LAS AO3

Question 1

How old was Mary when her brother Edward left for India?

Answer 1

10 years old

Question 2

Where did Mary’s older brother become Premier of after moving to Australia?

Answer 2

Tasmania

Question 3

When did Mary meet John Maxwell?

Answer 3

April 1860

Question 4

When did they move in together?

Answer 4

1861

Question 5

What happened to Maxwell’s wife, Mary Ann Crowley?

Answer 5

She was rumoured to be residing in an Irish mental asylum.

Question 6

When did Mary Ann Crowley die?

Answer 6

5th September 1874

Question 7

When did Mary and Maxwell get married?

Answer 7

2nd October 1874 they got married at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street

Question 8

When did controversy get out about Maxwell and Mary’s unorthodox union?

Answer 8

1864, Maxwell told newspapers they were married.

Question 9

What kind of family did Mary grow up in?

Answer 9

A single parent family after her mother left her father after he had several affairs and had little sense with money.

Question 10

When did Mary start acting?

Answer 10

1852, she adopted a stage name Mary Seyton to keep respectability. She wanted to earn money to support her mum.

Question 11

Where does sensationalism derive from?

Answer 11

Contemporary theatre’s sensation drama

Question 12

Themes in sensationalist novels?

Answer 12

Murder, adultery, bigamy and sexual deviancy

Question 13

Name some features of sensationalist novels

Answer 13

• Bigamous marriages
• Misdirected love letters
• love triangles
• heroines placed in physical danger
• drugs, potions and poison
• characters adopting disguises
• trained coincidences
• aristocratic villains
• heightened suspense

Question 14

What kind of literature was sensationalist literature seen as?

Answer 14

degenerate literature

Question 15

What mid century phenomena led to the popularity of the sensation novel?

Answer 15

the abolition of the stamp duty on printing paper in 1855,
increase in the circulation of newspapers,
an increase in numbers of readers in mid-Victorian Britain,
increase in the number of libraries
new weekly and monthly (often illustrated) literary magazines
high-interest, serialised fiction to maintain a stable readership.
notorious trials such as that of the poisoner Palmer,
tabloid journalism,
reforms in divorce procedures
public education

Question 16

Describe the change in crime rates in the 1800s

Answer 16

Crime rates rose from 5,000 cases a year in 1800 to around 20,000 in 1840

Question 17

What led to poverty in the 1800s?

Answer 17

The industrial revolution led to poverty which led to crime

Question 18

How many crimes were punishable by hanging?

Answer 18

200

Question 19

How many people emigrated between 1830-1930?

Answer 19

Between 1830-1930 over 9 million emigrants sailed from Liverpool bound for a new life in the US, Canada and Australia

Question 20

When was the Divorces and Matrimonal Causes Act passed?

Answer 20

1857

Question 21

Why was the Divorces and Matrimonal Causes Act male biased?

Answer 21

while a wife’s adultery alone was sufficient cause for a divorce action, a husband’s adultery was insufficient unless accompanied by physical abuse.

Question 22

What was Lady Audley’s Secret called according to critics?

Answer 22

The Bigamy Plot

Question 23

Women were expected to be the…

Answer 23

angel of the house

Question 24

Why were women seen to be more prone to madness?

Answer 24

due to their reproductive system. The idea of the wandering womb.

Question 25

women were more prone to…

Answer 25

Neurasthenia

Question 26

When did the gold rush occur in Australia?

Answer 26

1851, which is why many people left the UK for Australia.

Question 27

When was Darwin’s Origin Of Species published?

Answer 27

1859

Question 28

When was LAS published?

Answer 28

First published in serial form in 1861 in a magazine called Robin Goodfellow, edited by John Maxwell. Only 18 chapters were published before it went out of business.

Question 29

How did Darwinism impact Victorian society?

Answer 29

Traditional liberal ideas valued the independence and autonomy of individuals and argued that, wherever possible, the state should adopt a ‘laissez-faire’ position.
Economically, too, markets should be allowed to operate freely, allowing wealth creation to flourish through competition. Evolution seemed to confirm this view: species compete and struggle and only some – the fittest and best – survive.