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Eleanor's victory
The craggy cliffs upon the Norman coast looked something like the terraced walls and turreted roofs of a ruined city in the hot afternoon sunshine, as the Empress steamer sped swiftly onward toward Dieppe. At least they looked thus in the eyes of a very young lady, who stood alone on the deck of the steam-packet, with yearning eyes fixed upon that foreign shore.
It was four o'clock upon a burning August afternoon in the year 1853. The steamer was fast approaching the harbour. Several moustachioed gentlemen, of various ages, costumes, and manners, were busy getting together carpet-bags, railway-rugs, camp-stools, newspapers, and umbrellas; preparatory to that eager rush towards the shore by which marine voyagers are apt to testify their contempt for Neptune, when they have no longer need of his service or fear of his vengeance. Two or three English families were collected in groups, holding guard over small mounds or barrows of luggage, having made all preparation for landing at first sight of the Norman shore, dim in the distance; and of course about two hours too soon.
It was four o'clock upon a burning August afternoon in the year 1853. The steamer was fast approaching the harbour. Several moustachioed gentlemen, of various ages, costumes, and manners, were busy getting together carpet-bags, railway-rugs, camp-stools, newspapers, and umbrellas; preparatory to that eager rush towards the shore by which marine voyagers are apt to testify their contempt for Neptune, when they have no longer need of his service or fear of his vengeance. Two or three English families were collected in groups, holding guard over small mounds or barrows of luggage, having made all preparation for landing at first sight of the Norman shore, dim in the distance; and of course about two hours too soon.
652 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1863
6 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
1,063 books386 followersMary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She was an extremely prolific writer, producing some 75 novels with very inventive plots. The most famous one is her first novel, Lady Audley's Secret (1862), which won her recognition and fortune as well. The novel has been in print ever since, and has been dramatised and filmed several times.
Braddon also founded Belgravia Magazine (1866), which presented readers with serialized sensation novels, poems, travel narratives, and biographies, as well as essays on fashion, history, science. She also edited Temple Bar Magazine. Braddon's legacy is tied to the Sensation Fiction of the 1860s.
She is also the mother of novelist W.B. Maxwell.
Braddon also founded Belgravia Magazine (1866), which presented readers with serialized sensation novels, poems, travel narratives, and biographies, as well as essays on fashion, history, science. She also edited Temple Bar Magazine. Braddon's legacy is tied to the Sensation Fiction of the 1860s.
She is also the mother of novelist W.B. Maxwell.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 16, 2021
”’[…] Listen to me, both of you, and remember what I say. I am very young, I know, but I have learnt to think and act for myself before to-day. I don’t know this man’s name; I never even saw his face; I don’t know who he is, or where he comes from; but sooner or later I swear to be revenged upon him for my father’s cruel death.’
‘Eleanor, Eleanor!’ cried the Signora: ‘is this womanly? Is this Christian-like?’”
I don’t know about you, but I certainly love revenge tales. They are a gory guilty pleasure and seductively suggestive of how to reduce life’s annoying complexities. They also have the reader experience a perversely gleeful delight resulting from the fact that on one hand, in our heart of hearts we still root for the an eye for an eye principle – which in fiction is usually satisfied through the introduction of poetic justice, whereas on the other, our religion and the civilized rules by which we go demand us not to give in to the whisperings of a bloodthirsty and resentful heart. And so, we, of course, would never stoop to jettisoning our moral principles and our self-restraint in the name of vengeance, but if a literary character does it, why! we are not to blame if we side with him, are we? Interestingly, while we sometimes may agree with Hamlet that time is out of joint and needs some setting right, it rarely occurs to us that we could do this work of adjusting things with regard to people who are in need of some good being done to them but instead concentrate on the apparently more relishing work of doing evil things to evil people.
In M.E. Braddon’s early novel Eleanor’s Victory (1863), our avenger is a young woman, Eleanor Vane, who is merely fifteen years old when she takes a vow of revenge after her father has committed suicide because he had lost the money he wanted to invest in his daughter’s schooling to a young gambling Englishman. Admittedly, Eleanor’s father reminded me a lot of Little Nell’s grandfather, being as whiny and full of self-pity, but rather more grandiloquent and egocentric, and I also felt the novel was getting richer for having lost him, but still, Eleanor was blindly devoted to the old fool, and now is blindly devoted to her scheme of revenge, which does not look very hopeful at the beginning, because how could she find out the identity of the young gambler who precipitated her father’s death? Revenge lovers needn’t lose heart at this obstacle, though, because Eleanor has a very staunch and trustworthy friend, and this is no one less than the author herself, who, a charming finagler, bends and twists the plot in such a way as to produce coincidence upon coincidence to the effect that Eleanor meets the very man she is looking for when she is least expecting it.
However, the plot itself is not the most intriguing aspect of this sensation novel, and indeed, one might almost throw one’s hands up in horror and dismay at all the coincidences we are supposed to put up with. What really makes the novel interesting is the development of the vengeful maiden Eleanor, a very strong female character, indeed, who has no qualms about marrying a decent man just because this gives her the opportunity to live near the person she wants to wreak vengeance upon. This is just one instance of our heroine taking decisions that are, at best, ethically doubtful and it shows that a person devoting their life to revenge may not always tread upon morally sound ground. Towards the end of the novel, when Eleanor is just one step away from fulfilling the vow she has given to her dead father, or rather to herself, she comes to realize that her desire for revenge, might cause some unforeseen misery and suffering to a person that had gone under her radar all the time.
All in all, I would not recommend Eleanor’s Victory for its plot so much as rather for the excellent character work Mrs. Braddon is doing. A word of warning: Don’t give up on the novel because the first three or four chapters might seem plodding and meandering. I was tempted to discard the novel for this very reason, but felt quite happy for not giving in to this impulse, because the book really improved as it moved on.
(3.5 stars, altogether)
‘Eleanor, Eleanor!’ cried the Signora: ‘is this womanly? Is this Christian-like?’”
I don’t know about you, but I certainly love revenge tales. They are a gory guilty pleasure and seductively suggestive of how to reduce life’s annoying complexities. They also have the reader experience a perversely gleeful delight resulting from the fact that on one hand, in our heart of hearts we still root for the an eye for an eye principle – which in fiction is usually satisfied through the introduction of poetic justice, whereas on the other, our religion and the civilized rules by which we go demand us not to give in to the whisperings of a bloodthirsty and resentful heart. And so, we, of course, would never stoop to jettisoning our moral principles and our self-restraint in the name of vengeance, but if a literary character does it, why! we are not to blame if we side with him, are we? Interestingly, while we sometimes may agree with Hamlet that time is out of joint and needs some setting right, it rarely occurs to us that we could do this work of adjusting things with regard to people who are in need of some good being done to them but instead concentrate on the apparently more relishing work of doing evil things to evil people.
In M.E. Braddon’s early novel Eleanor’s Victory (1863), our avenger is a young woman, Eleanor Vane, who is merely fifteen years old when she takes a vow of revenge after her father has committed suicide because he had lost the money he wanted to invest in his daughter’s schooling to a young gambling Englishman. Admittedly, Eleanor’s father reminded me a lot of Little Nell’s grandfather, being as whiny and full of self-pity, but rather more grandiloquent and egocentric, and I also felt the novel was getting richer for having lost him, but still, Eleanor was blindly devoted to the old fool, and now is blindly devoted to her scheme of revenge, which does not look very hopeful at the beginning, because how could she find out the identity of the young gambler who precipitated her father’s death? Revenge lovers needn’t lose heart at this obstacle, though, because Eleanor has a very staunch and trustworthy friend, and this is no one less than the author herself, who, a charming finagler, bends and twists the plot in such a way as to produce coincidence upon coincidence to the effect that Eleanor meets the very man she is looking for when she is least expecting it.
However, the plot itself is not the most intriguing aspect of this sensation novel, and indeed, one might almost throw one’s hands up in horror and dismay at all the coincidences we are supposed to put up with. What really makes the novel interesting is the development of the vengeful maiden Eleanor, a very strong female character, indeed, who has no qualms about marrying a decent man just because this gives her the opportunity to live near the person she wants to wreak vengeance upon. This is just one instance of our heroine taking decisions that are, at best, ethically doubtful and it shows that a person devoting their life to revenge may not always tread upon morally sound ground. Towards the end of the novel, when Eleanor is just one step away from fulfilling the vow she has given to her dead father, or rather to herself, she comes to realize that her desire for revenge, might cause some unforeseen misery and suffering to a person that had gone under her radar all the time.
All in all, I would not recommend Eleanor’s Victory for its plot so much as rather for the excellent character work Mrs. Braddon is doing. A word of warning: Don’t give up on the novel because the first three or four chapters might seem plodding and meandering. I was tempted to discard the novel for this very reason, but felt quite happy for not giving in to this impulse, because the book really improved as it moved on.
(3.5 stars, altogether)
July 24, 2018
I fell in love with Mary Elizabeth Braddon's a couple years ago & I felt it time to read another one of her stories which God willing I will be able to read all available before I die. Every time I start a story of hers not knowing what direction she is going to take me. Having read at least five or there about novels of hers I think I know where she is heading but then I find I was off in a different direction. Like her other books I am rooting for a certain result & find that in the end her insight makes the most sense. Eleanor's Victory (1863) was written a year after Lady Audley's Secret (1862), there is always some mystery to the characters & most likely some kind of crime is involved. I find her female characters quite strong in their determination & Eleanor Vane was that & more. All characters had there strengths & human failings. Eleanor Vane, a 15 year old daughter of once wealthy George Vane, comes to live with her pauper father in Paris after spending some time in an English boarding school. She is excited to be with her father & loves him dearly but her happiness is short lived when George Vane is found in the morgue.She will do whatever it takes to avenge her father's killer & to keep a promise made to her dead father but at what cost. There are many characters to this story but saying more would give some enjoyment away. The main theme is revenge what we should seek & do the criminals win out in the end. My kindle version had some mistakes in typos but nothing that upsets the story. I started slow with this but read feverishly the last 24 hours opting for less sleep so I know how it all would end. In many stories I have read & this included, a female starts to get overly excited about something & becomes feverish due to over exertion well that was how I felt in the need of old fashion Doctor's tonic & rest afterwards. LOL😕😊😮
January 27, 2020
Much better written than Braddon's more famous work, 'Lady Audley's Secret. This features a really strong heroine, Eleanor Vane, who has vowed to wreak revenge upon the man she deems responsible for the death of her father. What really lets the book down is the rushed ending but don't let that put you off reading it.
June 23, 2018
3.75 stars
An overall well-written Classic that is part coming-of-age, part family saga, part romance, and part mystery. 15-year-old Eleanor Vane is the apple of her father's eye. She is living in Paris with her father who is struggling with having lost his financial fortune yet is still striving to give his compassionate daughter everything. When an unexpected tragedy occurs, Eleanor is compelled to grow up quickly and solve a mystery. I thought that Volume 1 had exceptional storytelling but that Volume 2 and 3 were at times a little slow and could have each been condensed.
An overall well-written Classic that is part coming-of-age, part family saga, part romance, and part mystery. 15-year-old Eleanor Vane is the apple of her father's eye. She is living in Paris with her father who is struggling with having lost his financial fortune yet is still striving to give his compassionate daughter everything. When an unexpected tragedy occurs, Eleanor is compelled to grow up quickly and solve a mystery. I thought that Volume 1 had exceptional storytelling but that Volume 2 and 3 were at times a little slow and could have each been condensed.
September 5, 2020
Mi sono imbattuta in Mary Elizabeth Braddon quasi per caso, essendo diventata una vorace lettrice di "sensation novels", delle quali la scrittrice inglese era una esponente di spicco assieme a Wilkie Collins e a Ellen Wood.
Avevo già letto "Il segreto di lady Audley" in italiano (l'unico suo romanzo che ho trovato tradotto) e successivamente "The doctor's wife" e " Willard's weird" in inglese.
Gli incipit di questi romanzi mi erano sembrati promettenti, poi però la trama si infiacchiva un po' diventando a volte anche noiosetta, per poi recuperare nella parte finale, con un susseguirsi di colpi di scena.
"Eleanor's victory" è il primo romanzo della Braddon che invece mi ha tenuta incollata dall'inizio alla fine, senza mai perdere colpi.
La trama è incentrata sulla vendetta di Eleanor, la bella protagonista, che ha giurato di "farla pagare" al misterioso uomo che ha spinto suo padre al suicidio, imbrogliandolo in una fatale partita a carte e derubandolo dei soldi che sarebbero dovuti servire per pagare l'istruzione di Eleanor.
Il vecchio, non trovando il coraggio di affrontare la figlia per la vergogna, si era tolto la vita. Eleanor giura dunque di ritrovare colui che considera l'assassino di suo padre e da quel momento in poi questa ossessione dominerà la sua vita.
Avevo già letto "Il segreto di lady Audley" in italiano (l'unico suo romanzo che ho trovato tradotto) e successivamente "The doctor's wife" e " Willard's weird" in inglese.
Gli incipit di questi romanzi mi erano sembrati promettenti, poi però la trama si infiacchiva un po' diventando a volte anche noiosetta, per poi recuperare nella parte finale, con un susseguirsi di colpi di scena.
"Eleanor's victory" è il primo romanzo della Braddon che invece mi ha tenuta incollata dall'inizio alla fine, senza mai perdere colpi.
La trama è incentrata sulla vendetta di Eleanor, la bella protagonista, che ha giurato di "farla pagare" al misterioso uomo che ha spinto suo padre al suicidio, imbrogliandolo in una fatale partita a carte e derubandolo dei soldi che sarebbero dovuti servire per pagare l'istruzione di Eleanor.
Il vecchio, non trovando il coraggio di affrontare la figlia per la vergogna, si era tolto la vita. Eleanor giura dunque di ritrovare colui che considera l'assassino di suo padre e da quel momento in poi questa ossessione dominerà la sua vita.
August 23, 2015
An interesting book, set in a much seedier world than we normally see in these Victorian novels. Eleanor's quest for revenge for her father's death makes a refreshing change to the usual 'quest for a husband' plot. Of course, she does sort of accidentally acquire quite a nice husband along the way, which is convenient....A good read, but the kindle edition is badly in need of proofreading, it is riddled with mistakes that had me itching for a RED pen.
December 18, 2023
A fifteen-year old, headstrong and very foolish child takes a vow to avenge her reprobate father's suicide. It is a childish vow taken without understanding all its implications, but in its single-mindedness it hardens her heart to all tender, kindlier emotions, and renders her insensitive even to expressions of affection from others. The story is not surprisingly melodramatic, but it is also a bildungsroman, as it shows Eleanor move from volatile adolescence to a sober understanding of just what her father's death signifies: a girl without means thrown on the goodwill and grudging charity of acquaintances. As she grows into a lovely but frozen young woman, all her actions are prompted by how to effect her youthful vow. How she moves from a marriage undertaken without understanding its full implications to being a loving wife willing to give everything for her husband is the normal happy ending. But not for MEB.
Somewhere along the way, we lose sight of the fact that Eleanor's father was a weak old man, who lost three fortunes at the gaming tables, and finally lost the hundred guineas set aside for Eleanor's education before taking his own life. A further complication in the plot is a large fortune awaiting someone. There are many possible claimants. A missing will, a forged will, a burnt will and a true will are par for the course, with midnight excursions, a flighty and distractingly charming young heroine, who naturally falls in love with the one person she shouldn't!
As a study in temperaments, it is remarkable for the revelation of very different natures, such as the serene and unflappable Signora or the businesslike Hortensia Bannister and particularly Eleanor herself and her father. Equally it is a study of jealousy. Gilbert, Eleanor's husband, is almost sure she loves him, but he is, after all, twenty years older, and surely such a brilliant young creature would have all the young men at her, especially Launcelot Darrell, the almost famous artist. So, needlessly, but solely because of Eleanor's distraction, he goes nearly mad with jealousy.
Richard Thorton, a playmate of Eleanor's babyhood, is fortuitously in Paris on the night of Eleanor's bereavement. At that time the young man was already earning a living as all-purpose stage-hand, and supporting himself and his aunt by his industry and extremely precarious pay. As a true Cockney, he stands in direct contrast to the supercilious Mr Launcelot Darrell. The book is an absorbing contrast of castes: upper-class taste for lower-class flash, opera vs music hall melodrama, the Royal Academy vs stage scenery, fine literature vs penny novelettes with dukes and earls playing the part of romantic hero. It also highlights Braddon's own experience with the reception by upper class society of her own unconventional lifestyle. An exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable read.
Written with her usual flair for dragging out the suspense while all the time holding her readers’ attention, this is a brilliant satire on revenge novelettes popular at the time.
Somewhere along the way, we lose sight of the fact that Eleanor's father was a weak old man, who lost three fortunes at the gaming tables, and finally lost the hundred guineas set aside for Eleanor's education before taking his own life. A further complication in the plot is a large fortune awaiting someone. There are many possible claimants. A missing will, a forged will, a burnt will and a true will are par for the course, with midnight excursions, a flighty and distractingly charming young heroine, who naturally falls in love with the one person she shouldn't!
As a study in temperaments, it is remarkable for the revelation of very different natures, such as the serene and unflappable Signora or the businesslike Hortensia Bannister and particularly Eleanor herself and her father. Equally it is a study of jealousy. Gilbert, Eleanor's husband, is almost sure she loves him, but he is, after all, twenty years older, and surely such a brilliant young creature would have all the young men at her, especially Launcelot Darrell, the almost famous artist. So, needlessly, but solely because of Eleanor's distraction, he goes nearly mad with jealousy.
Richard Thorton, a playmate of Eleanor's babyhood, is fortuitously in Paris on the night of Eleanor's bereavement. At that time the young man was already earning a living as all-purpose stage-hand, and supporting himself and his aunt by his industry and extremely precarious pay. As a true Cockney, he stands in direct contrast to the supercilious Mr Launcelot Darrell. The book is an absorbing contrast of castes: upper-class taste for lower-class flash, opera vs music hall melodrama, the Royal Academy vs stage scenery, fine literature vs penny novelettes with dukes and earls playing the part of romantic hero. It also highlights Braddon's own experience with the reception by upper class society of her own unconventional lifestyle. An exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable read.
Written with her usual flair for dragging out the suspense while all the time holding her readers’ attention, this is a brilliant satire on revenge novelettes popular at the time.
February 8, 2018
Eleanor, a beautiful and motherless young teenager, the only child of her spendthrift father’s second marriage, is obsessed with trying to find the man who cheated him out of a large sum of money, leading to his suicide. Her half-siblings help her grudgingly and sparingly, because of their bitterness against their father, who lost 3 fortunes in his lifetime, as well as the inheritance that should have come to them from their mother.
As in all of Ms. Braddon’s novels I have read, she delightfully takes us through several different phases of the main character’s life. This was an especially long novel, presented in three volumes.
First published in 1863. I listened to this as a free download from LibriVox.org.
April 21, 2021
The book discription is not for Eleanors victory
Eleanors victory is about a young girl who seeks revenge above everything to avenge the person or persons who wronged her father and whom committed suicide because of it
An excellent ME Braddon novel and I listened to this on LibriVox with a most excellent reader; one of the best
Eleanors victory is about a young girl who seeks revenge above everything to avenge the person or persons who wronged her father and whom committed suicide because of it
An excellent ME Braddon novel and I listened to this on LibriVox with a most excellent reader; one of the best
March 23, 2021
3.5 stars?
It's hard to give a rating really.
1. The suspense writing is very good and there were points where I felt sure I knew what was going to happen next only for the plot to go in a different direction.
2. The main character of Eleanor is sympathetic and well drawn, as well as is the character of Eleanor's father who feels based on Braddon's own father "whose successes within the law were squandered by philandering and good living" [introduction].
3. Where the book is less successful is in the characterisation of the minor characters. Braddon ties off loose ends and gives a story arch to the fates of all her characters in an unrealistic way that felt so beyond realism that it spoils the ending for me slightly.
4. There are domestic period details for anyone interested in the Victorian period. I'd never heard of ivory tablets "then there's my tablets! Nobody can say that ivory tablets are vulgar. My darling little tablets with the tiny, tiny gold pencil case...I've tried to write [-**-] upon every leaf, but I do not think that ivory tablets are the very nicest things to write upon. One's writing seems to slide about somehow, as if the pencil was tipsy, and the lines won't come straight. It's like trying to walk up and down the deck of a steamer; one goes where one doesn't want to go"
http://www.goosebay-workshops.com/Wha...-
After looking up what these were I now know that they are very thin sheets of ivory fastened together to form a notebook. The idea is that the smooth surface can be written on in pencil and then wiped off to be re-used - making it a kind of reusable aid-memoir/notebook to be carried about in your pocket. Horrible to think of dead elephants but interesting to think that the Victorians were carrying about mini portable white boards.
It's hard to give a rating really.
1. The suspense writing is very good and there were points where I felt sure I knew what was going to happen next only for the plot to go in a different direction.
2. The main character of Eleanor is sympathetic and well drawn, as well as is the character of Eleanor's father who feels based on Braddon's own father "whose successes within the law were squandered by philandering and good living" [introduction].
3. Where the book is less successful is in the characterisation of the minor characters. Braddon ties off loose ends and gives a story arch to the fates of all her characters in an unrealistic way that felt so beyond realism that it spoils the ending for me slightly.
4. There are domestic period details for anyone interested in the Victorian period. I'd never heard of ivory tablets "then there's my tablets! Nobody can say that ivory tablets are vulgar. My darling little tablets with the tiny, tiny gold pencil case...I've tried to write [-**-] upon every leaf, but I do not think that ivory tablets are the very nicest things to write upon. One's writing seems to slide about somehow, as if the pencil was tipsy, and the lines won't come straight. It's like trying to walk up and down the deck of a steamer; one goes where one doesn't want to go"
http://www.goosebay-workshops.com/Wha...-
After looking up what these were I now know that they are very thin sheets of ivory fastened together to form a notebook. The idea is that the smooth surface can be written on in pencil and then wiped off to be re-used - making it a kind of reusable aid-memoir/notebook to be carried about in your pocket. Horrible to think of dead elephants but interesting to think that the Victorians were carrying about mini portable white boards.
August 2, 2013
This is a fascinating instance of sensation fiction, which critics have characterized as Braddon's defense of the genre. Certainly, the story is very meta about penny fiction and melodrama. But I think there's much more going on here than has been noticed. Overall, this is very much a "Female Quixote" story, and like Charlotte Lennox's, the damsel has to end her play and capitulate to gender norms.
Read
February 28, 2017An engaging, if overlong, listen on Librivox. Victorian romance-cum-morality tale.
May 2, 2025
Exciting plot and engaging characters. A thoroughly enjoyable novel
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews