{"id":412,"date":"2015-10-09T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T10:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/09\/the-law-and-lady\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T17:50:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T17:50:50","slug":"the-law-and-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/09\/the-law-and-lady\/","title":{"rendered":"The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

The Law and the Lady<\/i> by Wilkie Collins is Victorian melodrama pure and simple. \u00a0We have a man harboring a secret, poison, deformity, insanity, a murder trial, a faithful family retainer, a near-fatal illness, and the list just goes on and on.<\/p>\n

Valeria marries Eustace against the wishes of both their families. \u00a0On their honeymoon, she discovers he is harboring a dark secret. \u00a0Eustace leaves because he can’t face her knowing the truth which is that he had been married before and his wife died of poison. \u00a0Eustace was tried for her murder and a verdict of Not Proven was brought in. \u00a0This meant there was not enough evidence to convict him but, at the same time, he was not totally cleared. \u00a0Valeria has a blind faith in her husband and decides to clear his name.<\/p>\n

Despite her tendency to come over faint at the slightest provocation, Valeria makes progress in her quest, possibly because she encounters coincidences at every turn. \u00a0She is allowed to search a room that contains a vital clue, people tell her stories that just happen to fill in necessary information, she accidentally meets just the person she needs to talk to. \u00a0She forges ahead, only occasionally suspecting the wrong people, and what would melodrama be without unjust suspicion? \u00a0I think it is a foregone conclusion that she ends the book reclining in her bed, her baby by her side, Eustace hovering lovingly over both of them.<\/p>\n

There really isn’t much mystery to this book. \u00a0I was pretty sure from the beginning how it was going to end and also knew how they would find the vital clue. \u00a0I don’t think you read it for any mystery, it is the drama all the way.<\/p>\n

I did basically enjoy this. \u00a0You have to suspend all belief and just let yourself roll along with the story. \u00a0I liked Valeria. \u00a0She was determined and strong. \u00a0She had a definite personality and was not just a cookie-cutter character moving through the melodrama. \u00a0Eustace, on the other hand, was not developed at all. \u00a0He was off the scene for most of the book and might as well have been for the rest. \u00a0I felt Valeria deserved a bit more of the man she loved. \u00a0There was one other character vital to the story, Miserimus Dexter, the disabled, half-mad, semi-genius. \u00a0Isn’t that quite the name and description? \u00a0I felt he took over the story a bit too much.<\/p>\n

I have read a few of Wilkie Collins’ novels and this one was not one of his best. He is good at melodrama, The Woman in White<\/i> is a great book, but this one is too loosely written. \u00a0I could see it as a short story but this is a Victorian novel so you know that wasn’t going to happen. \u00a0If you haven’t read Wilkie Collins before I would start with The Woman in White<\/i> but if you are working your way through all his novels then make yourself a cup of tea, sit back, and enjoy the drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins is Victorian melodrama pure and simple. \u00a0We have a man harboring a secret, poison, deformity, insanity, a murder trial, a faithful family retainer, a near-fatal illness, and the list just goes on and on. Valeria marries Eustace against the wishes of both their families. \u00a0On their honeymoon, she discovers he is harboring a dark secret. \u00a0Eustace leaves because he can’t face her knowing the truth which is that he had been married before and his wife died of poison. \u00a0Eustace was tried for her murder and a verdict of Not Proven was brought in. \u00a0This meant there was not enough evidence to convict him but, at the same time, he was not totally cleared. \u00a0Valeria has a blind faith in her husband and decides to clear his name. Despite her tendency to come over faint at the slightest provocation, Valeria makes progress in her quest, possibly because she encounters coincidences at every turn. \u00a0She is allowed to search a room that contains a vital clue, people tell her stories that just happen to fill in necessary information, she accidentally meets just the person she needs to talk to. \u00a0She forges ahead, only occasionally suspecting the wrong people, and what would melodrama be without unjust suspicion? \u00a0I think it is a foregone conclusion that she ends the book reclining in her bed, her baby by her side, Eustace hovering lovingly over both of them. There really isn’t much mystery to this book. \u00a0I was pretty sure from the beginning how it was going to end and also knew how they would find the vital clue. \u00a0I don’t think you read it for any mystery, it is the drama all the way. I did basically enjoy this. \u00a0You have to suspend all belief and just let yourself roll along with the story. \u00a0I liked Valeria. \u00a0She was determined and strong. \u00a0She had a definite personality and was not just a cookie-cutter character moving through the melodrama. \u00a0Eustace, on the other hand, was not developed at all. \u00a0He was off the scene for most of the book and might as well have been for the rest. \u00a0I felt Valeria deserved a bit more of the man she loved. \u00a0There was one other character vital to the story, Miserimus Dexter, the disabled, half-mad, semi-genius. \u00a0Isn’t that quite the name and description? \u00a0I felt he took over the story a bit too much. I have read a few of Wilkie Collins’ novels and this one was not one of his best. He is good at melodrama, The Woman in White is a great book, but this one is too loosely written. \u00a0I could see it as a short story but this is a Victorian novel so you know that wasn’t going to happen. \u00a0If you haven’t read Wilkie Collins before I would start with The Woman in White but if you are working your way through all his novels then make yourself a cup of tea, sit back, and enjoy the drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-review","category-wilkie-collins"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2932,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions\/2932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}