Aurora Floyd

Aurora Floyd (1863) is a sensation novel written by the prominent English author Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It forms a sequel to Braddon's highly popular novel Lady Audley's Secret (1862). Plot Aurora Floyd is the spoiled, impetuous, but kind hearted daughter of Archibald Floyd, a wealthy banker and his wife, an actress who died shortly after Aurora's birth. At the age of seventeen, Aurora is suddenly sent away from her home, Felden Woods, to a Parisian finishing school, but returns after an absence of fifteen months. At a ball held in honor of Aurora's nineteenth birthday, she meets thirty-two year old Captain Talbot Bulstrode, the eldest son of a Cornish baron. While otherwise down-to-earth, Talbot is extremely proud of his family's heritage and is looking for a wife without the slightest blot to her reputation. He believes he may have found this ideal woman in Aurora's cousin Lucy, but he quickly realizes that, while she is pure and innocent, he is not in love with her and begins to fall in love with Aurora, of whom he had originally taken little notice. When for a walk, Aurora, Talbot and Lucy meet John Mellish, an old school friend of Talbot's. John falls instantly in love with Aurora and the two men soon realize that they are both rivals for Aurora's affection; although, Aurora has shown little interest in John. Talbot proposes to Aurora, but she rejects him. John also proposes and is rejected. Talbot goes to say goodbye to Archibald, but instead finds Aurora in a faint. When he revives her, he ends up proposing again and this time they become engaged. He later finds that prior to having fainted Aurora was reading a newspaper which contained an article about an English jockey named Conyers who had died in a horse-racing accident in Germany. Talbot eventually learns that soon after arriving at the Parisian finishing school, Aurora ran away and when he questions her about the fifteen months of her life prior to returning to Felden Woods, she refuses to account for her actions and will only tell him that her father knows what happened to her and that it broke his heart. Unable to bear the shame that this secret will likely bring to his family, Talbot ends his engagement with Aurora even though he is still in love with her. Following the end of the engagement, Aurora endures a months-long illness, during which time John stays near the family as he has come to be a favorite of Mr.