My only objection to this book is that it's falsely advertised. Yes, it's well constructed, the style transporting you effortlessly to that time, and the research done is solid on the author part. However, for a book sold in an LGBTQ store, on the lesbian shelf, and being about a known lesbian from that century, this book felt almost like the cold slap of queerbaiting.

I expected Fingersmith, and instead had to bare with a lot of damaging heteronormativity and only one line, on the second to last page, confirming lesbian relations had indeed happened. I'm sorry, but I can't forgive the book that.

Read it if you're into women being punished for wanting independence and daring to love other women.

2.5
I, along with seemingly everyone, adored Donoghue's breakout work Room. So when I spotted that she'd written a historical fiction novel involving some kind of scandalous affair I was all over it. Sadly, this was definitely a little bit of a let-down.

The Sealed Letter is based on a real-life divorce case that scandalised 18th century Britain, and follows Emily 'Fido' Faithfull. She's a spinster committed to the Women's Cause who works for a magazine and press. One day she bumps into her one time closest friend Helen Codrington, who had been away in Malta with her admiral husband and they had fallen out of touch. Within a short-time of them striking up their friendship again, Helen confesses that she has been having an affair with a younger officer. Fido agrees to help her end the arrangement, only to get sucked into the affair and its fallout.

So, it all sounded very promising. However, despite plenty of built-in drama this book really seemed to drag. Due to Fido's involvement in the early days of the women's movement we get a lot of infodumping. A. Lot. And discussions between characters that seem to be only there to remind the reader that Early Feminists Were Problematic.

Character-wise, the central trio of Fido, Helen and Harry (Helen's husband) are pretty well developed, though there was part of me that just wanted more of Helen who was the character whose actions were really the most important. There were a couple of characters that were fairly one-dimensional however; Helen's lover was pretty standard, Mrs Watson who stands behind Harry is like a super simplified Mrs Danvers and pretty much all the other women Fido works with are there to be mouthpieces for British history (though seeing Emily Davies was pretty cool).

This was by no means an awful book, and does a pretty good job at highlighting the really poor position that women found themselves in if they wished to leave unhappy marriages. But it's not one that I would overly recommend.

The Sealed Letter is my third Emma Donoghue novel, and while I didn’t love it as much as Room or The Wonder, I still really enjoyed it.⁣ It didn’t require a huge amount of brain power but at the same time it was really interesting and engaging.⁣

⁣Donoghue transports is back to London in 1864 and tells a story involving real people; Emily Faithfull, a women’s rights campaigner, and Helen Codrington, who was involved in one of the first big divorce cases in the UK (in those days, divorce cases went to trial and were decided by a jury).⁣

⁣Donoghue does a great job of recreating London of that time and of reimagining the court case. Emily and Helen are great characters that you really care about and there is also insight into the wranglings within the women’s movement at that time, where some wanted more change than others. ⁣

Emily "Fido" Faithfull is a woman of business in Victorian England, busy running a printing press and devoted to the Cause of women. She keeps herself so busy that she barely has time to notice her own loneliness, as she has no husband, lover, or even close friend. Her beloved friend, Helen Codrington, left London 8 years ago and has never so much as sent a letter. But a chance encounter in the street changes everything: Helen has returned from Malta with her family... and a gentleman she claims is a "family friend". Fido is drawn into the middle of the conflict as the Codrington's marriage finally falls into ruins and both sides want Fido as a witness. Period details bring scenes to life, setting what could be contemporary accusations firmly in the late 19th century. Everyone's secrets are about to come out in court and the newspapers, and no one is completely right or wrong, good or evil. An Author's Note at the end details the liberties taken with the original chronology and details, and where Donoghue filled in gaps in the historical record. She stays close to the true story of Codrington v. Codrington, but gives readers a glimpse into the thoughts and emotions that vanish into silent memory. An absorbing and engaging tale of love, passion, and betrayal in a changing world.

Emma. What'm I gonna do with you. You give us a title like The Sealed Letter and an obvious lesbian as your heroine, and YOU'RE a lesbian and WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO THINK? Instead it's all "I'm about a divorce case in London in 1864, and how a lady had an affair with a dude." THAT IS PEDESTRIAN, EMMA. COME ON.

That being said, learned things about the women's movement in England in the 1860s, and divorce law, and...yeah. So if you're into that, here y'go.

Another great book by Emma Donoghue! I just couldn't put this one down. And it was made even more intriguing by the fact that it was loosely based on real events. Beautifully written.

not into it in the slightest. dnf at already p. 18

Really enjoyed this book. The charcters of Harry and Helen could have been developed more and towards the end the focus was more on Fido that the other characters, but it was interesting to see the character of Helen through her eventual understanding.

Donoghue's writing is deft, her characters fleshed out, her subject impeccably researched and presented with crisp detail. This is an immensely readable book- all the more so knowing that its lurid and tragic story is based on fact. It's facile marketing to draw comparisons between this divorce case of Victorian England and the late 1990's Clintonian/blue Gap dress/cigar debacle- as the publishers try to; this series of affairs stands in a scandal class of its own. It's also an excellent portrait of life in the middling classes at a time when western women were finding their own voices.

I rate it highly -not because it covers any new literary ground or displays extraordinary writing- but because I was as entertained as I hoped/expected to be.