The Doctor’s Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Never has a book wanted to make it so clear it is a sensation novel, and that just makes it wonderful.

For July’s pick for the Victorian sensation book club, we read ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ and it was a joy. Written as a ‘response’ to ‘Madame Bovary’, this is the tale of Isabel Gilbert and her unhappy marriage to Doctor Gilbert. Isabel is a romantic; she believes in love and the love of novels she has read, but her husband just doesn’t seem to understand her. Is there a man out there who will? Why did Isabel not wait to meet him?

This is a classic piece of literature. But, for me, Braddon had some fun with it too, ensuring it hit that sensation genre. With quite a comment on society and the experiences of women along the way.

If you are a fan of classic literature, you will enhou this novel.