Besides, Braddon is digressing a lot form the main plot, for instance, she talks about the concept of a sensation novel, its characteristics, and even one minor character is a writer of sensation novels. Basically the whole plot might be described as 'the story of two people who love each other but can't be together due to one of them is married to anyone else.' I must confess that I picked up this novel because I was expecting to find a love triangle, for instance, something in the style of Flaubert, Theodore Fontane ( L' Adultera), or even Tolstoy ( Anna Karenina), but unfortunately I just found a story where everything is happening in the characters' minds, so to speak. Unlike Madame Bovary, The Doctor's Wife is not about adultery, but about falling in love with someone you can't be with. She-our protagonist-is literally daydreaming about her life, thinking of the possibility of living like her favorite characters in this or that novel, and even though I found some descriptions really compelling, most of them were repetitive and tedious, hence my disappointing experience.

Secondly, Braddon's story is plain and sometimes boring the author is going on and on about the protagonist's thoughts, that are somewhat interesting but not enough to grab the reader's attention throughout the whole book. Perhaps only the fact that both Emma Bovary and Isabel Gilbert (the protagonist of this story) are very much into reading books and married to a rural doctor makes The Doctor's Wife be similar to Madame Bovary in terms of their protagonists, but this fact is by no means enough to say these two books have a similar plot. To begin with, according to its blurb, this novel is supposed to be a new version of Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert), where basically the 'essence' of that French classic should have been here, however, The Doctor's Wife has almost nothing to do with that Flaubert's novel and its storyline. Unfortunately, The Doctor's Wife is a completely different scenario, perhaps not a terrible reading experience, but a novel that didn't live up to my expectations. In short, I'd wholeheartedly recommend giving it a try, especially during this Christmas season that is just around the corner. Also, the audiobook that you can find easily on Audible and is actually very well narrated by Richard Armitage was definitely the cherry on the cake.

I remember my first time reading a novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, it was a short story called The Christmas Hirelings, a very sweet, uplifting, and wholesome story set on Christmas Day that was actually one of my best readings in December 2021.

The Doctor's Wife by Cheryl St. John