Showing results for "Gothic" in Physical Illness & Disease

Heart and Science is one of Wilkie Collins' didactic novels. It is the story of young doctor Ovid Vere, who fights for his love against all resistance of his family and their immediate circle of acquaintances. The novel features a large inheritance, a secret engagement, and an evil stepmother, but what makes the novel truly remarkable is that Wilkie Collins, who was always very fond of animals, speaks out in this volume against animal cruelty in the sciences. - Summary by Carolin

This is one of the Victorian “Sensationist” Mary Elizabeth Braddon's many novels (best known among them: “Lady Audley’s Secret”). It is extremely well written, fluid, humorous and, in places, self-mocking: one of the main characters is a Sensation Author. The motifs of the-woman-with-a-secret, adultery, and death are classic “sensationist” material. Yet this is also a self-consciously serious work of literature, taking on various social themes of the day. Specifically, Braddon presents the psychological struggle and cognitive dissonance which are the inevitable plight of the ...