The Thursday class began with a trip to the Watkinson Library to read old books and journals. The Watkinson library contains over 175,000 rare books. Our class was fortunate enough to be able to view old copies of Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, and The Virginians by Thackery amongst other 19th century journals. All of these documents are magazines organized by date and people would buy the newly released copy every month. These journals were either individual stories or combined chapters of a novel that would span over many books and months, otherwise known as “monthly volumes.” Some journals contained illustrations and character sketches, which fascinated people of 19th century because they were so rare to find. Charles Dickens novels were known for including illustrations in the books, which was one of the reasons people bought the journal. These journals were not only combined chapters of books, but they also included many ads. In today’s world, these ads would seem unusual and odd but in the 19th century this was one of the only ways companies could advertise their products. There were ads for medicine, raincoats, umbrellas, maps, and other books. One of the funny and unusual ads found was selling a continually flowing smoking device that stated their product was better for people with asthma and respiratory problems. A majority of the ads included within these pages were announcements for forthcoming books or currently published novels.
Over Trinity days and leading up to Thursdays class, we read pages 204-305 in Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It is fair to say that this weeks reading contained a lot of drama between Robert and Lady Audley. Although we know that Lady Audley is not all that she seems to be, we find out that she has an extremely crazy and irritable side to her. Over the course of the 100+ pages, we see Robert Audley graduate from the thought that Lucy Audley is the same person as Helen Talboys until he successfully proves his hunch. Throughout his journey to uncover facts and evidence about Lucy, Robert travels to Wildernsea and other places to ask people what they know about the Lady. While at Wildernsea, Robert talks to a lady known as Mrs. Barkamb who gives him a letter Helen Talboys once wrote. This letter is the biggest piece of evidence to prove that Helen and Lucy are the same person because the handwriting is identical. With that proof, Robert continues to Audley Court to talk with the Lady in person. Lady Audley knows what Robert is trying to prove and attempts to kill him by setting a fire to his room at the Castle Inn. When that does not work she realizes that truth will come out soon and decides to confess her secret to Sir Michael. She confesses that her mother was mad and growing up with that had eventually made her crazy. Lucy describes how her father helped cover up her old identity and helped her create a new life. All the drama and secrets regarding Lady Audley have finally been released and the readers are able to see the true side of her.