In a nutshell, the book documents a true event - a high-profile divorce in the Victorian era, and the interference / support of the wife's friend, 'Fido'. It's told from a variety of viewpoints, mostly from Fido's, but occasionally from Helen's (the wife) and even her husband. Its climax is the court-scene, where Helen essentially calls upon her friend to lie for her in court, but things don't turn out quite as planned... I've been an admirer of Emma Donoghue's prose for a long time, enjoying both her contemporary and historical novels. This tale, based on a true story involving a sensational divorce trial in Victorian England, breezes along and is enjoyable in every way. As in real life, none of the three main characters is without fault, and none is completely to blame. I feel, though, given the talent of the writer, that the constraints she places by keeping fairly true to the original story make for slightly poorer fiction. I suppose I would like to have a slightly more satisfying conclusion and a slightly tighter bond with a main character.

Her mind is leaping into the future. Why not? Women do live together, sometimes, if they have the means and are free from other obligations. It's eccentric, but not improper. She's known several examples in the Reform movement: Miss Power Cobbe and her "partner" Miss Lloyd, for instance. It can be done. It would be a change of life for Helen - but hasn't her life been utterly changed, without her consent, already? Can't the caterpillar shrug off its cramped case and emerge with tremulous wings? It is a historical fiction piece based in 1860's London revolving around two women - Mrs. Helen Codrington and Miss Emily "Fido" Faithfull. Their acquaintance had broken off when the Codringtons moved to Malta. The book begins with the former friends literally running into one another again years later at the Smithfield market in London. The reader begins to discover the history between the two women and the current status of their lives since last they saw one another. Donoghue uses the scant historical source materials (court documents, newspaper reports and a handful of personal letters) to good effect and weaves them into a very human and thought provoking tale. There's no right and wrong or winners and losers in this, but lots of shades and shadows. Lies and hypocrisy abound especially during the trial. It certainly made me very grateful that I live in a time and a country of 'no fault' divorce and that our Family Law Court is there ostensibly to look after the welfare of the children involved. Many, many unopened letters await further study, including hundreds in the Prize Papers, a collection of mail and other materials confiscated from enemy ships by Britain from the 17th to the 19th centuries. This book is based on the real life divorce case of Harry and Helen Codrington which scandalised Victorian England. I found the social commentary of Victorian life very interesting, where divorce was almost unheard of, wives and children were the property of husbands, and the women’s movement was in its infancy.Which is not to say that all women are weak. No, what I mean is that Fido is right in claiming she was too weak-willed to refuse to sign the affidavit, too weak-willed to stand up to the illogical Helen Codrington. It's a character flaw—of the individual, not of the gender—that manifests over and over again, each time sending Fido down a darker, dimmer road as she tries to find some sense of equilibrium. Even as she contrasts two very distinct Victorian era women and their attitudes toward men and society, Donoghue reminds us that gender is only a part of who we are. I have a big issue with how the book is presented in the blurb and in the author's note. In both places they make mention of how the courtroom drama rivals "the Clinton affair." Seriously? One thing has nothing to do with the other. The Clintons never divorced; an impeachment is not a divorce; and the "stained dress" in the book played a very minor role in the divorce and was brought forward by an unreliable witness. Gaaah, no, Helen is lying and manipulating you — as always. It’s Tegan and Sara’s ‘Boyfriend‘; it’s the straight girl relying on her lesbian friend’s feelings for her to get away with anything. It’s not a story I’m interested in, because it is one which is played out with boring regularity. But what of the eponymous letter?! What's so special, so scandalous, that it remains sealed until the final chapter? Without going into too much detail, let me just say that this is more a MacGuffin than anything. It serves a minor purpose, but the book would have worked even with the letter removed, so don't spend too much time stressing over it as you read, OK? Which is where it falls down for me, because Fido (as she’s called) is clearly head over heels for Helen, and it’s just as clearly pathetic. It’s not going to happen. Take this scene, for example:

I feel like the best part of this book is the fact that Emily "Fido" Faithfull is a big dumb gay puppy. It's both incredibly endearing and almost unbearable to read, for example:

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I wanted to read a female author that was new to me and was interested in reading the book, "Room" before seeing the movie. However, this book was unavailable at the library and Emma Donoghue's "The Sealed Letter" was. After reading the synopsis on the inside cover, I decided to try it. Fido and Helen have not seen each other for 9 years. When they coincidentally bump into each other one day they decide to rekindle their friendship. However, Helen is hiding a secret. She is having an affair. She soon ropes Fido into helping her hide her secret, but when the secret eventually comes out, Helen's husband asks for divorce. The court case turns nasty, there is also a threat of a sealed letter which will be read, this reveals a truth no one wants to come to light. Customs plan map · Factory plan map · Interchange plan map · Shoreline plan map · Shoreline Health Resort plan map · Woods plan map If the reader expects a fast paced, tell all court case then they will be sorely disappointed. However, the expertise with which Donoghue weaves fact with fiction creates a novel of intrigue, duplicity and scandal based on a true divorce case that took London by storm in the mid 1860’s. The characters are described so well the reader feels they are in their confidence as they enrich the case with their thoughts, fears and beliefs owing to the social mores of the day.

It was quite the disappointment, after Donoghue’s critical coup with Room, to turn to this novel, written a few years before but reissued to capitalize on her success. This fictional account of a real-life divorce scandal should have been a brilliant, realistic, gripping Victorian mystery along the lines of Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith or Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White. Instead it was a tedious slog. Yet I can’t quite put my finger on why. The dialogue is well imagined and the setting authentically described, but still something is missing. With its easy yet compelling narrative, this book drew me right in and putting it down was a wrench. Women’s rights campaigner Fido has always been dazzled by Helen, a fact Helen uses to her full advantage by manipulating the surprisingly naive Fido any way she likes. I became caught up in the intrigues of the story. Was there any truth in Helen? Who did Fido see one fateful night? Was Harry as blameless as he appeared? My over-active imagination ran wild, and it was a lot of fun to speculate with my buddy-reading friend Jemidar; thanks, Miss Marple!

If Miss Faithfull is an interesting early example of the New Woman, and her printing firm a prototype for the employment bureau staffed by Rhoda Nunn in Gissing's The Odd Women (1893), then her older friend is merely a symbol of the world that Fido and her high-minded chums on the English Woman's Journal are trying to change: a duplicitous flibbertigibbet, bored with her nautical husband, and occupying her time both in Malta, from which the admiral has just returned on furlough, and London with admirers. The latest of these gentlemen friends, a Colonel Anderson, hangs on her arm in Farringdon Street; and Miss F is greatly distressed, a chapter or two later, when she hears them noisily committing adultery on her drawing room sofa.

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I really enjoyed the writing of this one, however, I do feel it is slightly too long. A couple of chapters could have been reduced. I also really liked the time in which this took place, with Fido being part of a Woman's Rights movement, promoting women working for their own money. I can definitely see why everyone raves about Emma Donoghue books.