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Can you summarize the plot and mention the major characters of Mrs. Henry Wood's East Lynne?
Quick answer:
The plot follows Lady Isabel Carlyle, who leaves her husband, Archibald Carlyle, suspecting him of infidelity, and elopes with Francis Levison. After being abandoned by Levison and suffering a disfiguring accident, Isabel returns disguised as a governess in her former home. Major characters include Isabel, Archibald, Francis Levison, and Barbara Hare. The novel's themes include bigamy, secrets, and dramatic reversals, culminating in Isabel's tragic death and the revelation of her identity.
East Lynne was first released in 1860 as a three-part series in The New Monthly Magazine. It was re-released in its entirety as a standalone novel in 1861. The novel is one of Mrs. Henry Wood's most well known works and has undergone many adaptations over the years.
The story follows the life of the Lady Isabel Carlyle. She is described as a beautiful woman with refined tastes. The Lady Isabel decides to leave her husband, and their child together, in order to elope with a wealthy suitor named Francis Levison. She makes this decision because she suspects her husband may be having an affair with Barbara Hare. However, she is wrong.
After Isabel leaves her husband for Francis, she and Francis have a child of their own. However, they do not marry, and Isabel soon realizes that Francis has no intention of ever marrying her. Francis eventually deserts...
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Isabel, who is then disfigured in a train accident. Sadly, their child together is also killed in the accident.
Eventually, Isabel comes home and becomes a governess in the household of her former husband and his new wife. Isabel spends the rest of her days battling despair. She eventually confesses everything that she's done to her former husband, Carlyle, who forgives her.
References
East Lynne was the first and most successful of Mrs. Henry Wood's (née Ellen Price, 1814--1887) novels. It was serialized in New Monthly Magazine January 1860 -- August 1861. Robert Bentley published East Lynne in book form in 1861, paying Mrs. Wood over £600 and initially printing 2,750 copies. By 1895, Bentley's firm had printed over 400,000 copies of the novel. East Lynne was first staged in Brooklyn on 26 January 1866, and by March, three competing adaptations ran in New York theatres, including the extremely successful version written for actress Lucille Western by Clifford W. Tailleur. Nine different versions were performed 1866 -- 1899, with performances by Mrs. Conway, Ida Vernon, Sophie Miles, Modjesta, Josephine Cameron, and Mary Pickford
East Lynne is a typical sensation novel using the conventional devices of bigamy, secrets, disguises, detection, and dramatic reversals. The heroine, Isabel Vane, is the orphaned and penniless daughter of an Earl, who marries country lawyer, Mr. Archibald Carlyle, and bears him three children. She runs off to France with the villain, Frank Levison, and bears him an illegitimate child. In a train wreck, Isabel is horribly disfigured and her baby dies. Thinking Isabel dead, Archibald marries Barbara Hare, daughter of a neighboring judge. Isabel returns to England in disguise as a governess to her own children. After her son William dies of consumption, Isabel's identity is revealed, and she dies. In major subplot, Barbara Hare's brother is wrongfully accused of murder, and Archibald and Barbara bring the muderer, Frank Levison, to justice.
Scholarship includes:
Elliot, Jeanne B. "A Lady to the End: The Case of Isabel Vane." Victorian Studies 19 (1976): 329-344.
Fahnestock, Jeanne. "Bigamy: The Rise and Fall of a Convention". Nineteenth Century Fiction 36:1 (June 1981): 47-71.
Hughes, Winnifred. The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Sergaent, Adeline. Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign. London, Hurst and Blackett, 1897.
Showalter, Elain. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Wood, Charles W. Memorials of Mrs. Henry Wood. London: Bentley, 1894.
Wood, Mrs. Henry. East Lynne. Intro. by Sally Mitchell. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1984.