LAS AO3 Flashcards
How old was Mary when her brother Edward left for India?
10 years old
Where did Mary’s older brother become Premier of after moving to Australia?
Tasmania
When did Mary meet John Maxwell?
April 1860
When did they move in together?
1861
What happened to Maxwell’s wife, Mary Ann Crowley?
She was rumoured to be residing in an Irish mental asylum.
When did Mary Ann Crowley die?
5th September 1874
When did Mary and Maxwell get married?
2nd October 1874 they got married at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street
When did controversy get out about Maxwell and Mary’s unorthodox union?
1864, Maxwell told newspapers they were married.
What kind of family did Mary grow up in?
A single parent family after her mother left her father after he had several affairs and had little sense with money.
When did Mary start acting?
1852, she adopted a stage name Mary Seyton to keep respectability. She wanted to earn money to support her mum.
Where does sensationalism derive from?
Contemporary theatre’s sensation drama
Themes in sensationalist novels?
Murder, adultery, bigamy and sexual deviancy
Name some features of sensationalist novels
- 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
What kind of literature was sensationalist literature seen as?
degenerate literature
What mid century phenomena led to the popularity of the sensation novel?
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
Describe the change in crime rates in the 1800s
Crime rates rose from 5,000 cases a year in 1800 to around 20,000 in 1840
What led to poverty in the 1800s?
The industrial revolution led to poverty which led to crime
How many crimes were punishable by hanging?
200
How many people emigrated between 1830-1930?
Between 1830-1930 over 9 million emigrants sailed from Liverpool bound for a new life in the US, Canada and Australia
When was the Divorces and Matrimonal Causes Act passed?
1857
Why was the Divorces and Matrimonal Causes Act male biased?
while a wife’s adultery alone was sufficient cause for a divorce action, a husband’s adultery was insufficient unless accompanied by physical abuse.
What was Lady Audley’s Secret called according to critics?
The Bigamy Plot
Women were expected to be the…
angel of the house
Why were women seen to be more prone to madness?
due to their reproductive system. The idea of the wandering womb.
women were more prone to…
Neurasthenia
When did the gold rush occur in Australia?
1851, which is why many people left the UK for Australia.
When was Darwin’s Origin Of Species published?
1859
When was LAS published?
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.
How did Darwinism impact Victorian society?
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.
