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Hunter because he has a secret, a Life's Secret, if you will, but the secret remains secret because the secret is the only reason to read the novel, so Mrs. Henry Wood fills in three hundred pages or so trashing trade unions. If you join a union, your children will die and you'll end up in the workhouse. Henry Hunter scratch their heads, "Since the lockout began, the parish registers are full of child deaths. Let's keep that lockout going. Henry Wood is so anti-union that the editor felt compelled to add an apologetic footnote.

While everyone affected by the lockout is walking around like a skeleton, homeless in thin rags, Mr. Hunter's secret is revealed. It's a lame secret. There's not even accidental bigamy. Hunter gives another twenty page speech bashing unions, Austin Clay and Florence get engaged, and the book is mercifully over. Henry Wood makes a specific point of trashing the poor in her earlier works, even in The Channings where she has to sneak it in quick on the way to a spa, but by Trevelyn Hold, someone has explained to her that the poor aren't poor because they're lazy and she writes from a more woke perspective.

She blames the impostor squire for his employees' terrible condition, even. But her early books are worth it in spite of the poor-hating except this one and maybe Mrs. There are some beautiful passages about death in here, but the minor characters who die aren't particularly memorable and hopeful words would be better in a better book. Jul 16, Herman Gigglethorpe rated it it was ok Shelves: Fans of East Lynne will be disappointed when they read this book and learn how boring it is in comparison. Probably because we don't follow the flawed characters as much and focus on the boring nice ones.

Austin Clay moves to London after saving the life of a business man from a allegedly mad woman who says he has a Secret. He's supposed to be a villain, Fans of East Lynne will be disappointed when they read this book and learn how boring it is in comparison. He's supposed to be a villain, though some of his arguments will be sympathetic to modern readers. Henry Wood was definitely a Tory at heart and disliked the labor movement in general.

Collected Works of Ellen Wood by Mrs. Henry Wood

The editor had to slip in a footnote saying not all unions were bad! The strike drags on and everyone's slowly starving to death. Father Goriot by Balzac is the gold standard for the "slow descent into poverty" plot, and this doesn't even make it to bronze. The company stays in business by hiring foreign workers.

Overall, this has little to do with the main story about Lewis Hunter's Secret. I'll spoil the Secret for you: It's a clandestine marriage, and not the more daring bigamy in better sensation novels like Lady Audley's Secret. Don't bother with A Life's Secret, unless you really want to read every "industrial novel" for some reason. The writing is moralizing and dull at times, but the secret drew me in and made me want to keep reading.

A Life's Secret

The treatment of unions is the most interesting aspect of the novel: I haven't done research on the novel, but it's so obscure that I'm guessing there isn't much scholarship on it. I'd like to see what The writing is moralizing and dull at times, but the secret drew me in and made me want to keep reading.

I'd like to see what some union-supporting Victorianists might say about it. Jun 23, Marie Nedregotten rated it it was ok. Mrs Wood was one of the most popular authors of her time, and I wanted to sample her novels. I read the edition belonging to Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

Mrs. Henry Wood

Of considerable length nearly pp , and reasonably well conceived, about a secret that is only revealed at the end. However, the central conflict around the negative effects of strikes and lockouts is clearly rendered to defend the 'masters' interests, with a bias that becomes tiresome for a modern reader.


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In spite of this, there Mrs Wood was one of the most popular authors of her time, and I wanted to sample her novels. In spite of this, there is a vivid interest in the language and life of workers and craftsmen and their families. Austin Clay, an orphan and builder's apprentice from the small Midland town of Ketterford, suddenly finds himself out of a job and a home when his master and benefactor dies of a stroke and his widow sells the business.

Austin decides to make his fortune in London.

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