog." ⁠

We will be reading The Doctor's Wife, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in July next! It's a rewriting of Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, so a group of us will be reading that to prep in June.