Since taking on my book blog just over three years ago, I have found some lovely bookish-minded people on Bookstagram – and it was such a collection in the ‘Victorian Sensation Book Club’ who encouraged me to read ‘Aurora Floyd’. Throughout January, we read and discussed the novel, even naming the actresses we would have loved to have seen (or even see) in a film adaptation of this gloriously melodramatic novel.
Aurora Floyd is from the pen of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, who also brought us ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’. A classic Victorian novelist who embodies the sensation genre with her wonderful tales. Aurora Floyd has a secret; a secret she really is not willing to share. However, as the tale develops and tragedy strikes, the secret is revealed – but not all mysteries are solved.
I could not put this novel down, and I was glad I was enjoying it as part of a read along, as I may have been tempted to rush through rather than savour the novel. As well as the beautiful writing, it has all the ingredients if a great mystery story. You have a secret, a cast of colourful characters – in the foreground and the background – and a murder…what more do you need? As well as a wonderful setting in the North of England and a nod to the racing word.
I am going to put it out there, despite (possibly) being a lesser-known novel, I preferred it to ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’. Do not get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed that book, but I felt this one had characters who were a little more relateable overall – especially Aurora herself.
So, if you fancy a novel that you may not normally have picked up – this is it!