Lady Audley's Secret [Hardcover]

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2005

Weathering critical scorn, "Lady Audley's Secret" quickly established Mary Elizabeth Braddon as the leading light of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, sharing the honour only with Wilkie Collins. Addictive, cunningly plotted and certainly sensational, "Lady Audley's Secret" draws on contemporary theories of insanity to probe mid-Victorian anxieties about the rapid rise of consumer culture. What is the mystery surrounding the charming heroine? Lady Audley's secret is investigated by Robert Audley, aristocrat turned detective, in a novel that has lost none of its power to disturb and entertain.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This impressive, scholarly new edition brings together a wealth of supplementary material, much of which is almost unobtainable elsewhere. Several fascinating appendices include contemporary parodies of the novel, extracts from stage versions, contemporary criticism and well-chosen extracts from Braddon's other work. Natalie Houston's scholarly introduction provides useful insights into Braddon's life and work. This edition will be invaluable to anyone studying or teaching the novel, or just reading it for enjoyment." (Chris Willis )

"This intelligent edition offers a wonderful introduction not just to Lady Audley's Secret, but to the whole publishing phenomenon of sensation fiction. By emphasizing questions of alterable identity, the new Victorian culture of information, and the relationship of fiction to other media, Natalie Houston compellingly brings home the connection of this novel with many important issues today." (Kate Flint ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Lady Audley's Secret (1862) was one of the most widely read novels in the Victorian period. The novel exemplifies "sensation fiction" in featuring a beautiful criminal heroine, an amateur detective, blackmail, arson, violence, and plenty of suspenseful action. To its contemporary readers, it also offered the thrill of uncovering blackmail and criminal violence within the homes of the upper class. The novel makes trenchant critiques of Victorian gender roles and social stereotypes, and it creates significant sympathy for the heroine, despite her criminal acts, as she suffers from the injustices of the "marriage market" and rebels against them. This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and a broad selection of primary source material, including reproductions of the twenty-two woodcut illustrations from the London Journal serialization of the novel, extracts from two Victorian dramatizations of the work, satirical commentaries, and contemporary reviews. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish (June 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1421913348
• ISBN-13: 978-1421913346
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Victorian Bestselling Novel That Still Fascinates Us, September 19, 2002

By 

Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lady Audley's Secret (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The 1860s in England saw the boom of "sensation novels" which is best represented by the gripping thrillers "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone," written by Wilkie Collins. Immediately after the success of the former one, Mary Elizabeth Braddon wrote "Lady Audley's Secret," which also became an instant bestseller, quickly making her a celebrity. But, in more than one sense, as you see later.

The story of Braddon's book is clearly inspired by Collins's "The Woman in White" (especially by Laura's story), but it is quite unfair to call "Lady Audley" a poor imitation. (And remember, Collins's story is also said to be based on a French book recording actual crime cases). Lady Audley takes a more defying view on the Victorians, roles of women in particular, and that's the real reason she was such a "sensation," and is again getting our attention now.

The story goes like this: Lucy, a governess without family, is loved by Sir Michael Audley, a rich landowner of Audley Court, Essex, and marries him to the chagrin of some people who look at her as an adventuress. No matter how people think, however, they are living happily.

In the meanwhile, George Talboys, after his long, hard days in Australia searching for goldmine, finally comes back to London, after many years, with money to make his wife happy. But when he encountered his old friend Robert Audley, nephew of Sir Michael, he accidentally knows that his beloved wife is no longer alive.

Those two seemingly unrelated events begin to get entangled after George's sudden missing. Robert starts his own investigation, as if beckoned by a fate, and he, collecting evidences, gradually comes to one inevitable conclusion.

And ... let me say this first; "Lady Audley" is an absorbing book, but absorbing not in the way a good detective story is. The "secret" in point is, one often mistakes, NOT the secret you can easily discover in the early stage of the plot. (You must wait to see the nature of Lady's secret at the end of the book, which is still controversial.) The story is melodramatic and sometimes predictable, but the real virtue of the book is the portrait of the strong-willed heroine, who dares to challenge the social codes of women in Victorian era.

The book is full of action that you might find in any potboilers, shocking for the comtemporary people, which includes: murder, arson, secret passage, blackmail, you name it. But the way Braddon handles them is always steady and well-controlled, and at some places they look unexpectedly modern, reading like a movie script, anticipating the cinematic treatment in the early 20th century (this had been made into films three times in silent-film days, and once on TV even in 2000) Her book has many flaws, surely, but should be never called dull.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon, when she was working on this book, was living with John Maxwell, ambitious publisher in debt, and she was the main provider of income. While living together (and John was still married to another woman in asylum, which makes an interesting parallel with George Eliot), she wrote with a frantic speed. Through 1861-62, when she wrote "Lady Audley's Secret," -- and she was also writing for cheaper periodicals under false name! -- Braddon confesses that she wrote the Third Book (the final third part) of the "Lady Audley" in a fortnight. Considering the fact, the book is incredibly tight, and infallibly engaging.

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hugely enjoyable, January 21, 2003

By 

"me-jane" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lady Audley's Secret (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

I read this for a Victorian literature class, and sandwiched as it was between the imposing density of Middlemarch and Dickens, it was a real holiday. "Lady Audley" was written for pure narrative pleasure, and it delivers big-time. I had no idea Victorian literature could be this tantalizing. It's really kind of trashy, falling into the sensational genre, but don't let that deter you - it'll keep you up at night AND provide the romantic bygone otherness of say, a Jane Austen novel. It's also an interesting window into Victorian femininity, undermining as it does the ideal of the passive angel in the house, and replacing her with a kind of femme fatale anti-heroine. (Everyone in my class enjoyed it, even the whingers who typically bemoan everything on the reading list.) A really good read.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic and delightful read for any century!, June 22, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Lady Audley's Secret (Paperback)

One of the most widely read murder mysteries of the 19th century is still a worthwhile adventure today. Mary E. Braddon delivers a thoughtful masterpiece of suspense. After craftily engaging her reader, Braddon gives one the illusion of knowledge. We begin to believe that we know and understand the "secret" and are simply waiting for the mystery to unfold. Yet beware! We are not as knowing as we think, the text is not as simple as it appears. Full of exciting twists and unnerving psychological profiles, _Lady Audley's Secret_ is a must-read thriller! As a birdseye view of Victorian England, it is superb. As a literary lesson in character development, it is unmatched. As an intriguing, can't-put-it-down plot, it is excellent. In a word, it is timeless