East Lynne

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For other uses, see East Lynne (disambiguation).
Portrait of Ellen Wood, author of East Lynne, by Reginald Easton

East Lynne is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood. East Lynne was a Victorian bestseller. It is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centreing 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 version of East Lynne. Both variants come from later stage adaptations.

Plot summary

Lady Isabel Carlyle, a beautiful and refined young woman, leaves her hard-working lawyer-husband and her infant children to elope with an aristocratic suitor. After he deserts her, and she bears their illegitimate child, Lady Isabel disguises herself and takes the position of governess in the household of her former husband and his new wife.

Adaptations

East Lynne has been adapted for the stage many times; the play was so popular that stock companies put on a performance whenever they needed guaranteed revenue.[1] The play was staged so often that critic Sally Mitchell estimates some version was seen by audiences in either England or North America every week for over forty years.[2]

The novel was first staged on 26 January 1863 in Brooklyn; by March of that year, "three competing versions were drawing crowds to New York theaters."[2] The most successful version was written by Clifton W. Tayleur for actress Lucille Western, who was paid $350 a night for her performance as Isabel Vane.[2] Western starred in East Lynne for the next 10 years.[2] At least nine adaptations were made in all, not including plays such as The Marriage Bells that "used a different title for the sake of some copyright protection."[3]

There have been many silent film versions of the book including a 1913 film. Another, starring Theda Bara, was made in 1916, and there was an Australian film six years later. In 1925, another version reached the screen which starred Alma Rubens, Edmund Lowe, Lou Tellegen and Leslie Fenton. The story has been refilmed as recently as 1982, in a BBC made-for-television production starring Lisa Eichhorn. In the 1970s a further TV dramatisation was broadcast from The City Varieties Theatre in Leeds, with the audience all in Victorian costume and Queen Victoria in The Royal Box. The famous TV host of The Good Old Days, Leonard Sachs, was present to introduce the proceedings.

In 1931 a comedy film East Lynne on the Western Front was made in which British soldiers fighting in the First World War stage a burlesqued version of the story.

1931 Film

Main article: East Lynne (1931 film)

A film version of East Lynne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1931. The movie was adapted from the novel by Tom Barry and Bradley King and directed by Frank Lloyd. The film is a melodrama starring Ann Harding, Clive Brook, Conrad Nagel and Cecilia Loftus. Only one copy of the film is known to exist.

Critical assessment

Some critics argue that the novel champions middle classes over the lower orders; others, however, find this claim "too simplistic"[4] and argue that the novel "highlights the shortfalls inherent to bourgeois masculinity."[4] Sally Mitchell argues that the novel simultaneously upholds and undermines middle-class values.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mitchell (1984), vii.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Mitchell (1984), xiii.
  3. ↑ Mitchell (1984), xiv.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Mangham (2007), 136.

References

  • Grilli Giorgia, "In volo, dietro la porta. Mary Poppins e Pamela Lyndon Travers". Società Editrice Il Ponte Vecchio. Cesena 1997 (ristampa 2002) 179-182
  • Hughes, Winifred. The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
  • Mangham, Andrew. Violent Women and Sensation Fiction: Crime, Medicine and Victorian Popular Culture. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
  • Mitchell, Sally. Introduction. East Lynne. 1861. Reprint. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1984.
  • Pykett, Lyn. The "Improper" Feminine: The Women's Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.
  • Rosenman, Ellen. "'Mimic Sorrows': Masochism and the Gendering of Pain in Victorian Melodrama." Studies in the Novel 35 (March 2003): 22-43.
  • Trodd, Anthea. Domestic Crime in the Victorian Novel. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
  • Wynne, Deborah. The Sensation Novel and the Victorian Family Magazine. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.

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