Lady Audley's Secret (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140435840 ISBN 13: 9780140435849

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1998

Synopsis

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 contemporary theories of insanity to probe mid-Victorian anxieties about the rapid rise of consumer culture. What is the mystery surrounding the charming heroine? Lady Audley's secret is investigated by Robert Audley, aristocrat turned detective, in a novel that has lost none of its power to disturb and entertain.

About this title

About the Author

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.

From the Back Cover

Weathering critical scorn, Lady Audley's Secret (1862) 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 contemporary theories of insanity to probe mid-Victorian anxiety and the doubts that accompanied the rapid rise of consumer culture. What is the mystery surrounding Mary Elizabeth Braddon's artful and charming heroine? Lady Audley's secret is investigated by Robert Audley, aristocrat turned detective, in a novel that has lost none of its power to disturb and entertain.

From the Inside Flap

Weathering critical sarcasm, Lady Audley's Secret (1862) quickly established Mary Elizabeth Braddon as the doyen of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, sharing the honour only with Wilkie Collins.

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.

'She may boast, without fear of contradiction, in having temporarily succeeded in making the literature of the Kitchen the favourite reading of the Drawing room.'

For more titles in the Penguin Classics range, visit Amazon.co.uk's Penguin Classics Bookstore.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140435840
• ISBN 13: 9780140435849
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512
• Editor: Taylor Jenny