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Lady Audley's Secret
By (Author) Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Introduction by Jenny Taylor
Introduction by Russell Crofts
Notes by Jenny Taylor
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Classics
23rd October 1998
30th April 1998
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers
Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900
823.8
Paperback
512
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 22mm
351g
Lucy Graham is a beautiful but impoverished governess when she meets the wealthy widower Sir Michael Audley who, instantly besotted, makes her his wife. Their life at Audley Court is happy and uneventful until the arrival of Sir Michael's nephew Robert with his friend George Talboys, who has recently returned from making his fortune in Australia. When George suddenly vanishes from the house under mysterious circumstances, Robert begins to delve into his friend's past and becomes convinced that Lady Audley may not be as ignorant - or as innocent - as she seems. As compelling as the sensation novels by Wilkie Collins, Lady Audley's Secret (1862) is a disturbing exploration of the dark side of respectable Victorian society, with one of the great villainesses of nineteenth-century literature.
Mary E Braddon (1835-1915) began writing at the age of eight but it was not until she won an admirer as an actress that she could settle down to write serial fiction. She became a bestselling 'sensation' author and was read avidly by Tennyson, Dickens and Thackery. She wrote over eighty novels. Jenny Bourne Taylor studied at York and Warwick universities and is currently a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Sussex. She has published widely.