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ROBERT AINSLEIGH, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, has practically everything of Victorian melodrama. Concealed origins, adoptions, handsome virtuous youths of noble blood raised in peasants' homes, grim overly religious housekeepers, extraordinarily beautiful ladies, falsely reported deaths, unrequited love, requited love, hijinks with wills, vile libertines, soldiers of fortune, faked marriages, terrible murders, colonialist exoticised Indian adventures with convenient damsels in distress, burglars, absent parents, missing young ladies, masked balls, theatre, courtrooms, forced conscriptions, and true love victorious in the end...
It's a good example of the genre, that's all I'm saying.
Comes in three volumes: Vol I, Vol II, Vol III. Technically not actually Project Gutenberg, but here's Mary Elizabeth Braddon's page there. She's best known for LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET, which is an entertaining and suspenseful critique of patriarchal law's inherent unfairness toward women... :P (Also, it's a sensation novel about a female murderess with as many things as possible thrown in there to make book sales.)
Also, I'd like to talk about an amzing female character in this one. She's sidelined at first and then in the latter parts of the story comes blazing into her own. Margery Hawker was born to the humble wife of a gamekeeper, and has no filigreed locket hung with a blue ribbon that reveals her true parentage nor ancient yellowed deed in the attic granting her a fortune. She lacks the common Victorian melodrama superpower of inherent gifts resulting from a clump of rich idlers in one's immediate ancestry, and she doesn't even receive the benefits of an extensive education like the male protagonist.
Margery then commits the grave sin of losing that which does not enrich her in nonmarital sexual intercourse with a villain. Alas, alack; ruined forever, surely! The more so when she is cast adrift and penniless by her vile seducer. Not so.
Margery Hawker adopts a pseudonym, takes to the stage, and is next seen by the protagonist as a brilliant genius taking London by storm who just happens to be very much more successul and generally more awesome than him. And who jolly well is going to submit to no more men, thank you - Margery is now passing as a virtuous widow and repeatedly turns down all suitors. The protagonist happens to be in love with the slightly spineless noble-born lady who only lost her virginity in marriage, and even he admits Margery is the most beautiful and wonderful game in town.
Also, Margery is now successful and wealthy and fantabulous, and her former seducer is now her grovelling supplicant who's run through most of his fortune and is never going to be able to win her back. He can't even ruin her reputation because nobody will believe him. It already sucks to be him, and he still hasn't met his final fate.
Margery then saves the male protagonist's life. Twice. First she nurses him after a failed duel with her former seducer. The second time, she saves him from a rope at Tyburn by turning lady detective. She doesn't leave him hanging - completely and entirely at her own initiative she deduces the real murderer, and doesn't even stop there: she goes ahead and makes damn well sure he testifies and makes his confession in open court, thanks to her sheer force of personality!
After all that, Margery reconciles with her parents by showing her father how amazing she is at playing Juliet, and the three of them go off on vacation through Europe.
She is also strong enough to refuse the protagonist's hand in marriage, even though she was in love with him when they were young, because she is insightful and honest and true enough to see that gratitude for saving him rather than love motivates him. His taste in women is not that great (although a lack of pagetime is primarily to blame for the way his love interest just isn't as interesting as Margery). Then Margery becomes the surrogate aunt to the protagonist's children - considered *extremely* fit for them to associate with and receive sugarplums from.
Much of Margery's story is shuffled offscreen, principally for Robert's much less interesting adventures in India, but I submit that this is much better writing of female characters than Ed Greenwood or Stephenie Meyer. Overall, ROBERT AINSLEIGH is predictable pulp - except that Margery coming into her own is delightful, and Braddon knows how to write enjoyable, predictable pulp.
It's a good example of the genre, that's all I'm saying.
Comes in three volumes: Vol I, Vol II, Vol III. Technically not actually Project Gutenberg, but here's Mary Elizabeth Braddon's page there. She's best known for LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET, which is an entertaining and suspenseful critique of patriarchal law's inherent unfairness toward women... :P (Also, it's a sensation novel about a female murderess with as many things as possible thrown in there to make book sales.)
Also, I'd like to talk about an amzing female character in this one. She's sidelined at first and then in the latter parts of the story comes blazing into her own. Margery Hawker was born to the humble wife of a gamekeeper, and has no filigreed locket hung with a blue ribbon that reveals her true parentage nor ancient yellowed deed in the attic granting her a fortune. She lacks the common Victorian melodrama superpower of inherent gifts resulting from a clump of rich idlers in one's immediate ancestry, and she doesn't even receive the benefits of an extensive education like the male protagonist.
Margery then commits the grave sin of losing that which does not enrich her in nonmarital sexual intercourse with a villain. Alas, alack; ruined forever, surely! The more so when she is cast adrift and penniless by her vile seducer. Not so.
Margery Hawker adopts a pseudonym, takes to the stage, and is next seen by the protagonist as a brilliant genius taking London by storm who just happens to be very much more successul and generally more awesome than him. And who jolly well is going to submit to no more men, thank you - Margery is now passing as a virtuous widow and repeatedly turns down all suitors. The protagonist happens to be in love with the slightly spineless noble-born lady who only lost her virginity in marriage, and even he admits Margery is the most beautiful and wonderful game in town.
Also, Margery is now successful and wealthy and fantabulous, and her former seducer is now her grovelling supplicant who's run through most of his fortune and is never going to be able to win her back. He can't even ruin her reputation because nobody will believe him. It already sucks to be him, and he still hasn't met his final fate.
Margery then saves the male protagonist's life. Twice. First she nurses him after a failed duel with her former seducer. The second time, she saves him from a rope at Tyburn by turning lady detective. She doesn't leave him hanging - completely and entirely at her own initiative she deduces the real murderer, and doesn't even stop there: she goes ahead and makes damn well sure he testifies and makes his confession in open court, thanks to her sheer force of personality!
After all that, Margery reconciles with her parents by showing her father how amazing she is at playing Juliet, and the three of them go off on vacation through Europe.
She is also strong enough to refuse the protagonist's hand in marriage, even though she was in love with him when they were young, because she is insightful and honest and true enough to see that gratitude for saving him rather than love motivates him. His taste in women is not that great (although a lack of pagetime is primarily to blame for the way his love interest just isn't as interesting as Margery). Then Margery becomes the surrogate aunt to the protagonist's children - considered *extremely* fit for them to associate with and receive sugarplums from.
Much of Margery's story is shuffled offscreen, principally for Robert's much less interesting adventures in India, but I submit that this is much better writing of female characters than Ed Greenwood or Stephenie Meyer. Overall, ROBERT AINSLEIGH is predictable pulp - except that Margery coming into her own is delightful, and Braddon knows how to write enjoyable, predictable pulp.
