Ellen Wood

-
In a writing career spanning most of the second half of the nineteenth century, EW produced a prodigious body of work (often writing two triple-deckers per year), including sketches, novels, and a series of interconnected Johnny Ludlow tales involving a character of that name, that were published over a twenty-year period. While much of her fiction takes the form of moralistic domestic dramas, EW could also be fascinated by the grotesque, and many of her works have sensational and supernatural themes. Her reputation today rests almost exclusively on the phenomenally popular East Lynne, 1861, possibly the best seller among novels of the Victorian period and the only one of her works that has remained generally available.

Milestones

17 January 1814

Ellen Price (later EW ) was born at Worcester, the eldest in her family, born (as recent research has revealed) only two months after her parents' wedding.
While the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that EW was her parents' eldest daughter, neither it nor Charles Wood 's biography explicitly mention her siblings.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Sussex, Lucy. “Mrs Henry Wood and her Memorials”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
15
, No. 2, pp. 157-68.
164

February 1851

EW 's first identified publication, Seven Years in the Wedded Life of a Roman Catholic appeared in Harrison Ainsworth'sNew Monthly Magazine.
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press.
5: 853

January 1860 - September 1861

EW 's phenomenally popular novel East Lynne was serialised in the New Monthly Magazine.
Wood, Ellen. “Introduction”. East Lynne, edited by Andrew Maunder, Broadview, pp. 9-38.
36

30 September 1861

EW 's sensation novel East Lynne was made available in volume form from lending libraries; immensely popular, it went through four editions in six months.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(25 September 1861): 10
Nadel, Ira Bruce, and William E. Fredeman, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 18. Gale Research.
18: 304

Late 1861 to 1881

Over this period EW 's East Lynne sold 130,000 copies, was translated into a variety of languages, including Welsh, Parsee and Hindi, and was adapted for the stage many times.
Nadel, Ira Bruce, and William E. Fredeman, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 18. Gale Research.
18: 305

25 January 1862

A largely positive review of EW 's East Lynne appeared in the Times (which rarely reviewed novels).
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Nadel, Ira Bruce, and William E. Fredeman, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 18. Gale Research.
18: 305

16 November 1864

The first of many stage adaptations of Ellen Wood 's sensation novel East Lynne, J. W. Archer 's Marriage Bells; or the Cottage on the Cliff, opened at the Effingham Theatre .
Palmer, T. A., and Ellen Wood. “Appendix J: Extracts from T. A. Palmer’s adaptation of <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>East Lynne</span&gt”;. East Lynne, edited by Andrew Maunder and Andrew Maunder, Broadview, pp. 741-76.
741-76

10 February 1887

EW died of heart failure, caused in part by her spine pressing against her vital organs and exacerbated by a bronchial cold caught the previous Christmas.
Voller, Jack. “The Ellen Wood (Mrs Henry Wood) Website”. The Literary Gothic: Wood, Ellen Price (Mrs. Henry).
Wood, C. W. Memorials of Mrs. Henry Wood. R. Bentley and Son.
302-3

Biography

Birth and Parents

17 January 1814

Ellen Price (later EW ) was born at Worcester, the eldest in her family, born (as recent research has revealed) only two months after her parents' wedding.
While the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that EW was her parents' eldest daughter, neither it nor Charles Wood 's biography explicitly mention her siblings.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Sussex, Lucy. “Mrs Henry Wood and her Memorials”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
15
, No. 2, pp. 157-68.
164