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Aurora Floyd (Oxford World's Classics)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon Manufacturer: Oxford University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback  19th Century
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ASIN: 0192837273 |
Book Description
With Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon had established herself, alongside Wilkie Collins and Mrs Henry Wood, as one of the ruling triumvirate of `sensation novelists'. Aurora Floyd (1862-3), following hot on its heels, achieved almost equal popularity and notoriety. Like Lady Audley, Aurora is a beautiful young woman bigamously married and threatened with exposure by a blackmailer. But in Aurora Floyd, and in many of the novels written in imitation of it, bigamy is little more than a euphemism, a device to enable the heroine, and vicariously the reader, to enjoy the forbidden sweets of adultery without adulterous intentions. Passionate, sometimes violent, Aurora does succeed in enjoying them, her desires scarcely chastened by her disastrous first marriage. She represents a challenge to the mid-Victorian sexual code, and particularly to the feminine ideal of simpering, angelic young ladyhood. P. D. Edward's introduction evaluates the novel's leading place among `bigamy-novels' and Braddon's treatment of the power struggle between the sexes, as well as considering the similarities between the author and her heroine.Download Description
Is not life altogether a long comedy, with Fate for the stage-manager, and Passion, Inclination, Love, Hate, Revenge, Ambition, and Avarice, by turns, in the prompter's box? A tiresome comedy sometimes, with dreary, talkee, talkee front scenes which come to nothing, but only serve to make the audience more impatient as they wait while the stage is set and the great people change their dresses; or a "sensation" comedy, with unlooked-for tableaux and unexpected dénoûments; but a comedy to the end of the chapter, for the sorrows which seem tragic to us are very funny when seen from the other side of the foot-lights.Customer Reviews:
Gripping read!.......2004-10-23
One of the Absobing Books Victorains Enjoyed Back in 1860s.......2002-02-16
"Aurora Floyd" follows the history of the heroine of the same name, who has a shady past left in France. Aurora, unrestrained morally in her youth, hides some secret, but still attractive enough to make the two heroes fall in love with her. Without telling the nature of the secret, Aurora, strong-willed and candid, a gives a clear warning to one of them, proud Talbot Bulstrode, that he may one day regret his rash action if he dares to marry her. While he vanishes from her to marry other woman, tame and tender-hearted Lucy, the other suitor meek John Mellish succeeds in winning her heart, and he immediately marries her, not knowing her secret. As the time goes on, however, her hidden secret emerges from the past, and finally catches up with Aurora, living now quietly in a countryside. She must face the past, but how? While she is tormented by the sense of guilt, her husband began to suspect something wicked is going on, and he too began to suffer.
The story is melodramatic, but it is the merit of sensation novels, the genre in vogue during the 1860s, and Braddon, as she showed in her previous (actually written almost at the same time) "Lady Audley's Secret," is very good at handling the subject. It is notable, however, that the author intends to do something different this time, spending more pages on the analysis of the psychology of the characters. The result is a mixed bag; sometimes she shows good descriptions of characters with a witty touch, which reminds us of Thackeray, the story sometimes gets slower because of too much philosophy. Compared with the fast-paced "Lady Audley's Secret," her new experiment may look somewhat damaging.
But as a whole, the book is agreeable, and after you finish two-thirds of the book, Braddon makes the plot speedier. The last part includes one of the earliest examples of detective story, and a good (but short) portrayal of detective Joseph Grimstone's work is still fascinating. But the greatest merit of the book is its sub-text dealing with incredibly violent passion of Aurora, whose image is clearly mocking the typical angelic image of Victorain women. One of the book's scenes, in which the heroine gives a shower of blows with her wrip to her stable-man who bullied her dog, caused sensation and scandalized some critics. The description is still impressive today.
In conclusion, "Aurora Floyd" is a fairly gripping story, even though it is not the best place to start reading her books or Victorian novels. If you think you are familiar with those Victoraiin novels, or want to read one of the effect following the impact of Bronte's "Jane Eyre," try it.
Trivia: Braddon lived long (died in 1915), and before her death, she even watched the filmed version of her own "Aurora Floyd." Her life story is as intriguing as a story she wrote.
[NOTE ON THE TEXT] Oxford University Press's "Aurora Flyod" uses the later edition of the book while Broadview Press's uses an earlier edition. The former one is considerable changed from the latter, so for the academic use you must be careful.
A Great Gothic Tale.......2001-07-05
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Mary Elizabeth Braddon's ambivalent pre-Raphaelite ekphrasis (1). : An article from: Victorian Newsletter
Sophia Andres Manufacturer: Thomson Gale ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B000E0L51O Release Date: 2005-12-20 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Victorian Newsletter, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 4699 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Aurora Floyd: Volume I
Mary Elizabeth Braddon Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback All Amazon Upgrade
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ASIN: 1421212455 Release Date: 2002-03-14 |
Book Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1863 edition by Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig.
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Aurora Floyd: Volume II
Mary Elizabeth Braddon Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback All Amazon Upgrade
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ASIN: 1421224879 Release Date: 2002-03-14 |
Book Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1863 edition by Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig.
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Aurora Floyd: a Domestic Novel
M. E. Braddon Manufacturer: Book Jungle ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Classics
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ASIN: 1594622981 |
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The encircling woods and wide lawn-like meadows, the still ponds of limpid water, the trim hedges, and the smooth winding roads; undulating hill-tops, melting into the purple distance; laboring me:i's cottages, gleaming white from the surrounding foliage; solitary roadside inns with brown thatched roofs and moss-grown stacks of lop-sided chimneys ; noble mansions hiding behind ancestral oaks ; tiny Gothic edifices; Swiss and rustic lodges; pillared gates surmounted by escutcheons hewn in stone, and festooned with green wreaths of clustering ivy ; village churches and prim schoolhouses; every object in the fair English prospect is steeped in a fuminous haze, as the twilight shadows steal slowly upward from the dim recesses of shady woodland and winding lane, and every outline of the landscape darkens against the deepening crimson of the sky.|
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Aurora Floyd
Mary Elizabeth Braddon Manufacturer: John W. Lovell Co. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Leather Bound ASIN: B000K1N3B2 |
Product Description
Undated, circa 1865. Burgundy quarter-leather bound, marbled boards, marbled endpages. Gilt lettering and design on spine. A very pretty book.|
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Aurora Floyd
Mary E Braddon Manufacturer: Oxford University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OKKVVO |
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Aurora Floyd. A Novel
M. E. Braddon Manufacturer: Bernhard Tauchnitz ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000PS7JYM |
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Aurora Floyd;: A domestic story; from "Temple Bar."
M. E Braddon Manufacturer: T.B. Peterson and Brothers ProductGroup: Book Binding: Unknown Binding ASIN: B0008A1H4U |
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