Aurora Floyd, Vol. 2

Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1835-1915Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 355K words
Chapters: 36

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Aurora Floyd, Vol. 2 by M. E. BraddonAuthor: Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1835-1915,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 19, 2015

Editor's review

Volume 2 of Aurora Floyd continues in the sensationalist vein Braddon perfected: secrets, marriage, and crises of identity build tension layer by layer against a Victorian backdrop. As the sequel to Volume 1, it magnifies the shadow of the heroine's past, markedly increasing the complexity of the characters' relationships, while the narrative keeps a tight balance between suspense and emotional eruption. Braddon's writing combines popular readability with a sharp eye for social observation, and her portrayal of women's circumstances, class prejudice, and legal constraints is especially noteworthy. Though reading this volume on its own poses some difficulty, for readers familiar with Volume 1 it offers a fuller character arc and a more complete resolution of plot. It works well as supplementary reading for a thematic course on the Victorian novel, and merits close reading by those interested in nineteenth-century British popular fiction and the study of female figures. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and cite, suiting academic or book-club use.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have finished Volume 1 and want to follow the plot further
Literature enthusiasts interested in Victorian popular and sensation fiction
Teachers and students studying nineteenth-century British female figures and marriage issues
Book-club members who need a free English original for close textual reading

Not a good fit for

Readers who have not read Volume 1 and wish to read this volume independently
Readers who prefer fast-paced modern suspense and lack patience for long serial narratives
Beginner English readers who need a Chinese translation or annotations

Reading tips

Review the key plot points and character relationships of Volume 1 before starting this volume, so no threads are lost.
After each chapter, note the points where characters' secrets advance, to grasp the structure of suspense.
Read alongside background material on Victorian marriage law to understand the characters' motives.
Book clubs can set discussion topics around the moral evaluation of the heroine.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this without having read Volume 1?

Not recommended. This volume builds directly on the relationships and central secrets of Volume 1, and many conflicts grow out of earlier groundwork. Without Volume 1, character motives and plot turns will be hard to follow; read the volumes in order, or first read a summary of Volume 1 before starting this one.

What kind of novel is this?

It is a Victorian sensation novel centered on secrets, marital crisis, and suspense over identity, combining popular plotting with social observation. Braddon is one of the representative authors of this genre, and her work emphasizes the interweaving of emotional tension and moral dilemma.

Is the Project Gutenberg edition suitable for academic citation?

It can serve as a free English original for general reading and close textual reading, but for academic citation you should check against an authoritative print edition or scholarly critical edition, and note the source as the Project Gutenberg electronic edition, bearing in mind that its typesetting and page numbers may differ from the original.

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About the author

Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1835-1915 Author

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) was an English novelist of the Victorian era, known for her intricate, suspenseful popular fiction. Her representative work, Lady Audley's Secret, revolves around concealed identity and hidden secrets and is regarded as part of the "sensation novel" tradition, enjoying wide popularity in its day. The collection holds 35 of her works, including, besides the above, the three-volume Aurora Floyd, Wyllard's Weird, the three-volume John Marchmont's Legacy, All along the River and Run to Earth. She excelled at weaving crime, deception and emotional entanglements into domestic settings, with brisk pacing and dramatic turns of fortune; her work has had a lasting influence on later popular and suspense fiction. Public information on the details of her life is limited, so they are not elaborated here.