Lady Audley's Secret
Encyclopedia
Lady Audley's Secret is a sensation novel
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
published in 1862. It was Braddon's most successful and well known novel. Critic John Sutherland (1989) described the work as "the most sensationally successful of all the sensation novels." The plot centers on "accidental bigamy
" which was in literary fashion in the early 1860s. The plot was summarized by literary critic Elaine Showalter
(1982): "Braddon's bigamous heroine deserts her child, pushes husband number one down a well, thinks about poisoning husband number two and sets fire to a hotel in which her other male acquaintances are residing." Elements of the novel mirror themes of the real-life Constance Kent case
of June 1860 which gripped the nation for years with sensational headlines. A follow-up novel Aurora Floyd
appeared in 1863. There have been three silent film adaptions, one UK television version in 2000, and three minor stage adaptions.
March–August 1863. It was published in 1862 in three volumes
by William Tinsley
.
Braddon initially sold the rights to Irish publisher John Maxwell, whom Braddon also lived and had children with. Maxwell published it in his ailing magazine Robin Goodfellow, but Braddon didn't labor much writing the final third in less than two weeks. Not until it was published as a three-volume novel by William Tinsley
did it become a sensational success. The novel was immensely successful and allowed Braddon to be financially independent for the remainder of her life. It also enriched her publisher William Tinsely who went on to build a villa at Barnes, 'Audley Lodge', with the profits.
Notably for the bigamous nature of the plot, Maxwell himself was married to another woman and thus Braddon was unable to marry him until 1874 when Mrs Maxwell died. When it become public that Maxwell and Braddon had been living in an "irregular" arrangement all those years, it caused a minor scandal during which all their servants gave notice (wikt:give notice).
George is anxious to get news of his wife, Helen, whom he left three years ago when their financial situation became desperate, in the hope of returning to her with Australian gold. He reads in the newspaper that she has died, and, after visiting her home to confirm this, he has a complete breakdown. Robert Audley cares for his friend, and, hoping to distract him, offers to take him to his wealthy uncle’s country manor. George had a child, Georgey, who was left under the care of Lieutenant Maldon, George's father-in-law. Robert and George set off to visit Georgey, and George decides to make Robert little Georgey's guardian and caretaker of 20,000 pounds put into the boy's name. After settling the matter of the boy's guardianship, the two set off to visit Sir Michael.
While at Audley Court, the country manor, Lady Audley avoids meeting with George. When the two seek an audience with the new Lady Audley, she makes many excuses to avoid their visit, but he and Robert are shown a portrait of her by Alicia Audley, Robert’s cousin. George appears greatly struck by the portrait, unbeknownst to Robert (who credits the unfavorable reaction to that evening's storm). Shortly thereafter, George disappears upon a visit to Audley Court, much to Robert’s consternation. Unwilling to believe that George has simply left suddenly and without notice, Robert begins to look into the circumstances around the strange disappearance.
While searching for his friend, Robert begins to take notes of the events as they unfold. His notes indicate the involvement of Lady Audley, much to his chagrin, and he slowly begins to collect evidence against her. One night, he reveals the evidence and notes that George was in possession of many letters that his former wife wrote. Lady Audley immediately sets off to London, where the letters were kept, and Robert follows after her. However, by the time he arrives, he discovers that George's possessions have been broken into with the help of a local locksmith and that the letters have vanished. However, one possession, a book with a note written by George's wife that matches Lady Audley's handwriting, remains. This confirms Robert's suspicion that Lady Audley is implicated in George's disappearance; it also leads Robert to conclude that Lady Audley is actually George's supposedly dead wife.
Suspecting the worst of Lady Audley and being afraid for little Georgey's life, Robert travels to Lieutenant Maldon's house and demands possession of the boy. Once Robert has Georgey under his control, he places the boy in a school run by Mr. Marchmont. Afterwards, Robert visits George's father, Mr. Harcourt Talboys, and confronts the Squire with his son's death. Mr. Harcourt listens dispassionately to the story. In the course of his visit to the Talboy's manor, Robert is entranced by George’s sister Clara, who looks startlingly like George. Clara’s passion for finding her brother spurs Robert on.
During February 1859, Robert continues searching for evidence. He receives a notice that his uncle is ill, and he quickly returns to Audley Court. While there, Robert speaks with Mr. Dawson and receives a brief description of all that is known about Lucy's background. He hears that Lucy was employed by Mrs. Vincent at her school since 1852, and, to verify this claim, Robert tracks down Mrs. Vincent, who is in hiding because of debts. According to Miss Tonks, a teacher at Mrs. Vincent's school, Lucy actually arrived at the school in August 1854 and was secretive about her past. Miss Tonks gives Robert a travel box that used to belong to Lucy, and upon examining stickers on the box, Robert discovers both the name Lucy Graham and the name Helen Talboys.
Robert realizes that Helen Talboys faked her death before creating her new identity. When Robert confronts Lucy, she tells him that he has no proof, and he leaves to find more evidence, heading to Castle Inn, which is run by Phoebe Marks's husband, Luke. During the night, Lucy forces Phoebe Marks to let her into the inn and Lucy sets the place on fire, with the intention of killing Robert. However, Robert survives and returns to Audley Court and again confronts Lucy. This time, she says she is crazy and confesses her life's story to Robert and Sir Michael, claiming that George abandoned her originally and she had no choice but to abandon her old life and child in order to find another, wealthier husband.
Sir Michael is unhappy and leaves with Alicia to travel through Europe. Robert invites a Doctor Mosgrave to make a more astute judgement regarding Lucy's sanity, and he proclaims that she is indeed victim to latent insanity, which overpowers her in times of stress and makes her very dangerous to any and all. Lucy, under the name of Madame Taylor, enters a mental institution located somewhere in Belgium along the route between Brussels and Paris. While being committed, Lucy confesses to Robert that she killed George by pushed him down a deserted well in the garden of Audley Court.
Robert grieves for his friend George until Luke Marks, who was fatally injured in the fire, manages, before dying, to tell Robert that George survived Lady Audley’s attempted murder and that George, with Luke’s help, left with intent of returning to Australia. Robert is overjoyed, and he asks Clara to marry him and go with him to Australia to find George. Clara accepts, but before they set out, George returns and reveals that he actually visited New York instead. The narrative ends with the death of Lucy abroad, Clara and Robert happily married and living in a country cottage with George and his son. Robert's formerly infatuated cousin Alicia marries her once-spurned suitor, Sir Harry Towers, and Audley Court is left abandoned along with all of its unhappy memories.
anxieties about the domestic sphere. The home was supposed to be a refuge from the dangers of the outside world. However, in the novel, the seemingly perfect domestic lady turns out to be a violent criminal who has not only tried to commit murder but who has also committed bigamy and abandoned her child. This unsettled Victorian readers because it indicated that the concepts of "the perfect lady/mother" and "domestic bliss" were more idealistic than realistic. In addition, anxieties about the increasing urbanization of Britain abound; the city gives Lady Audley the power to change her identity because it renders its citizens effectively anonymous. The small town of Audley is no longer a refuge where everyone knows the lifestory of every neighbor; the residents of Audley must accept Lucy Graham's account of herself since they have no other information about her past. Other anxieties about unstable identity appear throughout the novel: Robert's relationship with George has homosexual overtones, especially considered in light of his attraction to Clara, George's sister, who is described as looking identical to George. Additionally, Lady Audley's maid, Phoebe, resembles Lady Audley, thus banishing the idea of physical distinction between the upper and lower classes and therefore of any inherent superiority of the former.
Lady Audley's Secret is, furthermore, a story about gender and class, and Lady Audley's objectionable upward mobility—the book is practically a 'how to' guide—suggests a threat to the paradigm of social class. Madness is also a key issue. Lady Audley and others often converse about the meaning of this word but many readers believe that Lady Audley is not mad. In fact, many critics view Lady Audley's deception as a feminist act in which a woman takes control of the direction of her own life.
The novel mirrors many of the same themes from the real-life Constance Kent case
of June 1860 which gripped the nation with headline news for years. The first installment of Lady Audley's Secret came out almost exactly one year after the Kent murder. The novel, like the real-life case, featured a wicked stepmother (and former governess who married a gentleman), a mysterious and brutal murder in a country manor house, a body thrown down a well, and characters fascinated by madness. Constance Kent can be seen in many of the female characters in the novel: the murderess Lady Audley, the tomboyish Alica Audley, the restrained Phobe Marks, the lonely Clara Talboys. Jack Whicher, the detective and case investigator, can be seen in the character of Robert Audley.
Radio
Stage
, the fourth book in the Betsy-Tacy
series by Maud Hart Lovelace
. Betsy has read it and other books in the same genre, and aspires to write similar works.
Sensation novel
The sensation novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, following on from earlier melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies, also descend from the gothic and romantic genres of fiction...
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Mary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret.-Life:...
published in 1862. It was Braddon's most successful and well known novel. Critic John Sutherland (1989) described the work as "the most sensationally successful of all the sensation novels." The plot centers on "accidental bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
" which was in literary fashion in the early 1860s. The plot was summarized by literary critic Elaine Showalter
Elaine Showalter
Elaine Showalter is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics.She is well known and respected in both academic and popular...
(1982): "Braddon's bigamous heroine deserts her child, pushes husband number one down a well, thinks about poisoning husband number two and sets fire to a hotel in which her other male acquaintances are residing." Elements of the novel mirror themes of the real-life Constance Kent case
Constance Kent case
Constance Emily Kent was an English woman who confessed to a notorious child murder, that took place when she was sixteen years old. The Constance Kent case in 1865 raised a series of questions about priest-penitent privilege in England...
of June 1860 which gripped the nation for years with sensational headlines. A follow-up novel Aurora Floyd
Aurora Floyd
Aurora Floyd is a 1912 American silent short drama film directed by Theodore Marston based on a novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Starring William Garwood, Florence La Badie and Harry Benham...
appeared in 1863. There have been three silent film adaptions, one UK television version in 2000, and three minor stage adaptions.
History
Lady Audley's Secret was partially serialized in Robin Goodfellow magazine July–September 1861, then entirely serialized in Sixpenny Magazine January–December 1862 and once again serialized in London JournalLondon Journal
James Boswell's London Journal is a published version of the daily journal he kept between the years 1762 and 1763 while in London. Along with many more of his private papers, it was found in the 1920s at Malahide Castle in Ireland, and first published in 1950. In it, Boswell, then a young Scotsman...
March–August 1863. It was published in 1862 in three volumes
Three-volume novel
The three-volume novel was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern Western novel as a form of popular literature.The format does not correspond closely to what would now be considered a trilogy of...
by William Tinsley
William Tinsley
William Tinsley was a British publisher. The son of a gamekeeper, he had little formal education; but together with his brother Edward he founded the firm of Tinsley Brothers, which published many of the leading novelists of the time.-Life:Tinsley was born in the village of South Mimms, north of...
.
Braddon initially sold the rights to Irish publisher John Maxwell, whom Braddon also lived and had children with. Maxwell published it in his ailing magazine Robin Goodfellow, but Braddon didn't labor much writing the final third in less than two weeks. Not until it was published as a three-volume novel by William Tinsley
William Tinsley
William Tinsley was a British publisher. The son of a gamekeeper, he had little formal education; but together with his brother Edward he founded the firm of Tinsley Brothers, which published many of the leading novelists of the time.-Life:Tinsley was born in the village of South Mimms, north of...
did it become a sensational success. The novel was immensely successful and allowed Braddon to be financially independent for the remainder of her life. It also enriched her publisher William Tinsely who went on to build a villa at Barnes, 'Audley Lodge', with the profits.
Notably for the bigamous nature of the plot, Maxwell himself was married to another woman and thus Braddon was unable to marry him until 1874 when Mrs Maxwell died. When it become public that Maxwell and Braddon had been living in an "irregular" arrangement all those years, it caused a minor scandal during which all their servants gave notice (wikt:give notice).
Plot
The novel opens with the marriage of Lucy Graham, a beautiful, doll-like blonde who enchants almost all who meet her, to Sir Michael Audley, an old, rich yet kind widower, in June 1857. Lucy was a governess for the local doctor, Mr. Dawson. Until her marriage, Lucy was in service with Mrs. Vincent, and besides that very little is known about her past. Around the time of the marriage, Sir Michael’s nephew, barrister Robert Audley, welcomes back to England his old friend, George Talboys, who has returned after three years of fortune-hunting in Australia.George is anxious to get news of his wife, Helen, whom he left three years ago when their financial situation became desperate, in the hope of returning to her with Australian gold. He reads in the newspaper that she has died, and, after visiting her home to confirm this, he has a complete breakdown. Robert Audley cares for his friend, and, hoping to distract him, offers to take him to his wealthy uncle’s country manor. George had a child, Georgey, who was left under the care of Lieutenant Maldon, George's father-in-law. Robert and George set off to visit Georgey, and George decides to make Robert little Georgey's guardian and caretaker of 20,000 pounds put into the boy's name. After settling the matter of the boy's guardianship, the two set off to visit Sir Michael.
While at Audley Court, the country manor, Lady Audley avoids meeting with George. When the two seek an audience with the new Lady Audley, she makes many excuses to avoid their visit, but he and Robert are shown a portrait of her by Alicia Audley, Robert’s cousin. George appears greatly struck by the portrait, unbeknownst to Robert (who credits the unfavorable reaction to that evening's storm). Shortly thereafter, George disappears upon a visit to Audley Court, much to Robert’s consternation. Unwilling to believe that George has simply left suddenly and without notice, Robert begins to look into the circumstances around the strange disappearance.
While searching for his friend, Robert begins to take notes of the events as they unfold. His notes indicate the involvement of Lady Audley, much to his chagrin, and he slowly begins to collect evidence against her. One night, he reveals the evidence and notes that George was in possession of many letters that his former wife wrote. Lady Audley immediately sets off to London, where the letters were kept, and Robert follows after her. However, by the time he arrives, he discovers that George's possessions have been broken into with the help of a local locksmith and that the letters have vanished. However, one possession, a book with a note written by George's wife that matches Lady Audley's handwriting, remains. This confirms Robert's suspicion that Lady Audley is implicated in George's disappearance; it also leads Robert to conclude that Lady Audley is actually George's supposedly dead wife.
Suspecting the worst of Lady Audley and being afraid for little Georgey's life, Robert travels to Lieutenant Maldon's house and demands possession of the boy. Once Robert has Georgey under his control, he places the boy in a school run by Mr. Marchmont. Afterwards, Robert visits George's father, Mr. Harcourt Talboys, and confronts the Squire with his son's death. Mr. Harcourt listens dispassionately to the story. In the course of his visit to the Talboy's manor, Robert is entranced by George’s sister Clara, who looks startlingly like George. Clara’s passion for finding her brother spurs Robert on.
Robert realizes that Helen Talboys faked her death before creating her new identity. When Robert confronts Lucy, she tells him that he has no proof, and he leaves to find more evidence, heading to Castle Inn, which is run by Phoebe Marks's husband, Luke. During the night, Lucy forces Phoebe Marks to let her into the inn and Lucy sets the place on fire, with the intention of killing Robert. However, Robert survives and returns to Audley Court and again confronts Lucy. This time, she says she is crazy and confesses her life's story to Robert and Sir Michael, claiming that George abandoned her originally and she had no choice but to abandon her old life and child in order to find another, wealthier husband.
Sir Michael is unhappy and leaves with Alicia to travel through Europe. Robert invites a Doctor Mosgrave to make a more astute judgement regarding Lucy's sanity, and he proclaims that she is indeed victim to latent insanity, which overpowers her in times of stress and makes her very dangerous to any and all. Lucy, under the name of Madame Taylor, enters a mental institution located somewhere in Belgium along the route between Brussels and Paris. While being committed, Lucy confesses to Robert that she killed George by pushed him down a deserted well in the garden of Audley Court.
Robert grieves for his friend George until Luke Marks, who was fatally injured in the fire, manages, before dying, to tell Robert that George survived Lady Audley’s attempted murder and that George, with Luke’s help, left with intent of returning to Australia. Robert is overjoyed, and he asks Clara to marry him and go with him to Australia to find George. Clara accepts, but before they set out, George returns and reveals that he actually visited New York instead. The narrative ends with the death of Lucy abroad, Clara and Robert happily married and living in a country cottage with George and his son. Robert's formerly infatuated cousin Alicia marries her once-spurned suitor, Sir Harry Towers, and Audley Court is left abandoned along with all of its unhappy memories.
Analysis and Themes
Lady Audley's Secret plays on VictorianVictorian morality
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period...
anxieties about the domestic sphere. The home was supposed to be a refuge from the dangers of the outside world. However, in the novel, the seemingly perfect domestic lady turns out to be a violent criminal who has not only tried to commit murder but who has also committed bigamy and abandoned her child. This unsettled Victorian readers because it indicated that the concepts of "the perfect lady/mother" and "domestic bliss" were more idealistic than realistic. In addition, anxieties about the increasing urbanization of Britain abound; the city gives Lady Audley the power to change her identity because it renders its citizens effectively anonymous. The small town of Audley is no longer a refuge where everyone knows the lifestory of every neighbor; the residents of Audley must accept Lucy Graham's account of herself since they have no other information about her past. Other anxieties about unstable identity appear throughout the novel: Robert's relationship with George has homosexual overtones, especially considered in light of his attraction to Clara, George's sister, who is described as looking identical to George. Additionally, Lady Audley's maid, Phoebe, resembles Lady Audley, thus banishing the idea of physical distinction between the upper and lower classes and therefore of any inherent superiority of the former.
Lady Audley's Secret is, furthermore, a story about gender and class, and Lady Audley's objectionable upward mobility—the book is practically a 'how to' guide—suggests a threat to the paradigm of social class. Madness is also a key issue. Lady Audley and others often converse about the meaning of this word but many readers believe that Lady Audley is not mad. In fact, many critics view Lady Audley's deception as a feminist act in which a woman takes control of the direction of her own life.
The novel mirrors many of the same themes from the real-life Constance Kent case
Constance Kent case
Constance Emily Kent was an English woman who confessed to a notorious child murder, that took place when she was sixteen years old. The Constance Kent case in 1865 raised a series of questions about priest-penitent privilege in England...
of June 1860 which gripped the nation with headline news for years. The first installment of Lady Audley's Secret came out almost exactly one year after the Kent murder. The novel, like the real-life case, featured a wicked stepmother (and former governess who married a gentleman), a mysterious and brutal murder in a country manor house, a body thrown down a well, and characters fascinated by madness. Constance Kent can be seen in many of the female characters in the novel: the murderess Lady Audley, the tomboyish Alica Audley, the restrained Phobe Marks, the lonely Clara Talboys. Jack Whicher, the detective and case investigator, can be seen in the character of Robert Audley.
Adaptions
Films- Lady Audley's Secret 1912 (USA, black and white, silent)
- Lady Audley's Secret (aka Secrets of Society) 1915 (USA, black and white, silent, directed by Marshall Farnum)
- Lady Audley's SecretLady Audley's Secret (1920 film)Lady Audley's Secret is a 1920 British silent drama film directed by Jack Denton and starring Margaret Bannerman, Manning Haynes and Betty Farquhar. A woman marries a man then murders him...
1920 (UK, black and white, silent, directed by Jack Denton) - Lady Audley's Secret 2000 (UK, TV, directed by Betsan Morris Evans)
Radio
- Lady Audley's Secret 2009 (UK, BBC Radio 4)
Stage
- 1863 (adapted by C. H. HazlewoodColin Henry HazlewoodColin Henry Hazlewood was an English playwright.Hazlewood was born in 1823, and became a low comedian on the Lincoln, York, and western circuits. In 1850 he wrote and produced at the City of London Theatre a farce entitled ‘Who's the Victim?’ which was received with favour, and he commenced...
) - 1971 (Chicago, Goodman TheatreGoodman TheatreThe Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...
, adaptation by Douglas SealeDouglas SealeDouglas Seale was a British stage and film actor.He provided the voice of Krebbs in The Rescuers Down Under . Two years later, Seale voiced the Sultan in Aladdin. He also appeared in several movies including Amadeus and Ernest Saves Christmas...
) - 1972 (Off Broadway, Seale adaptation)
In Popular Culture
Lady Audley's Secret is involved in a subplot of Betsy and Tacy Go DowntownBetsy and Tacy Go Downtown
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown is the fourth volume in the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.-Plot:In this volume in the series, horseless carriages arrive in Deep Valley for the first time when Mr. Poppy, the owner of the Opera House, buys an automobile...
, the fourth book in the Betsy-Tacy
Betsy-Tacy
The Betsy-Tacy series is a collection of books written by Maud Hart Lovelace between 1940 and 1955. The books are written at progressively more difficult reading levels as the characters age. They follow the adventures of Betsy Ray and her friends and family from the time that Betsy turns five...
series by Maud Hart Lovelace
Maud Hart Lovelace
Maud Hart Lovelace was an American author best known for the Betsy-Tacy series.-Early life:Maud Palmer Hart was born in Mankato, Minnesota to Tom Hart, a shoe store owner, and his wife, Stella . Maud was the middle child; her sisters were Kathleen and Helen...
. Betsy has read it and other books in the same genre, and aspires to write similar works.
External links
(plain text and HTML)- Lady Audley's Secret at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions) - Lady Audley's Secret at GirlEbooks (pdf, pdb and lit formats)
- Miller, Lucasta (9 August 2003). "Sweet Sensation", The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Retrieved December 1, 2010