book review: The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue
The backstory: The Sealed Letter , originally published in the U.S. and Canada in 2008, was released in the UK last year and was longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize . The basics: Tracing the troubled marriage and divorce trial of the Codringtons, The Sealed Letter is the story of women's roles in marriage and life in 1860's England. Emily Faithfull, a first wave feminist belovedly referred to as Fido, is a dear friend of Mrs. Codrington and finds her personal and professional reputations compromised in the ensuing drama. My thoughts: After reading and utterly adoring Room ( my review ), I was curious to read Emma Donoghue's historical fiction and see how it compared. I was immediately captivated by the setting, London in 1864, and with Fido. Donoghue is a wonderful writer of character descriptions: "What in another woman would strike Fido as hyperbole has in Helen Codrington always charmed her, somehow. The phrases are delivered with a sort of rueful merrimen...