Brown grained cloth with gilt lettering on the spine. Embossed ship on front cover.

East Lynne is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood, writing as Mrs Henry Wood. A Victorian best-seller, it is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centring on infidelity and double identities. There have been numerous stage and film adaptations.

The much-quoted line “Gone! And never called me mother!” (variant: “Dead! Dead! And never called me mother!”) does not appear in the book; both variants come from later stage adaptations.

The book was originally serialised in The New Monthly Magazine between January 1860 and September 1861, being issued as a three-volume novel on 19 September 1861.

PLOT SUMMARY

Lady Isabel Vane is distraught when her beloved father dies suddenly and the earldom and all the property goes to a distant relation, leaving her homeless and penniless. She is a beautiful and refined young woman, who (for lack of other options) marries the lawyer Archibald Carlyle who buys her former home, East Lynne. Unfortunately, his elder sister Cornelia also comes to live in East Lynne; she hates that marriage and by taking over the household makes Isabel’s new life miserable. Mr Carlyle is a very kind man, who had previously had a friendship with local lady Barbara Hare, who had hoped to marry him. Isabel leaves her hard-working lawyer-husband, and her infant children, and the miserable household, to elope with an aristocratic but poor Captain Francis Levison. This is because she jealously suspects her husband’s friendship with Barbara Hare and Levison misleads her into a wrong interpretation of a meeting. However once abroad with Levison she realises he has no intention of marrying her, despite her having borne their illegitimate child. He deserts her. Her cousin Lord Mount Severn comes to visit her in Europe and offers to support her. She finds out from him that her husband was not unfaithful. On the way back to England, Lady Isabel is badly injured in a train accident, the baby is killed, and she is wrongly reported dead. Following this Isabel is able in disguise and under a new name to take the position of governess in the household of her former husband and his new wife (Barbara Hare) allowing her to be close to her children. This also becomes a source of great misery as the little boy William dies of TB. Mr Carlyle stands for Parliament, as does Sir Francis Levison, her seducer. It transpires that under the name Thorn, Levison had been guilty of the murder of Mr Hallijohn, but Richard Hare, the brother of Barbara, had been falsely accused of that murder and goes on the run. When the facts eventually come to light there is a hilarious and dramatic trial involving Afy Hallijohn as a reluctant witness. The pressure of keeping up a façade (eg wearing blue glasses, adopting a foreign accent) and being constantly reminded that her husband has moved on eventually physically weakens Isabel. On her deathbed she tells all to Carlyle who forgives her.

Ellen Price (17 January 1814 – 10 February 1887) was an English novelist better known as Mrs. Henry Wood. She is best remembered for her 1861 novel East Lynne. Many of her books sold well internationally and were widely read in the United States. In her time, she surpassed Charles Dickens in fame in Australia.

Ellen Price was born in Worcester in 1814. In 1836 she married Henry Wood, who worked in the banking and shipping trade in Dauphiné in the South of France, where they lived for 20 years. On the failure of Wood’s business, the family (including four children) returned to England and settled in Upper Norwood near London, where Ellen Wood turned to writing. This supported the family. Henry Wood died in 1866. She wrote over 30 novels, many of which (especially East Lynne) enjoyed remarkable popularity. Among the best known are Danesbury House, Oswald Cray, Mrs. Halliburton’s Troubles, The Channings, Lord Oakburn’s Daughters and The Shadow of Ashlydyat. Her writing tone would be described as “conservative and Christian,” occasionally expressing religious rhetoric.

In 1867, Wood purchased the English magazine Argosy, which had been founded by Alexander Strahan in 1865. She wrote much of the magazine herself, but other contributors included Hesba Stretton, Julia Kavanagh, Christina Rossetti, Sarah Doudney and Rosa Nouchette Carey. Wood continued as its editor until her death in 1887, when her son Charles Wood took over.

Wood’s works were translated into many languages, including French and Russian. Leo Tolstoy, in a 9 March 1872 letter to his older brother Sergei, noted that he was “reading Mrs. Wood’s wonderful novel In the Maze“. Wood wrote several works of supernatural fiction, including “The Ghost” (1867) and the oft-anthologized “Reality or Delusion?” (1868).

At her death caused by bronchitis, Wood’s estate was valued at over £36,000, which was then a considerable sum. She was buried in Highgate Cemetery, London. A monument to her was unveiled in Worcester Cathedral in 1916.