A Life Sentence
A Victorian Domestic Suspense of Family Secrecy, Social Judgment, Private Guilt, and Emotional EnduranceBy Adeline Sergeant
Length16h 18m
About this audiobook
Adeline Sergeant's *A Life Sentence* is a late-Victorian novel of crime, conscience, and social judgment, examining how a single transgression can impose a lasting burden upon both the individual and those connected with him. Its title operates literally and metaphorically: legal punishment is set against the more pervasive sentences created by secrecy, shame, memory, and public opinion. Sergeant combines the narrative momentum of popular romance with the ethical seriousness of the problem novel, moving between domestic feeling, psychological conflict, and moral debate. The work belongs to a period increasingly concerned with prisons, rehabilitation, inherited guilt, and the restrictive codes governing respectable life, while its emphasis on emotional consequence gives it the intimate intensity of Victorian domestic fiction. Adeline Sergeant (1851–1904) was a remarkably prolific English novelist whose fiction repeatedly addressed religious doubt, social responsibility, gendered expectations, and the difficult relation between private motives and public conduct. Writing during a period when women novelists were expanding the possibilities of popular fiction, she used accessible plots to explore questions of conscience and moral agency. Her interest in the pressures exerted by family, reputation, and conventional morality helps explain the sustained ethical and psychological focus of this novel. Readers interested in Victorian social fiction, women's writing, and the literary treatment of crime and punishment will find *A Life Sentence* particularly rewarding. It offers both the narrative appeal of suspenseful domestic fiction and a thoughtful study of how society constructs guilt, responsibility, and redemption.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics, Mystery and Thriller
Length16 hrs 18 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 30, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Elster's Folly
26CHAPTER XXV.
2CHAPTER I.
27CHAPTER XXVI.
3CHAPTER II.
28CHAPTER XXVII.
4CHAPTER III.
29CHAPTER XXVIII.
5CHAPTER IV.
30CHAPTER XXIX.
Mostrar todos os capítulosVer menos
6CHAPTER V.
31CHAPTER XXX.
7CHAPTER VI.
32CHAPTER XXXI.
8CHAPTER VII.
33CHAPTER XXXII.
9CHAPTER VIII.
34CHAPTER XXXIII.
10CHAPTER IX.
35CHAPTER XXXIV.
11CHAPTER X.
36CHAPTER XXXV.
12CHAPTER XI.
37CHAPTER XXXVI.
13CHAPTER XII.
38CHAPTER XXXVII.
14CHAPTER XIII.
39CHAPTER XXXVIII.
15CHAPTER XIV.
40CHAPTER XXXIX.
16CHAPTER XV.
41CHAPTER XL.
17CHAPTER XVI.
42CHAPTER XLI.
18CHAPTER XVII.
43CHAPTER XLII.
19CHAPTER XVIII.
44CHAPTER XLIII.
20CHAPTER XIX.
45CHAPTER XLIV.
21CHAPTER XX.
46CHAPTER XLV.
22CHAPTER XXI.
47CHAPTER XLVI.
23CHAPTER XXII.
48CHAPTER XLVII.
24CHAPTER XXIII.
49CHAPTER XLVIII.
25CHAPTER XXIV.
50CHAPTER XLIX.
More from Adeline Sergeant
Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign: A Book of AppreciationsAdeline Sergeant, Charlotte M. Yonge, E. Lynn Linton, Mrs. Alexander, Mrs. Oliphant, Edna Lyall, Katharine S. Macquoid, Emma Marshall, Louisa Parr4h 43m3.4 (14)$2 · $0.00
Under False PretencesAdeline Sergeant20h 1m$1 · $0.00
A Life SentenceAdeline Sergeant16h 8m$2 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
These Precious DaysAnn Patchett11h 14m4.5 (45.2K)$29 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 50m4.6 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust16h 8m4.5 (10.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lessons in TruthH. Emilie3h 50m4.6 (1.4K)$4.70 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m4.5 (6.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 36m4.5 (75K)$3 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
The North American IndianEdward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge6h4.5 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Uncensored 13 Chapter Version + The Revised 20 Chapter Version (Annotated)Oscar Wilde16h 12m4.5 (2.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
Grimoire Of The Everyday WitchIsadora Lys / Virginia Santos5h 35m4.5 (3.9K)$9 · $0.00
Winnie-the-PoohAlan Alexander Milne2h 52m4.5 (401.1K)$3 · $0.00
Sitting PrettyRebekah Taussig7h 33m4.5 (18.9K)$26 · $0.00
The Poetic Edda & The Prose EddaSnorri Sturluson, Saemund Sigfusson9h 34m4.5 (4K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Satires & Essays of Mark Twain (Annotated)Mark Twain23h 21m4.5 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesLucy Maud Montgomery11h 10m4.4 (1.3M)$8 · $0.00
The Posthumous Memoirs Of Brás CubasMachado De Assis7h 39m4.4 (120.4K)$5 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
Three ComradesErich Maria Remarque15h 50m4.5 (47.3K)$2 · $0.00
AngelAnita Waller10h 30m4.6 (672)$30 · $0.00
The BorderDon Winslow29h 8m4.5 (35.7K)$53 · $0.00
FlashpointCatherine Coulter11h 38m4.5 (11.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Gothic Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Illustrated Edition)Edgar Allan Poe21h 5m4.5 (2.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Man in the Brown Suit & They Came to BaghdadAgatha Christie15h 43m4.6 (495)$33 · $0.00
Fang Si-Chi's First Love ParadiseYi-Han Lin8h 25m4.5 (4K)$26 · $0.00
The Rose CodeKate Quinn16h 2m4.4 (493.7K)$33 · $0.00
No Woman Left BehindJulie Moffett8h 49m4.5 (3K)$25 · $0.00
CovertJanie Crouch6h 15m4.5 (2K)$12 · $0.00
Cold Case InvestigationNicole Helm5h 30m4.6 (321)$5 · $0.00
The ReunionJana DeLeon6h 31m4.5 (1.6K)$12 · $0.00
Courage Under FireSharon Dunn5h 50m4.5 (730)$24 · $0.00
Decoding the TruthJulie Miller7h 31m4.6 (350)$12 · $0.00
Murder Gone ColdB.J. Daniels5h 50m4.5 (562)$12 · $0.00
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky22h 22m4.4 (1.3M)$0.60 · $0.00
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoyevsky23h 14m4.4 (1.3M)$1 · $0.00
Exit FeeBrad Taylor3h 16m4.5 (1.9K)$18 · $0.00
Sworn to ProtectShirlee McCoy5h 7m4.5 (1K)$12 · $0.00