You don't have to be a practicing catholic to enjoy this novel. The plot is simple yet compelling. A priest and a nun (who are having a torrid affair) find the body of the the Virgin Mother. Not a skeleton, but the actual preserved body - so lifelike that people think it is a wax sculpture. They manage to spirit the "mother" out of Israel and hide her in a basement of a homeless shelter in New York City.

Of course, everyone is after the body - but the ending is a bit surprising and not everyone is who you think he is.

Quick read and hard to put down.

This is one of the first "modern" novels I dared to read, and somehow or other I really liked it. It is an excellent book with a very gripping tale. Even though Church authorities may not be too pleased with it (what with priests having sex with nuns, and the body of Our Lady still being on Earth instead of being assumed to heaven!), it still offers excellent literary entertainment. You get the lives of several people who do not know each other, but suddenly they find their lives interwoven because of the discovery of the body of the Mother of God, and because of all the consequences to that discovery. Some of the best depicted characters are (in my opinion): Kesev, Emilio, Dan and Arthur. I did not like Carrie a lot, because she thinks as a child but behaves as a woman. Her hard-headedness and her impulsive nature got somewhat on my nerves. The idea of the scrolls and the hunt and the guarding stuff what all very well plotted, even though the end was a teeny weeny bit far fetched. Still, I liked it very much. More please!

very good story with lots of twists and turns especially with the characters of Kesev and Sister Carrie. Very enjoyable and can be appreciated by people of all faiths.

"Aurora Floyd" may not be the best novel Mary Elizabeth Braddon wrote -- the honor goes to "Lady Audley's Secret" -- but, the book is still intriguing because of the contrast it makes with the other book and many other comtemporary novels, especially "Jane Eyre." And if you don't have these historical interest, the book is pretty interesting thanks to its good story telling.

"Aurora Floyd" follows the history of the heroine of the same name, who has a shady past left in France. Aurora, unrestrained morally in her youth, hides some secret, but still attractive enough to make the two heroes fall in love with her. Without telling the nature of the secret, Aurora, strong-willed and candid, a gives a clear warning to one of them, proud Talbot Bulstrode, that he may one day regret his rash action if he dares to marry her. While he vanishes from her to marry other woman, tame and tender-hearted Lucy, the other suitor meek John Mellish succeeds in winning her heart, and he immediately marries her, not knowing her secret. As the time goes on, however, her hidden secret emerges from the past, and finally catches up with Aurora, living now quietly in a countryside. She must face the past, but how? While she is tormented by the sense of guilt, her husband began to suspect something wicked is going on, and he too began to suffer.

The story is melodramatic, but it is the merit of sensation novels, the genre in vogue during the 1860s, and Braddon, as she showed in her previous (actually written almost at the same time) "Lady Audley's Secret," is very good at handling the subject. It is notable, however, that the author intends to do something different this time, spending more pages on the analysis of the psychology of the characters. The result is a mixed bag; sometimes she shows good descriptions of characters with a witty touch, which reminds us of Thackeray, the story sometimes gets slower because of too much philosophy. Compared with the fast-paced "Lady Audley's Secret," her new experiment may look somewhat damaging.

But as a whole, the book is agreeable, and after you finish two-thirds of the book, Braddon makes the plot speedier. The last part includes one of the earliest examples of detective story, and a good (but short) portrayal of detective Joseph Grimstone's work is still fascinating. But the greatest merit of the book is its sub-text dealing with incredibly violent passion of Aurora, whose image is clearly mocking the typical angelic image of Victorain women. One of the book's scenes, in which the heroine gives a shower of blows with her wrip to her stable-man who bullied her dog, caused sensation and scandalized some critics. The description is still impressive today.

In conclusion, "Aurora Floyd" is a fairly gripping story, even though it is not the best place to start reading her books or Victorian novels. If you think you are familiar with those Victoraiin novels, or want to read one of the effect following the impact of Bronte's "Jane Eyre," try it.

Trivia: Braddon lived long (died in 1915), and before her death, she even watched the filmed version of her own "Aurora Floyd." Her life story is as intriguing as a story she wrote.

[NOTE ON THE TEXT] Oxford University Press's "Aurora Flyod" uses the later edition of the book while Broadview Press's uses an earlier edition. The former one is considerable changed from the latter, so for the academic use you must be careful.

Having devoured Trollope, Willkie Collins, I happened onto Aurora Floyd and was truly surprised to find such an outstanding story so beautifully written. A dark secret revealed, a murder and a love story, this is a wonderful book.

I really enjoyed this book - Mary please write more books soon

Rosenblum is an excellent author that does not get the wider attention many lessor talents recieve.

This collection displays the best of her gritty, distopian style. I personally prefer the more (do I say it?) "cyberpunkish" stories over the eco-disaster "Drylands" stories.

If I can find any fault with the author, it is in her slow production of novels. Recommended.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon's first novel is a lurid melodrama in which you see plenty of crimes -- murder, blackmail, revenge, etc. Every element found in melodramaric story is thrown into the book, and not surprisingly, it even has some rudimentary detective novel quality.

The story is rather simple; it is about a man called "Daredevil Dick" who is wrongly arrested for killing his rich uncle. Despite the strong belief of Mr. Peters (who is to play the detective role) that Richard is innocent, his plea is ignored.

But that is only the beginning of the gripping story, which goes between a muddy town of Slopperton and fashoionable society of Paris. The story is too improbable but thankfully always moving on, providing many dramatic and often humorous moments about the fate of Richard and those who try to rescue him, and it culminates in the their hunt for the villain who vanished his trail from the crime scene.

The book is weak as a detective novel, so do not expect something like "The Moonstone." As I said, it is more like a melodrama, and there are countless occasions of incredible coincidences. But that is one of the conventions you can find in this kind of popular novels intended for commercial purpose. It is interesting for us to see that Braddon does not still find her own voice; her style in this book is a strange concoction of Dickens and melodrama. Read the opening chapter and you instantly recognize the influence of Dickensian sentences about the rainy London in "Bleak House."

The novel itself (which was first published as "Three Times Dead" and later revised and retitled as the present one) is not as good as her works like "Lady Audley's Secret" and others, its flaws being too palpable. Still, if you like her novels or these Victorian or 19th century thriller -- like Eugene Sue's novels -- you might be interested in the book as I was.

This modern library edition has Sarah Waters' introduction (which I found not so impressive), but more remarkable thing about it is that it has also the afterword and notes by acclaimed Victorian scholar Chris Willis. The notes (32 pages) are extensive and helpful, but more helpful is her afterword, which puts Braddon in context of the history of detective fiction. Much more informative than obligatory "further reading" list.

And the book also has the reprint of Braddon's own memoir titled "My First Novel" published in 1893. This short account by her own pen does not reveal much about the book or herself, but it has several clear-cut illustrations of her house in Richmond.

Pure pleasure, or nearly so, from beginning to end. Written in surprisingly accessible prose (for a nineteenth-century novel, that is), Trail of the Serpent zips from reversal to counter-reversal, including one that knocked me completely for a loop, and I pride myself on figuring these sorts of things out. There are the odd longueurs, particularly in the last third, but this is a great rediscovery, and if you're at all fond of Woman in White, Moonstone, Drood, etc., you'll have a blast.

Rael's book is filled with powerful energy; the words themselves may be elusive, even hard to understand at times, but that's because they contain the power of an alternate frame of reference. Just reading this book shifted my center and my life.

Any girl who has been to camp, is going to camp, or would like to go to camp, will identify with this book. The incident with the snake in the tent rings true!

A clear picture of life as it was lived by actual--if rather unordinary -- people.

This book is a bit of a paradox. Working with incomplete primary sources, Mary Elizabeth Berry has put together a remarkably textured and complete picture of Kyoto in the late Medieval period of Japan. The book examines the fate of 'classical' Kyoto, the political and economic changes of the time, and shows a view not commonly seen in historical Japan: that of the urban commoners who had to live underneath and among the Samurai. Well worth reading for anyone who wants a much better understanding of the period, and of Japanese history in general. The only things that keep the book from being perfect are Ms. Berry's tendency to repeat herself in order to emphasize a point, and a lack of good maps. It makes the book somewhat longer than it probably needs to be, and also somewhat dry. Best consumed in small chunks with time for reflection in between.

This straightforward book offers realistic insight into the hard work of farm life.

Fricke's sensitive descriptions of MidMissouri countryside are reminiscent for me. A city girl, I taught a year in a one-room rural school just across the river from the setting of the book. Much later, my husband, once a farm boy from the same county, became an ag professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He initiated a series of Feminine Farrowing Schools. In brief sessions, ag instructors trained women to work with piglets as the author had to learn on her own -- enduring plenty of criticism from her demanding husband.

The Doctor's Wife is the 4th of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novels which I have had the good fortune to read. There are 76 more, so, Oxford World's Classics, bring them on! In this, my favorite so far, the heroine reads novels and dreams of her life being like those heroines in her novels. She especially seems to have an affinity with Edith Dombey. Isabel marries a decent, honest, but not much of a dreamer type man. He is very sensible and loves her much, but doesn't satisfy her emotionally, while someone else does. Braddon's wonderful word paintings of the nature scenes, and her many literary allusions were what brought this book to be my favorite of hers so far. And I thought the story was also a little more interesting. I highly recommend this author to anyone who reads 19th century literature for FUN, which is why I do it.