Mrs Henry Wood calls for attention as the most intrinsically representative woman novelist of the mid-Victorian era. (Malcolm Elwin, Victorian Wallflowers, 232.)
It has been said that nearly all Mrs. Henry Wood's works were written with a purpose. Yet nothing can be more mistaken. Her purpose was to interest and amuse her readers. At the same time, she always endeavoured, as far as possible, to elevate them; to raise the standard of morality; to set forth the doctrine of good and evil; to point out the two paths in life, and the consequences that must follow the adoption of either. (Charles Wood, "Mrs Henry Wood: In Memoriam," The Argosy XLIII [Jan.-June 1887], 349.)
[S]he did not ... sit passively by while her novels sold thousands of copies; rather, she actively shaped her career, her image, her magazine, and the profession of authorship itself with particular goals in mind. (Jennifer Phegley, "Domesticating the Sensation Novelist: Ellen Price Wood as Author and Editor of the Argosy Magazine," 194.)
If Mrs. Henry Wood had done nothing else
as a novelist, she would still be entitled
to the credit of having proved that two qualities
which used to be thought incompatible
may be sometimes found in conjunction.
She is at once amusing and prosy. It is
never an impossibility to get through one of
her books, but at the same time the reader
always wishes he could throw overboard a
good deal of unnecessary ballast. (1864 review of Oswald Cray in The Reader)
Biographical material
- Early Life and Marriage
- Writing Career
- Death and Later Reputation
- Mrs Wood's grave in Highgate Cemetery
Themes and Contexts
- Sympathy and Representation in Mrs. Henry Wood's East Lynne (1863)
- The Argosy (see under "Mrs Ellen Wood")
- "To Interest and Amuse": Humour in Mrs. Henry Wood's The Channings"
- Industry, Religion and Self-Help in Mrs Halliburton's Troubles
- The Victorian Sensation Novel, 1860-1880 — "preaching to the nerves instead of the judgment"
Genre, mode, and style
- "We Will Call Him a Detective": Mrs Henry Wood's Jonas Butterby and the detective novel
- Wood’s “newspaper style of writing”
- Oswald Cray doesn't have her usual humorous characters
Social and political themes and contexts
- The Worcester glove trade, its decline, and economic effects
- Working conditions and quality of life in the glove trade
Plot and structure
Literary relations: influence, confluence, and reputation
Bibliographies
- Select Bibliography (Mrs Henry Wood)
- Sensation Novel Bibliography
Last modified 25 July 2016