Victorian Q1 Read-Along: Lady Audley's Secret
ForumClub Read 2022
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1AnnieMod
Lady Audley's Secret is one of the sensation novels that became very popular in the 1860s and 1870s. Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White is the novel that is usually cited as the major work to define the genre but the list of novels in the genre includes work such as Dickens's Great Expectations and our Q1 read: Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret. As much as they may belong to the same genre, all of these novels are very different so even if you read and did not enjoy oe of the others, don't feel discouraged.
As most novels of the era, it was serialized early on. However, its first complete publication was actually the 3 volume edition by William Tinsley in 1862. As the novel was not planned for initial serial publication, the chapters are not as easily splitable as it is for other novels from the era. The two initial serializations split the novel differently:
Sixpenny Magazine (January–December 1862) published 12 monthly parts and London Journal (March–August 1863) did 22 weekly parts.
The London Journal serialiazion split too many chapters to be practical guide for reading in installment; the Sixpenny one needed to split only one (because it was really very long). Here is the installments split from Sixpenny:
I - Volume 1, chapters 1-3
II - Volume 1, chapters 4-7
III - Volume 1, chapters 8-12
IV - Volume 1, chapters 13-16
V - Volume 1, chapters 17-19 and Volume 2, chapters 1-2
VI - Volume 2, chapters 3-5
VII - Volume 2, chapters 6-8
VIII - Volume 2, chapters 9-11
IX - Volume 2, chapters 12-13 and Volume 3, chapter 1
X - Volume 3, chapters 2-5
XI - Volume 3, chapters 6 and part of 7
XII - Volume 3, the remainder of chapter 7 and chapters 8-10.
Welcome to our read-along. Please note that there will be spoilers so it is helpful if you mention where you are in the novel (chapter should do it) so it is clear what NOT to tell you yet when people respond to a comment. ;)
Have fun and happy reading!
As most novels of the era, it was serialized early on. However, its first complete publication was actually the 3 volume edition by William Tinsley in 1862. As the novel was not planned for initial serial publication, the chapters are not as easily splitable as it is for other novels from the era. The two initial serializations split the novel differently:
Sixpenny Magazine (January–December 1862) published 12 monthly parts and London Journal (March–August 1863) did 22 weekly parts.
The London Journal serialiazion split too many chapters to be practical guide for reading in installment; the Sixpenny one needed to split only one (because it was really very long). Here is the installments split from Sixpenny:
I - Volume 1, chapters 1-3
II - Volume 1, chapters 4-7
III - Volume 1, chapters 8-12
IV - Volume 1, chapters 13-16
V - Volume 1, chapters 17-19 and Volume 2, chapters 1-2
VI - Volume 2, chapters 3-5
VII - Volume 2, chapters 6-8
VIII - Volume 2, chapters 9-11
IX - Volume 2, chapters 12-13 and Volume 3, chapter 1
X - Volume 3, chapters 2-5
XI - Volume 3, chapters 6 and part of 7
XII - Volume 3, the remainder of chapter 7 and chapters 8-10.
Welcome to our read-along. Please note that there will be spoilers so it is helpful if you mention where you are in the novel (chapter should do it) so it is clear what NOT to tell you yet when people respond to a comment. ;)
Have fun and happy reading!
2arubabookwoman
This is one I own, so reading it will help reduce my TBR pile. I will probably read it a bit later in the quarter, all in one go, rather than in bits and pieces.
3Gelöscht
Lurking. Read this a few years back.
4CDVicarage
I shall lurk as I read this sometime ago and will be interested in your comments, to see if they match my memories!
5Yells
I had planned to read this on the Serial Reader app and take my time with it, but that plan quickly went by the wayside. It was just too good to stop! Finished today and wow, I really enjoyed this suspenseful tale. The big mystery isn't really a mystery because you guess pretty quickly what Lady Audley's secret is, but the twists and turns before you get to the end are enough to keep you on your toes. I'll take something like this over a modern day thriller any day.
7Yells
>6 AnnieMod: True enough. I think there should be a mandatory classic lit course for new thriller writers. Teach them how it should be done :)
9nancyewhite
I read the first three chapters last night and was thrilled (pardon the pun) with how much I loved it. For some reason, perhaps because we are in the middle of Snowmageddon here in Pittsburgh, the first chapter made me want to buy plants.
There's a sly wit at play in the writing that moved me from interested to delighted.
There's a sly wit at play in the writing that moved me from interested to delighted.
11AnnieMod
>10 majkia: We had not decided the others yet :) The Victorian Tavern will have them at the top when more are decided.
12majkia
>11 AnnieMod: Thanks!
13rhian_of_oz
>5 Yells:
I was glad to see this because as I have just finished Chapter 2 I'm pretty sure I know what her secret is :-).
The big mystery isn't really a mystery because you guess pretty quickly what Lady Audley's secret is, but the twists and turns before you get to the end are enough to keep you on your toes.
I was glad to see this because as I have just finished Chapter 2 I'm pretty sure I know what her secret is :-).
14thorold
Having just finished Copperfield, I leapt right in today and read the first six chapters.
All those ultra-predictable adjectives are a bit of a shock after Dickens, but I can see what >9 nancyewhite: means about the sly wit. All sorts of conventional expectations are being built up in order to mislead us. Elaine Showalter calls it "...not only a virtual manifesto of female sensationalism, but also a witty inversion of Victorian sentimental and domestic conventions, certainly equal to the work of Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade." "In Braddon's novels generally, women take over the properties of the Byronic hero. The bigamist is no longer Rochester but the demure little governess." (A literature of their own, ch.VI — She also gives away the entire plot, so don't look it up if you're spoiler-averse!)
All those ultra-predictable adjectives are a bit of a shock after Dickens, but I can see what >9 nancyewhite: means about the sly wit. All sorts of conventional expectations are being built up in order to mislead us. Elaine Showalter calls it "...not only a virtual manifesto of female sensationalism, but also a witty inversion of Victorian sentimental and domestic conventions, certainly equal to the work of Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade." "In Braddon's novels generally, women take over the properties of the Byronic hero. The bigamist is no longer Rochester but the demure little governess." (A literature of their own, ch.VI — She also gives away the entire plot, so don't look it up if you're spoiler-averse!)
15thorold
Interesting minor diversion in Ch. 14, when Lady Audley calls George “a sort of Bamfyld Moore Carew of modern life, whom no attraction could ever keep in one spot”. I’d never heard of BMC, but Wikipedia, as always, was happy to fill in the details. Sounds like another fun item to add to the reading list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bampfylde_Moore_Carew
16rhian_of_oz
I'm reading two chapters a day while I eat my lunch but today it was hard to stop at the end of Chapter 10. I'm dying to know where George is!
17thorold
Like >5 Yells:, I had a bit of a brake-failure with Lady Audley, and ended up finishing it in one go:
Lady Audley's secret (1862) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (UK, 1835-1915)
The title of this novel is probably one of the biggest understatements in fiction: the demure, unassuming little Lady Audley has secrets the way other people have hot dinners. Only a few pages into the novel, the reader has already been given enough hints to understand that she's guilty of just about every crime on the Victorian statute books, with the possible exceptions of piracy on the high seas and the sale of ecclesiastical offices. And those only because she hasn't got around to them yet.
Miss Braddon takes us through the unmasking of this ringleted supervillain with huge amounts of energy and with her tongue firmly in her cheek. No character is ever allowed to get very far with a moralistic soliloquy or with reflecting darkly on the evils of the world without being interrupted by some thoroughly mundane consideration, like the landlady coming in with the shaving-water or the cabbie asking for his fare. Even when the hero (finally) goes down on his knees to his girl, the reader is distracted from the young man's eloquent proposal by the creaking of joints... Braddon obviously really enjoyed what she did, as well as making money out of it.
The writing is anything but "literary": like most of us, Braddon clearly believes that clichés were put into the world to save us time and effort, and she uses them liberally. No-one says anything remotely clever or original, and the descriptions of people and places are routine and instantly forgettable. But, despite that, it's always clear, efficient and eminently readable. Everything works to advance the story in the direction she intends it to go, and we stick with her, eager to find out how it's all going to end. And there are all those dry little comments dropped in along the way to undermine any pretence at moral seriousness. Whatever we may think about the Victorians, Miss Braddon makes it clear that at least one of them wasn't having any of that nonsense...
Lady Audley's secret (1862) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (UK, 1835-1915)
The title of this novel is probably one of the biggest understatements in fiction: the demure, unassuming little Lady Audley has secrets the way other people have hot dinners. Only a few pages into the novel, the reader has already been given enough hints to understand that she's guilty of just about every crime on the Victorian statute books, with the possible exceptions of piracy on the high seas and the sale of ecclesiastical offices. And those only because she hasn't got around to them yet.
Miss Braddon takes us through the unmasking of this ringleted supervillain with huge amounts of energy and with her tongue firmly in her cheek. No character is ever allowed to get very far with a moralistic soliloquy or with reflecting darkly on the evils of the world without being interrupted by some thoroughly mundane consideration, like the landlady coming in with the shaving-water or the cabbie asking for his fare. Even when the hero (finally) goes down on his knees to his girl, the reader is distracted from the young man's eloquent proposal by the creaking of joints... Braddon obviously really enjoyed what she did, as well as making money out of it.
The writing is anything but "literary": like most of us, Braddon clearly believes that clichés were put into the world to save us time and effort, and she uses them liberally. No-one says anything remotely clever or original, and the descriptions of people and places are routine and instantly forgettable. But, despite that, it's always clear, efficient and eminently readable. Everything works to advance the story in the direction she intends it to go, and we stick with her, eager to find out how it's all going to end. And there are all those dry little comments dropped in along the way to undermine any pretence at moral seriousness. Whatever we may think about the Victorians, Miss Braddon makes it clear that at least one of them wasn't having any of that nonsense...
18thorold
Ch. 7: "A telegraphic message!" she cried; for the convenient word telegram had not yet been invented.
I had to check that, of course. The OED records the first use of "telegram" in the US in 1852, and cites British uses in 1855 and 1857, including an angry letter to the Times protesting that it was an ugly word, and suggesting "telegrapheme" instead. That suggests that it was at least current enough by then for word-watchers to get irritated by it.
Lady Audley has an unusually precise chronology for a Victorian novel: the telegram incident is in the autumn of 1858, so Braddon is certainly wrong that the word hadn't been invented. But perhaps it hadn't reached rural Essex yet.
I had to check that, of course. The OED records the first use of "telegram" in the US in 1852, and cites British uses in 1855 and 1857, including an angry letter to the Times protesting that it was an ugly word, and suggesting "telegrapheme" instead. That suggests that it was at least current enough by then for word-watchers to get irritated by it.
Lady Audley has an unusually precise chronology for a Victorian novel: the telegram incident is in the autumn of 1858, so Braddon is certainly wrong that the word hadn't been invented. But perhaps it hadn't reached rural Essex yet.
19SassyLassy
>17 thorold: Loved this review of a definitely fun book.
20rhian_of_oz
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Lucy Graham appears almost out of nowhere to capture the heart of Sir Michael Audley and become the mistress of Audley Court. George Talboys returns from a long stint in Australia making his fortune to find out that his wife Helen has died. Quite coincidentally George's friend Robert, who is with him when reads the news about his wife, is Sir Audley's nephew. They are visiting Audley Court when George mysteriously disappears.
While the secret is not technically revealed until later in the story, it is quite clear what the secret is. Well at least it's clear what *this* secret is.
I liked this a lot, especially the cat-and-mouse tussle between Lady Audley and Robert. Such fun! There is a hint (and it really is only a hint) of a love triangle, there's blackmail, there's murder! Or is there?
Some of it I found amusing - how fast Robert fell in love, how quickly madness was diagnosed - but given the density of the writing it is quite an easy read.
I'm so glad I read this and would happily recommend it.
Lucy Graham appears almost out of nowhere to capture the heart of Sir Michael Audley and become the mistress of Audley Court. George Talboys returns from a long stint in Australia making his fortune to find out that his wife Helen has died. Quite coincidentally George's friend Robert, who is with him when reads the news about his wife, is Sir Audley's nephew. They are visiting Audley Court when George mysteriously disappears.
While the secret is not technically revealed until later in the story, it is quite clear what the secret is. Well at least it's clear what *this* secret is.
I liked this a lot, especially the cat-and-mouse tussle between Lady Audley and Robert. Such fun! There is a hint (and it really is only a hint) of a love triangle, there's blackmail, there's murder! Or is there?
Some of it I found amusing - how fast Robert fell in love, how quickly madness was diagnosed - but given the density of the writing it is quite an easy read.
I'm so glad I read this and would happily recommend it.
21AnnieMod
I finally got around to starting it (I still have time to squeeze it into March) :)
6 chapters in - if I ever read this book before, I had forgotten a LOT more than I had remembered. :)
How very different the style is from Dickens (and how differently the term child-wife is used).
>17 thorold: "like most of us, Braddon clearly believes that clichés were put into the world to save us time and effort, and she uses them liberally."
While I do not disagree in general with the sentiment, I do wonder how many of these obvious (to us) cliches were not that obvious and not yet cliches when she was writing
6 chapters in - if I ever read this book before, I had forgotten a LOT more than I had remembered. :)
How very different the style is from Dickens (and how differently the term child-wife is used).
>17 thorold: "like most of us, Braddon clearly believes that clichés were put into the world to save us time and effort, and she uses them liberally."
While I do not disagree in general with the sentiment, I do wonder how many of these obvious (to us) cliches were not that obvious and not yet cliches when she was writing
22AnnieMod
I managed to finish that in March... just never got around to reviewing it. Which is now fixed:
An old man who had given up all hope for love falls in love and marries a governess who seems to have no history. A young man comes back from Australia, having made his fortune, just to learn that his wife had died just a little time ago. If you cannot see where this story is going, you just had not read enough books (or watched enough movies). Surprisingly enough, that turns out NOT to be the big secret of the novel - and that's part of the charm of the novel.
And just when you think that the novel will be all about unmasking the young Lady Audley (or her successful attempt in hiding her secrets), a man disappears, presumed killed - and she seems to be in the center of that mystery as well. As the book progress she manages to get herself into more and more situations which at least hint of her having even worse secrets. The big problem of course is that if anyone accuses of anything, it is her husband who will suffer - so the nephew who decides to try to get to the bottom of the murder, needs to connect every single dot in his story before he can even try to articulate his suspicions.
And off he goes - pulling and digging and trying to convince himself that he is really right - except that he is restrained by both the Victorian era norms and the mundane - no Sherlock Holmesesian ability to ignore everything else in this novel. Meanwhile our villain is living the life she always wanted - cherished, getting anything she wants and pretending to be the perfect wife.
Braddon's style can appear almost sluggish to a modern reader - but the action never stops. Every incident leads to something new, building the case against the pretty Lucy (who may appear innocent but we can see her true colors early on in some of the actions which noone else in the house sees). And somewhere among all that, even a love story manages to develop.
The introduction in the Penguin edition by Jenny Bourne Taylor and Russell Crofts is very useful in getting some of the ideas and the importance of certain facts which you just may know nothing about (and there are also some notes). It also does things properly by warning the reader before the spoilers start so one can choose if they want to read it at the start or come back later (immediately after that warning, the big secret is revealed and pretty much the whole action and all surprises are laid out so if one decide to continue reading the introduction despite the warning, they cannot blame anyone but themselves).
I really enjoyed this novel - there were times when I wish Braddon had allowed some of her characters to talk to each other and it got a bit tiresome in some parts to have everyone crying out all the time instead of just talking but those are just quibbles. It may not have the control of the language that Dickens and some of the other Victorians have but it is nevertheless fun to read.
An old man who had given up all hope for love falls in love and marries a governess who seems to have no history. A young man comes back from Australia, having made his fortune, just to learn that his wife had died just a little time ago. If you cannot see where this story is going, you just had not read enough books (or watched enough movies). Surprisingly enough, that turns out NOT to be the big secret of the novel - and that's part of the charm of the novel.
And just when you think that the novel will be all about unmasking the young Lady Audley (or her successful attempt in hiding her secrets), a man disappears, presumed killed - and she seems to be in the center of that mystery as well. As the book progress she manages to get herself into more and more situations which at least hint of her having even worse secrets. The big problem of course is that if anyone accuses of anything, it is her husband who will suffer - so the nephew who decides to try to get to the bottom of the murder, needs to connect every single dot in his story before he can even try to articulate his suspicions.
And off he goes - pulling and digging and trying to convince himself that he is really right - except that he is restrained by both the Victorian era norms and the mundane - no Sherlock Holmesesian ability to ignore everything else in this novel. Meanwhile our villain is living the life she always wanted - cherished, getting anything she wants and pretending to be the perfect wife.
Braddon's style can appear almost sluggish to a modern reader - but the action never stops. Every incident leads to something new, building the case against the pretty Lucy (who may appear innocent but we can see her true colors early on in some of the actions which noone else in the house sees). And somewhere among all that, even a love story manages to develop.
The introduction in the Penguin edition by Jenny Bourne Taylor and Russell Crofts is very useful in getting some of the ideas and the importance of certain facts which you just may know nothing about (and there are also some notes). It also does things properly by warning the reader before the spoilers start so one can choose if they want to read it at the start or come back later (immediately after that warning, the big secret is revealed and pretty much the whole action and all surprises are laid out so if one decide to continue reading the introduction despite the warning, they cannot blame anyone but themselves).
I really enjoyed this novel - there were times when I wish Braddon had allowed some of her characters to talk to each other and it got a bit tiresome in some parts to have everyone crying out all the time instead of just talking but those are just quibbles. It may not have the control of the language that Dickens and some of the other Victorians have but it is nevertheless fun to read.
