Mary Elizabeth Braddon

In this outlandish, outrageous triumph of scandal fiction, a new Lady Audley arrives at the manor: young, beautiful - and very mysterious. Why does she behave so strangely? What, exactly, is the dark secret this seductive outsider carries with her? A huge success in the nineteenth century, the book's anti-heroine - with her good looks and hidden past - embodied perfectly the concerns of the Victorian age with morality and madness.

Lady Audley's Secret

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I was also a witness to the blow which struck him to the very heart—which changed him from the man he had been to a creature as unlike that former self as one human being can be unlike another.

He knew he was about to shatter the daydream of his uncle’s life; and he knew that our dreams are none the less terrible to lose, because they have never been the realities for which we have mistaken them.

When beautiful Lucy Graham becomes Lady Audley, her future looks secure. But her past is shrouded in mystery, and the disappearance of a young man sparks an investigation that will reveal her dark secret... This new edition explores the novel in the context of nineteenth-century sensation fiction and the lively debates it provoked.

Franzi

The Eastern potentate who declared that women were at the bottom of all mischief should have gone a little further and seen ywhy it is so. It is because women are never lazy. They don't know what it is to be quiet. [...] to call them the weaker sex is to utter a hideous mockery. They are the stronger sex, the noisier, the more persevering, the most self-assertive sex. They want freedom of opinion, variety of occupation, do they? Let them have it. let them be lawyers, doctors, preachers, teachers, soldiers, legislators - anything they like - but let them be quiet - if they can. 

His first thought being of his bestie's child is absolutely adorable <3

"God knows I was prepared for the worst, and the worst has come. I can understand all now. My next visit must be to Southampton. I must place the boy in better hands." 

"Justice for the dead first," he said. "mercy to the living afterwards." 

His pretty g...y-faced cousin migh've been head over ears in love with him ...

"Fishing is much better than shooting; you've only to lie on a bank and stare at your line; I don't find that you often catch anything, but it's very pleasant."

My inaugural foray into English classic literature proved to be a challenging endeavor. Despite almost abandoning it midway, I persevered for two weeks—a duration typically reserved for completing 2-3 books. Yet, I don’t regret this decision, even though the complex language and nuanced passages in the beginning were a struggle. However, everything changed around 60%, where the plot began to intensify, leading to a major turning point and a cascade of unexpected events. The mystery surrounding Lady Audley evoked a whirlwind of emotions, from despair to frustration, prompting contemplation on the inevitable journey of grief and destruction for Robert Audley and those close to him. Contrary to my initial convictions, the narrative took a surprising turn, culminating in moments of unexpected joy as the story unfolded.

, I discovered a newfound ability to express my own melancholy through words. This experience emphasizes the importance of expanding my literary repertoire for self-discovery and personal growth.

My inaugural foray into English classic literature proved to be a challenging endeavor. Despite almost abandoning it midway, I persevered for two weeks—a duration typically reserved for completing 2-3 books. Yet, I don’t regret this decision, even though the complex language and nuanced passages in the beginning were a struggle. However, everything changed around 60%, where the plot began to intensify, leading to a major turning point and a cascade of unexpected events. The mystery surrounding Lady Audley evoked a whirlwind of emotions, from despair to frustration, prompting contemplation on the inevitable journey of grief and destruction for Robert Audley and those close to him. Contrary to my initial convictions, the narrative took a surprising turn, culminating in moments of unexpected joy as the story unfolded.

Through Lady Audley’s Secret, I discovered a newfound ability to express my own melancholy through words. This experience emphasizes the importance of expanding my literary repertoire for self-discovery and personal growth.

Listen, when I found out I had to read this book for class, I didn't think I would genuienly enjoy it. Sure, it had some slow sections, and the descriptions were long-winded, out-dated and sometimes out right offensive, but then again, it's a Victorian book. 

Then again, considering it's about a mystery that needs to be solved, it's not surprising that it was right up my alley. I did have my suspicions from the beginning and was hooked trying to find out if they were right or not. The ending wrapped up everything so nicely, that even the slightest comments were picked up on. 

All in all, an amazing book. Not quite in my favourites, but it absolutely exeeded my expectations! 

Listen, when I found out I had to read this book for class, I didn't think I would genuienly enjoy it. Sure, it had some slow sections, and the descriptions were long-winded, out-dated and sometimes out right offensive, but then again, it's a Victorian book. 

Then again, considering it's about a mystery that needs to be solved, it's not surprising that it was right up my alley. I did have my suspicions from the beginning and was hooked trying to find out if they were right or not. The ending wrapped up everything so nicely, that even the slightest comments were picked up on. 

All in all, an amazing book. Not quite in my favourites, but it absolutely exeeded my expectations! 

Janice Hopper

A bit of a mystery, a bit of a thriller with a Victorian flavor. I think the first half is stronger than the second half. I couldn't stop reading till the big climax. Unfortunately, there were about 8 more chapters after that, and my interest dropped.

I was listening to an audio version concurrently, and, especially toward the end, it would have additional paragraphs of text that this version didn't have. I don't know if this text was edited at some point, but it kinda seemed like it. But nothing important was omitted, as far as I could tell. Just some wordier passages.

(view spoiler)[Lady Audley could have been an amazing villain, but (IMHO) the author lost her nerve toward the end and had to give her an "out" so she could have a (relatively) happy ending. (hide spoiler)]

Weathering critical scorn, Lady Audley's Secret (1862) 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 anxiety and the doubts that accompanied the rapid rise of consumer culture.

Shelby

Barbara Williford

I couldn’t put this book down! Just when you think you have it all figured out, the author throws another twist your way. The beautiful Lady Audley, who is the center of her husband’s world, has a secret life. It isn’t until the nephew’s friend disappears, then her secrets are unraveled all the way to the end of the book. There’s deception, Murder, betrayal, bribery, and a host of other “sins.” A must read!

It lay down in a hollow, rich with fine old timber and luxuriant pastures; and you came upon it through an avenue of limes, bordered on either side by meadows, over the high hedges of which the cattle looked inquisitively at you as you passed, wondering, perhaps, what you wanted; for there was no thorough-fare, and unless you were going to the Court you had no business there at all. At the end of this avenue there was an old arch and a clock tower, with a stupid, bewildering clock, which had only one handÑand which jumped straight from one hour to the nextÑand was therefore always in extremes. Through this arch you walked straight into the gardens of Audley Court. A smooth lawn lay before you, dotted with groups of rhododendrons, which grew in more perfection here than anywhere else in the county. To the right there were the kitchen gardens, the fish-pond, and an orchard bordered by a dry moat, and a broken ruin of a wall, in some places thicker than it was high, and everywhere overgrown with trailing ivy, yellow stonecrop, and dark moss. To the left there was a broad graveled walk, down which, years ago, when the place had been a convent, the quiet nuns had walked hand in hand; a wall bordered with espaliers, and shadowed on one side by goodly oaks, which shut out the flat landscape, and circled in the house and gardens with a darkening shelter. The house faced the arch, and occupied three sides of a quadrangle. It was very old, and very irregular and rambling. The windows were uneven; some small, some large, some with heavy stone mullions and rich stained glass; others with frail lattices that rattled in every breeze; others so modern that they might have been added only yesterday. Great piles of chimneys rose up here and there behind the pointed gables, and seemed as if they were so broken down by age and long service that they must have fallen but for the straggling ivy which, crawling up the walls and trailing even over the roof, wound itself about them and supported them. The principal door was squeezed into a corner of a turret at one angle of the building, as if it were in hiding from dangerous visitors, and wished to keep itself a secretÑa noble door for all thatÑold oak, and studded with great square-headed iron nails, and so thick that the sharp iron knocker struck upon it with a muffled sound, and the visitor rung a clanging bell that dangled in a corner among the ivy, lest the noise of the knocking should never penetrate the stronghold.

Lisa Miller

This book was great! If you liked Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier you would probably like this too!

Kimmy Hobden

Katie

Lisa

Barbara

Ipek

Clare B

Stephanie Honour

sofia

Alexandra Dawning

tilly ✨

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.

Lady Audley's Secret

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