Review of 'Lady Audley's Secret' by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

 

I haven't had much luck with 2020 reads so far, but this seems to be the start of things turning around. It's my first 5 star read of the year and was exactly what I needed. Victorian fiction is always a little slow going, but it makes it feel like a comfort read for me: I get wrapped up in the scenery and the slight actions by characters that end up leading to big parts of the plot. 

Lady Audley's Secret is a Victorian scandal novel. Lady Audley's a young governess who marries a rich man, but keeps a big secret from him. When Robert Audley, a nephew, and his friend George Talboys visit the family, they threaten to uncover everything Lady Audley's hiding.

It's hard to talk about any of the plot without massive spoilers, but I think it's now one of my favourite books from the era. Lady Audley's secret becomes quite obvious very early on in the novel, but the writing is still tense and Braddon weaves additional secrets and mysteries throughout the rest of the book. Lady Audley challenges the notion of the angel in the house, so prevalent in Gothic fiction at the time, by being this beautiful woman initially introduced as a wife, who turns out to be guilty of a host of crimes. The writing had me constantly wanting to read 'just one more chapter' and I'm intrigued to try some more of Braddon's works. 

I gave this 5 stars because I was completely hooked on the story from pretty much the start right up to the end. It kept me guessing as the book progressed, and I would recommend it for fans of Victorian fiction and the Brontes', Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins.

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