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With an Introduction and Notes by Esther Saxey The flaxen-haired beauty of the childlike Lady Audley would suggest that she has no secrets. But M.E. Braddon’s classic novel of sensation uncovers the truth about its heroine in a plot involving bigamy, arson and murder. It challenges... Read Full Overview

When beautiful young Lucy Graham accepts the hand of Sir Michael Audley, her fortune and her future look secure. But Lady Audley's past is shrouded in mystery, and Sir Michael's nephew Robert has vague forebodings. When Robert's good friend George Talboys suddenly disappears,... Read Full Overview

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... Read Full Overview

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... Read Full Overview

First published serially in 1861, Mary Elizabeth Braddon's "Lady Audley's Secret" is the wildly successful Victorian-era sensation novel. Sensation novels were very popular in English literature in the 1860s and 1870s. The novels were a combination of realism and romance and... Read Full Overview

"The most sensationally successful of all the sensation novels", according to the famous literary critic John Sutherland.Wealthy estate owner sir Michael Audley willingly marries a gold-digger, his only daughter Alicia's governess Lucy nee Gray. Sir Michael's dashing, in-living... Read Full Overview

The Penguin English Library Edition of Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

'Lady Audley uttered a long, low, wailing cry, and threw up her arms above her head with a wild gesture of despair'

Lady Audley's Secret is a sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon published in 1862. It was Braddon's most successful and well-known work. The novel has been described as "the most sensationally successful of all the sensation novels". The plot centres on "accidental bigamy"... Read Full Overview

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born in London on 4th October 1835.

Braddon suffered early family trauma at age five, when her mother, Fanny, separated from her father, Henry, in 1840. When she was aged ten her brother Edward left England for India and later Australia.

However,... Read Full Overview

This novel, with its most untypically forceful heroine, can be seen as an anticipation of Ibsen's great dramas, and as an unabashed bid for freedom from the constraints of Victorian womanhood.

Originally published in Robin Goodfellow magazine, Lady Audley's Secret is the essential work of Mary Elizabeth Braddon and is considered a staple of sensation fiction. The story centers on a mysterious woman, whose dark past slowly comes to light.

This Victorian bestseller, along with Braddon's other famous novel, Aurora Floyd, established her as the main rival of the master of the sensational novel, Wilkie Collins. A protest against the passive, insipid 19th-century heroine, Lady Audley was described by one critic of... Read Full Overview

In 'Lady Audley's Secret, ' Mary Elizabeth Braddon crafts a gripping sensation novel that explores themes of identity, femininity, and societal expectations in Victorian England. The narrative follows the enigmatic Lady Audley, whose charm veils a troubled past and dark secrets... Read Full Overview

This Victorian bestseller, along with Braddon's other famous novel, Aurora Floyd, established her as the main rival of the master of the sensational novel, Wilkie Collins. A protest against the passive, insipid 19th-century heroine, Lady Audley was described by one critic of... Read Full Overview

Barrister Robert Audley is suspicious. His friend George Talboys recently returned a rich man from the goldfields of colonial Australia but is shattered to find that the wife he left behind has died. Now George has vanished, leaving only a note saying that he's returned to Australia... Read Full Overview

This Squid Ink Classic includes the full text of the work plus MLA style citations for scholarly secondary sources, peer-reviewed journal articles and critical essays for when your teacher requires extra resources in MLA format for your research paper.