Synopses & Reviews
"Mid-Victorian London feels so real you can almost taste it. . . . Masterful." --
Washington Post Book WorldMiss Emily "Fido" Faithfull is a "woman of business" and a spinster pioneer in the British womens movement, independent of mind but naively trusting of heart. Distracted from her cause by the sudden return of a once-dear friend, the unhappily wed Helen Codrington, Fido is swept up in the intimate details of Helens failing marriage and obsessive affair with a young army officer. What begins as a loyal effort to help a friend explodes into an intriguing courtroom drama complete with accusations of adultery, counterclaims of rape, and a mysterious letter that could destroy more than one life.
Based on a scandalous divorce case that gripped England in 1864, The Sealed Letter is a riveting, provocative drama of friends, lovers, and divorce, Victorian-style."[A] cozily lurid novel." The New York Times Book Review
"[A]n intriguing tale of mystery and passion." --The Oregonian Emma Donoghue is an Irish novelist, playwright, and historian. Her novel Slammerkin was a Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and was named a notable book of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a host of other publications. She received a BA from University College Dublin and a PhD from the University of Cambridge and is now a permanent Canadian resident. She lives in Ontario.
Review
Praise for THE SEALED LETTER:"Donoghue weaves an engrossing and... quite funny melodrama about a bad, bad girl who bursts the seams of this corseted world... part "Forever Amber" and part clockwork courtroom drama, with bawdy undercurrents of forbidden love thrown in for good measure. All in all, a deliciously wicked little romp, complete with a clever twist at the end." -- The Seattle Times
"Emma Donoghue's triangle of real-life protagonists presents us with a quintessentially Victorian tableau...mid-Victorian London feels so real you can almost taste it." -- Washington Post Book World"A fascinating tour de force, a brilliant unraveling of closely held secrets and brutal betrayals...A case of Dangerous Liaisons with yet another layer of Victorian outrage." -curledupwithagoodbook.com
"Donoghue blends a true case and period detail into an intriguing tale of mystery and passion."--The Oregonian
"Donoghue recreates grim 19th-century London -- relieved by whiffs of exotic Malta -- with vividness and authority...She makes 150-year-old events immediate, evoking hot, sweaty flesh under rustling layers of bombazine and conveying powerful sense of vertigo as her characters pitch headlong into the abyss of notoriety...What could have been mere Victorian melodrama resonates here with emotional truth." -- Quill & Quire (Canada)"[A] cozily lurid new novel." --The International Herald Tribune "Good lines there are in abundance. And in the end, The Sealed Letter” provides both the titillating entertainment readers like Helen and Fido crave and the more sober exploration of truth, commitment and betrayal Harry might appreciate. Donoghues sympathy for all three of her central characters emerges through intimate narration and lifts the novel out of the tabloid muck, despite the public shaming Harry, Helen and Fido experience. There is, as Fido puts it, 'so much to say, and little of it speakable.'" --The New York Times Book Review
Review
PRAISE FOR EMMA DONOGHUE "Either Emma Donoghue spends most of her waking hours in musty library stacks or she lives a previous life in 18th-century England. She seems to inhabit the place. This is wonderful, soapy entertainment, but Donoghue infuses it with something more."
Houston Chronicle"Superb . . . Donoghue uses both the color of the period and its literary devices to create a rich, complex, and remarkably powerful story."Elle
Synopsis
Donoghue weaves an engrossing and... quite funny melodrama about a bad, bad girl who bursts the seams of this corseted world... part Forever Amber and part clockwork courtroom drama, with bawdy undercurrents of forbidden love thrown in for good measure. All in all, a deliciously wicked little romp, complete with a clever twist at the end. -- The Seattle Times
Miss Emily Fido Faithfull is a woman of business and a spinster pioneer in the British women's movement, independent of mind but naively trusting of heart. Distracted from her cause by the sudden return of a once-dear friend, the unhappily wed Helen Codrington, Fido is swept up in the intimate details of Helen's failing marriage and obsessive affair with a young army officer. What begins as a loyal effort to help a friend explodes into an intriguing courtroom drama complete with accusations of adultery, counterclaims of rape, and a mysterious letter that could destroy more than one life.
Based on a scandalous divorce case that gripped England in 1864, The Sealed Letter is a riveting, provocative drama of friends, lovers, and divorce, Victorian-style.
Synopsis
Miss Emily "Fido" Faithfull is a "woman of business" and a spinster pioneer in the British womens movement, independent of mind but naively trusting of heart. Distracted from her cause by the sudden return of a once-dear friend, the unhappily wed Helen Codrington, Fido is swept up in the intimate details of Helens failing marriage and obsessive affair with a young army officer. What begins as a loyal effort to help a friend explodes into an intriguing courtroom drama complete with accusations of adultery, counterclaims of rape, and a mysterious letter that could destroy more than one life.
Based on a scandalous divorce case that gripped England in 1864, The Sealed Letter is a riveting, provocative drama of friends, lovers, and divorce, Victorian-style.
Synopsis
Based on a scandalous divorce case that gripped England in 1864, THE SEALED LETTER is a riveting, provocative drama of friends, lovers, and divorce, Victorian style.
About the Author
Born in Ireland, Emma Donoghue spent many years in England and now lives in Canada. She is the author of Slammerkin as well as two other novels, a collection of short stories, and a collection of fairy tales. Her novels have been translated into eight languages.
Table of Contents
Contents
i Prima Facie 1
ii Feme Covert 55
iii Reasonable Suspicion 89
iv Engagement 105
v Surveillance 123
vi Actus Reus 149
vii Desertion 163
viii Mutatis Mutandis 197
ix Counterclaim 219
x Subpoena 233
xi Trial 247
xii Evidence 285
xiii Sabotage 307
xiv Contempt 317
xv Charge 329
xvi Witness 337
xvii Verdict 363
xviii Feme Sole 371
Authors Note 391
Acknowledgements 399