East Lynne
by Mrs. Henry Wood 1814–1887
The book, and the century it came out of.
Lady Isabel leaves her husband and children for a man who does not want the burden, and returns — governess to her own children, unrecognised, in her own former house. Mrs Henry Wood wrote lying on a couch, curved from childhood by a spinal condition, and produced the sensation novel of the century: the stage version played for fifty years, and the line about the dead boy became a byword for Victorian excess. Illustrated with 52 full-page plates — paintings by Huskisson, Müller and Provis among them.
In an easy-chair of the spacious and handsome library of his town-house, sat William, Earl of Mount Severn.
East Lynne, by Mrs. Henry Wood, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Love & Society
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 624 pages
- Reading time
- about 12 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501165335
52 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
1861 — the year divorce reached the newspapers
The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 had just moved divorce out of the ecclesiastical courts and into a public one, and the newspapers reported the cases in detail. A wife who left could lose her children entirely; the law gave a father near-absolute custody.
Mrs Henry Wood wrote the sensation novel of that moment, and it sold in the hundreds of thousands. Its subject is not adultery so much as what the law did afterwards.
This book in culture: 3 versions
Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.
The whole afterlife of East Lynne — screen, stage and beyond →
- 1913 East Lynne Bert Haldane
- 1916 East Lynne Bertram Bracken
- 1982 East Lynne David Green TV film
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
East Lynne, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Love & Society shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501165335, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of East Lynne?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Mrs. Henry Wood's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 624 pages, which is roughly about 12 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
