The Enduring Appeal of the Victorian Sensation Novel

October 10, 2022 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

The Enduring Appeal of the Victorian Sensation Novel

By Mimi Matthews

My new historical romance The Belle of Belgrave Square is my homage to Victorian sensation novels with a dash of fairytale sweetness. Filled with sinister secrets, locked rooms, and an ever-present sense of danger, it contains all the deliciously suspenseful romantic elements that kept Victorian audiences turning the pages of their favorite sensation novels long into the night.

First published in the1860s, sensation novels like Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862) and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1860) were thrilling, often melodramatic, stories with elements of romance, crime, and an emphasis on hidden secrets and identities. Like their near cousin the gothic novel, they often featured creepy houses, mysterious happenings, and threats to life and liberty. However, unlike the gothic, Victorian sensation novels were generally lacking in supernatural elements. Instead, the terror within their pages stemmed from real life circumstances that were as frightening as any ghost, ghoul, or vampire.

In The Belle of Belgrave Square, Julia Wychwood faces a credible threat to her life in the form of bloodletting. Oppressive medical treatments, whether milder forms like bloodletting or the more extreme cases where characters were involuntarily committed to asylums, frequently played a role in sensation novels. Treatments like these spoke to an inherent invasion of privacy. A loss of the ability to govern one’s own body—a true horror that is still relatable to so many of us today.

Loss of bodily autonomy wasn’t the only thing to fear in sensation novels. There was also the dread of hidden identities. People were rarely who they pretended to be. Even husbands and wives—seemingly decent and upright figures whom one had married in good faith—might turn out to be villains of the worst order. How was a main character to know who to trust? Who to love?

Set primarily in England, sensation novels drew, not only on gothic tropes, but on modern British newspaper reports detailing gruesome crimes, shocking sexual deviance, and the hypocrisy of outwardly moral men and women. There was more than enough content to draw on in this respect. Beneath the starchy, strait-laced veneer of Victorian society was a surfeit of repressed sensuality and vice. When exposed, the public delighted in every salacious detail of it.

How thrilling to imagine that under those sober black frock coats and constrictive corsets, crinolines, and petticoats that shielded one’s neighbors’ bodies from view lurked dark secrets and simmering passions! And how relatable, too. In a suffocating time when excess emotion was frowned upon, it was something of a relief to read about Victorian ladies and gentlemen who were veritable volcanoes of concealed lust and avarice.

It’s one of the reasons shy, bookish Julia devours sensation novels in The Belle of Belgrave Square. Cursed by crippling social anxiety, Julia has never felt comfortable in fashionable society. The only place she can truly be alive is in the pages of a novel. Little does she know that her own life, and that of Captain Jasper Blunt, the mysterious, battle-scarred soldier who enters it, will soon be as exciting as any story.

Sensation novels enraptured nineteenth century readers. They still enthrall us today both because of the excitement and suspense they generate and because they tap into a deep well of emotion. They touch both the light and the dark, exposing the best and the worst of ourselves and our community to view. They also show us how a character—particularly a woman with limited societal freedoms and legal rights—can overcome the inequality of their circumstances, all while working within the restrictive norms inherent to the era. Those restrictions make characters all the more resourceful. And it makes their ultimate triumph that much more satisfying

The Belle of Belgrave Square is set in 1862 at a time when sensation novels were rising rapidly in popularity. Though I explore many of the elements of those novels in my story, I temper the harsher themes with the dreamy romance of fairytales like Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty. The terror still lurks, and the grittiness of Victorian danger is evident throughout, but underneath is the sweet promise of a happily-ever-after. True love, goodness, and justice ultimately prevail. As they should.

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Biography

USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews writes both historical nonfiction and award-winning proper Victorian romances, including Fair as a Star, a Library Journal Best Romance of 2020; Gentleman Jim, a Kirkus Best Indie Romance of 2020; and The Work of Art, winner of the 2020 HOLT Medallion and a 2021 Daphne du Maurier finalist.

Mimi’s novels have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, and Shelf Awareness, and her articles have been featured on the Victorian Web, the Journal of Victorian Culture, and in syndication at BUST Magazine. In her other life, Mimi is an attorney. She resides in California with her family, which includes a retired Andalusian dressage horse, a Sheltie, and two Siamese cats.

Where to Find Mimi (website, social media, etc.)

Website: https://www.mimimatthews.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MimiMatthewsAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MimiMatthewsEsq

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmimatthewsesq/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MimiMatthewsEsq/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/mimi-matthews

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The Belle of Belgrave Square (Belles of London, Book 2)

A BookBub Best Romance of 2022

A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger.

Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.

For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she’s on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can’t spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins—she proposes to Captain Blunt.

In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride—and to read—as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes…

BUY LINKS:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Q8H5VB4

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-belle-of-belgrave-square-mimi-matthews/1140838943?ean=9780593337172

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1604500860

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=t7FYEAAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-belle-of-belgrave-square

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/the-belle-of-belgrave-square/9780593337158

Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675740/the-belle-of-belgrave-square-by-mimi-matthews/9780593337158/

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ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE BELLE OF BELGRAVE SQUARE:

“Mimi Matthews never disappoints, with richly drawn characters and couples whose individual shortcomings become strengths, when paired together. In this Beauty and the Beast retelling, we get to root for two underdogs who get to rewrite their own stories.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here

“The Belle of Belgrave Square is such tremendous good fun: a heroine with a big horse, an even bigger novel-reading habit, and a hidden anxiety; a hero with a crumbling estate, a trio of wary children, and a literary secret—what’s not to love? Mimi Matthews paints Victorian England with vivid humor, and her Belles of London is set to go on for at least a few more much-anticipated installments. Julian Fellowes fans will rejoice!” —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye

“Mimi Matthews just doesn’t miss. The Belle of Belgrave Square is exquisite; a romance that delivers the perfect balance of passion, tension, and tender moments.” —Evie Dunmore, USA Today bestselling author

“This story unfolds like a rose blooming, growing more and more beautiful as each delicate layer is revealed. A tender, luminous romance. I loved it more and more with every chapter!” —Caroline Linden, USA Today bestselling author

“Absolutely enthralling: an endearing, novel-reading heroine who’s in dire danger; a swoon-worthy war hero with a scandalous past; and secrets, lots of secrets. Mimi Matthews’s The Belle of Belgrave Square is a thrilling, emotion-packed read from start to finish. I loved it!” —Syrie James, USA Today bestselling author

“[C]ombines deception, risk, and a resourceful heroine to create an intoxicating, suspenseful romance. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“A grand cross-class romance, a twisty mystery, and emotional internal struggles combine to excellent effect…fans and new readers alike will root for this well-earned love story.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)