Aurora Floyd

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, P. D. Edwards (Editor)

Overview

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.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199555161
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/15/2009
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	250,746
Product dimensions:	7.14(w) x 5.78(h) x 1.03(d)
Lexile:	1250L (what's this?)

About the Author

P. D. Edwards is Darnell Professor of English at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is also the editor of several Trollope titles in World's Classics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Note on the Text
Mary Elizabeth Braddon: A Brief Chronology

Aurora Floyd

Appendix A: Victorian Femininity: The Stable, the Home, and the Fast Young Lady

1. “Fast Young Ladies” (Punch)
2. “Six Reasons Why Ladies Should Not Hunt” (The Field)
3. “Muscular Education” (Temple Bar)
4. John Ruskin, “Of Queens’ Gardens” (Sesame and Lilies) (1865)

Appendix B: Reviews and Responses

1. H.L. Mansel, “Sensation Novels” (Quarterly Review)
2. “The Archbishop of York on Works of Fiction” (The Times)
3. W. Fraser Rae, “Sensation Novelists: Miss Braddon” (North British Review)
4. Henry James, “Miss Braddon” (The Nation)
5. Margaret Oliphant, “Novels” (Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine)
6. George Augustus Sala, “The Cant of Modern Criticism” (Belgravia)
7. George Augustus Sala, “On the ‘Sensational’ in Literature and Art” (Belgravia)
8. “Sensation Novels” (Punch)

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

This is the only modern edition to be based on the first three-volume version of Braddon’s much revised novel, and the editors make an excellent case for their choice. A substantial and lucidly written critical introduction situates the novel in its contemporary cultural contexts; in debates about realism and sensationalism, and anxieties about class, femininity, domesticity and marriage. The appendices, containing a selection of contemporary views of femininity and domesticity, and responses to Braddon and her novel, are an added bonus to this excellent volume.” — Lyn Pykett, University of Wales-Aberystwyth

“Invaluable … provides copious explanatory notes, appendices containing contemporary reviews and writings on femininity, and a thorough, well-organized introduction.” — Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher