Merry Wanderer of the Night + TIME

Overlap

One of my favorite experiences as a reader is when everything you are reading starts to overlap. I had this experience this morning while reading And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander (which I'm loving now, it started a little slow). The main character, Emily Ashton, has been reading mostly Homer but randomly on one page she mentions that she is taking Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon with her on her trip. I am also reading Lady Audley's Secret right now, so it was an exciting moment for me.

This was also very interesting for me because yesterday my professor was talking about sensation fiction, which is what Lady Audley's Secret is and how it was the first pulp fiction. There were stands at train stations where people could buy novels for entertainment, much like we do now at airports with books and trashy magazines. It was also considered dangerous for women to read these sorts of novels by many people because they thought it would cause too many "sensations." Sensation fiction is usually about murder, scandal, sex and the like. Since the Emily Ashton is a female character this made her reading Lady Audley's Secret even more interesting to me. Sometimes it's good be an English major.

mary elizabeth braddon, novel, reading, sensation fiction, tasha alexander, and more:

Overlap + TIME