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| Figure 1. Lady Audley and her disarming, doll-like appearance. Robert Lee Wolff Collection of 19th-Century Fiction |
According to The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction, Lady Audley's Secret was first published partially in the Robin Goodfellow magazine in 1861. Later it was entirely published in the Sixpenny Magazine in 1862 and the London Journal in 1863. In 1862, William Tinsley also published it in three volumes. (Sutherland 360.) It was one of Braddon's two 'bigamy' novels which made her famous. It was so popular, in fact, that it was was performed in two different versions on stage and has never been out of print.(Mullen) Braddon was apparently pleased by the popularity, and quickly wrote a companion to it called Aurora Floyd. This book had many similar characteristics, such as a wayward heroine, and a bigamy plot. (Mullen) It must be said that Braddon's own life was rather like the sensation that she wrote. She grew up in a dysfunctional home, spent her adolescent years as a performer and spent many years living with a married man. The fame that Lady Audley's Secret brought to Braddon created an a scandal of her affair, as her life was suddenly put into a more public view. (Mullen) Therefore we see that the author of Lady Audley's Secret had much in common with her protagonist.
Lady Audley's Secret was one of the major sensation novels of its time and followed most of the conventions of it's genre, including a bigamy plot, scant characterization, and mystery. According to the Companion to the Victorian Novel, sensation fiction sprung from the roots of Gothic tradition, as well as out of the tradition of the notorious "penny dreadfuls". (Hughes 261) The sensation genre in itself was not considered to be 'high' literature, but was wildly popular. In short, Lady Audley's Secret, though not a classic, had a great impact on the readers of its time.
Lady Audley's Secret also has many qualities which set it apart from its other sensational cousins. Lady Audley's character in itself was unique. Bigamy and murder were common themes in sensational novels, but Lady Audley's outward appearance provoked Braddon's audience. According to Lynn M. Voskuill's essay Acts of Madness: Lady Audley and the Meanings of Victorian Femininity, the public was “captivated” by Lady Audley and by the contrast between her appearance of a perfect wife, and her crimes. (Voskuil 613) This upset
the public's ideal of the perfect “angel of the house, and enhanced the suspicion that malefactors could be anywhere; even in the most respectable home. Also, as Herbert G. Klien mentioned in his essay “Strong Women and Feeble Men”, Lady Audley's Secret is strange for a book in it's genre in that it has a weak, primary, male character. (Klien, 163) Weak secondary male characters are typical, but, until Robert discovers that his best friend, George Talboys, has probably been murdered, he has no personal will whatsoever. Even on his quest to prove Lady Audley's duplicity, he needs Clara Talboys to push him on and give him the mental endurance sufficient to carry out the last half of his mission. Essays such as Richard Nemesvari's “Male Homosocial Desire in Lady Audley's Secret.” have gone so far as to suggest his lethargy and attachment to George Talboys indicates either homosexual, or overly strong homosocial tendencies while others suggest that he is simply old-fashioned in his sense of comradeship.(Nemesvari 515 ) Between the bewitching female protagonist and the strange male protagonist, Lady Audley's Secret both fascinated and scandalized Victorian readers.
the public's ideal of the perfect “angel of the house, and enhanced the suspicion that malefactors could be anywhere; even in the most respectable home. Also, as Herbert G. Klien mentioned in his essay “Strong Women and Feeble Men”, Lady Audley's Secret is strange for a book in it's genre in that it has a weak, primary, male character. (Klien, 163) Weak secondary male characters are typical, but, until Robert discovers that his best friend, George Talboys, has probably been murdered, he has no personal will whatsoever. Even on his quest to prove Lady Audley's duplicity, he needs Clara Talboys to push him on and give him the mental endurance sufficient to carry out the last half of his mission. Essays such as Richard Nemesvari's “Male Homosocial Desire in Lady Audley's Secret.” have gone so far as to suggest his lethargy and attachment to George Talboys indicates either homosexual, or overly strong homosocial tendencies while others suggest that he is simply old-fashioned in his sense of comradeship.(Nemesvari 515 ) Between the bewitching female protagonist and the strange male protagonist, Lady Audley's Secret both fascinated and scandalized Victorian readers.
