Category: Fiction – Paperback: 496 pages – Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
First Published: 1862

Blurb: 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.

What is the relationship between Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s artful and charming heroine and a governess, a bigamist and a lunatic? Lady Audley’s secret is investigated by Robert Dudley, aristocrat turned detective, in a novel that has lost none of its power to disturb and entertain.

My Thoughts: It’s rare to agree that a book is addictive but I read this in two sittings (after being forced to break for food halfway through) and the pages seemed to almost be turning themselves after Chapter One. The story of madness, marriage and threatened happiness twists and turns maddeningly but stole my heart away. Braddon manages this clever game of getting the reader to jump about on the edge of their chair in anticipation and then eases back to re-direct attention to another element of the plot… before turning back and heightening the tension again. I think this would have driven me almost crazy in its original serialised form. This is the perfect book for those who find the Brontes hard work and prefer something lighter – it has all the pleasure and pizazz of theatre as well as the gothic darkness lurking underneath.

Rating: 7/10
(My Book Review Scale)

Source: A secondhand bookshop.

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