The Doctor's Wife is a captivating and suspenseful novel that explores the complexities of marriage, betrayal, and morality. The story follows the young and naive Isabel Sleaford as she marries the charming Dr. Henry Woodford, only to discover his dark secrets and questionable moral compass. Mary Elizabeth Braddon's writing is both engaging and thought-provoking, drawing readers into a world of deceit, passion, and intrigue. The characters are well-developed and the plot twists keep you guessing until the very end. Overall, The Doctor's Wife is a thrilling and captivating read that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Book Description:
This is one of the Victorian “Sensationist” Mary Elizabeth Braddon's many novels (best known among them: “Lady Audley’s Secret”). It is extremely well written, fluid, humorous and, in places, self-mocking: one of the main characters is a Sensation Author. The motifs of the-woman-with-a-secret, adultery, and death are classic “sensationist” material. Yet this is also a self-consciously serious work of literature, taking on various social themes of the day. Specifically, Braddon presents the psychological struggle and cognitive dissonance which are the inevitable plight of the married middle-class woman with a strong sense of self, who is essentially constrained to live the life of her husband. In this, it echoes Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary.”

The heroine, Isabel Sleaford, was driven early in her childhood to bury herself in, and develop her sense of self through, romantic novels and poetry. She is thus ill-adapted to the conventional, provincial structures and strictures laid upon her when she marries the very good and adoring, but also boring and unimaginative, Dr. George Gilbert. Isabel forms friendships with men (including her husband's best friend) who are more amenable to her romantic inclinations, and inevitably encounters social condemnation as a result. The book shows how life’s tragedies and the world’s cruel judgments shape Isabel, as she grows more mature, somewhat embittered, but also – true to her nature – beautifully resilient.