A "Three-hit Survey" of Critical Discussion about Lady Audley's Secret

Different articles concerning Lady Audley’s Secret from different decades have emphasized different aspects of the book; one article concentrated more on bridging the gap between theater and literature by using the play adaptation instead of the actual book itself. The first article from 1974 is the theater and literature article, “Beyond Lady Audley’s Secret: Drama in the English Department,” by Stephen Martineau. In this article Martineau talks about the concern surrounding the stage verses written word debate and how the two sides can be combined to create an optimal effect. He says, “Under the strain of this situation, I have been attempting, as a member of an English department, to develop means whereby the theoretical and practical aspects of drama/theater can be brought closer together,” (Martineau 2). Martineau then goes on to explain the process of how students will be able to understand theater more. He uses the play Beyond Lady Audley’s Secret as the example play for the article. He describes the play as a, “dramatic rendering,” and that, “it is made up of a succession of episodic images, extracts, and speeches that gain force from their sharp juxtaposition with one another.” He explains that the play, “deliberately disrupts narrative continuity and communicates information through mood and gesture rather than through verbal explication,” (Martineau 11).  

The next article that I found is from 1995. The article is “Robert Audley’s Secret: Male Homosocial Desire in ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’” by Richard Nemesvari. In this article Nemesvari talks about the homosocial and the possibly homosexual undertones in the novel. Nemesvari explains that although sensation fiction would have taboo topics with in the novels, they would not have the “’forbiden’ sexual topic which could not be addressed directly even within the risqué confines of these novels,” which was homosexuality (Nemesvari 2). What is interesting in this article is that Nemesvari points out that the women in the novel become a catalyst for pointing out Robert Audley’s hidden homosocial (maybe even homosexual) desire towards his best friend George Talboys. Lady Audley becomes the force that makes Robert start to question his relationship with George Talboys because she is the reason for George’s disappearance and the reason that Robert starts taking action. Clara Talboys, George’s sister, becomes the stabilizing force that allows Robert to stop questioning what he feels toward George by directing his feelings towards her, George’s female look alike. Nemesvari states, “The key point for my purpose, however, is Robert’s perception, and the text’s constant declaration, that Clara is exactly like her brother,” (Nemesvari 11).

The most recent article is from 2014. It is “Subversive Sexual and the Decline of British Society: The Demonization of the Victorian New Woman in Lady Audley’s Secret, She, and Dracula” by Sara Louise Fatemi Cristin. Cristin talks about how she “uses degeneration theory to examine the demonization of the sexuality in New Woman characters in two interconnected representations of social decline, national and biological,” (Cristin 6). This is a more feminine reading of the text and a comparison with other novels. She explains that instead of making the women completely evil, the readers are left with mixed feelings about them and the situation.

The importance of the novel Lady Audley’s Secret itself had become more important as time went on. Before it was just a catalyst to explain a theory that had nothing to do with the novel itself then became an important representation for Victorian way of thinking. It became a book that gave hints to possible homosexual desire in the 1990s and then became a book that showed the complexity of the New Woman in the Victorian era. It seems that more controversial topics were being touched upon has time moved on and ways of thinking progressed. 

An Introduction to Lady Audley's Secret

Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon had become a Victorian favorite, paving the way for sensation fiction. It had become one of the “publishing sensations of the 1860s,” and an “immediate best-seller when it appeared in the three-volume form in 1862,” (Oxford vii). It had reached a diverse audience because it was published in three different periodicals. The first periodical it was published in, Robin Goodfellow, was cancelled. After receiving many letters asking how the novel would have ended, Braddon decided to continue the story in a different periodical. Because of its success, the Tinsley Brothers decided they wanted to publish it in a three volume set. The novel was eventually turned into a stage adaptations “which appeared from 1862 and were frequently revived throughout the century,” (Oxford vii). Braddon had become most known for Lady Audley’s Secret and is often given the credit for starting the sensation fiction genre.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born in October 1835 to Henry Braddon and Fanny White. Because of her parents’ separation, Braddon was raised by her mother. Braddon’s “love and knowledge of literature was nurtured by her [mother],” (Pykett 124). At the age of 8, Braddon began writing fiction, “employing as promiscuous a range of genres as her later creation Sigismund Smith in The Doctor’s Wife,” (Pykett 124). When she was older, Braddon had become an actress under the stage name Mary Seyton (Hughes 2).

Mary Elizabeth Braddon then met John Maxwell, a successful publisher who had moved from Ireland to London. When they first met, John Maxell was already married to a woman who was in a mental institution and had children to take care of. Despite this, Braddon and Maxwell had started a relationship which lead to Braddon living with him and having his illagitament children. It was said that Braddon was possibly “so delighted that she was ready to link her future with his, despite his inability to marry her and the social ordeals she would need to face,” (Wolff 103). However, no one can be certain what her true feelings were on the matter. There have been comments saying her life “was at least as sensational as her fiction,” and that “reviewers’ attacks were often double-edged, sneering at her equivocal domestic position under cover of criticizing her all too recognizably similar ‘bigamy novels’,” (Hughes 2).

Sensation fiction itself had become a topic of dispute during the Victorian era. Those of the late 1800’s viewed sensation fiction as something to look down upon and “whose unhealthy popularity guaranteed its premature obsolescence,” (Badowska 3). Some people had expressed the disappointment of the loss of wonder or “curiosity” that people had for authors because many people were starting to become published in some way. Despite the negative attention the genre gained, sensation fiction had become one of the most popular genres for the masses. There is one thing that most people can agree on, that the sensation novel is “a symptom of modernity,” and “a sign of the times,” (Badowska 2).

The Lime-tree Walk and the Well: Close Reading of a Passage

Pg 9 of the 2012 Oxford Edition

“. . . the lime-tree walk; an avenue so shaded from the sun and sky, so screened from observation by the thick shelter of the over-arching trees, that it seemed a chosen place for secret meetings or for stolen interviews; a place in which conspiracy might have been planned or a lover’s vow registered with equal safety; and yet it was scarcely twenty paces from the house.”

This description of the lime-tree walk essentially sets up the events of the entire story. This is Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s way of letting the reader know that this spot is important so the reader should pay attention. The possible events that are listed in the description are events that took place in this area later on in the book. This is the place where George Talboys and Robert Audley confront Lady Audley about her true identity and where her conspiracy had come to light.

An interesting note is that right after this passage is a description of the well at the end of the line-tree walk. There are two descriptions of this well. The first one is a brief mention about its condition and that the pail had possibly fallen in the water below. The second is much more detailed. It explains that no one actually knows if the well has water of if it is dried up. The two descriptions of the well and this passage about the lime-tree walk leading to the well point to the well being a key point in the plot, another sign for the reader to pay close attention to. This well is the spot where Lady Audley had thought she had killed. George Talboys, and it is the place where George survives and makes his escape from Audley Court and England. 

Lady Audley and a Doll: Close Reading of a Passage

Pg. 225 of 2012 Oxford Edition

“‘He is in love with my stop-mother’s wax-doll beauty,’ thought Alicia, ‘and it is for her sake he has become such a disconsolate object. . . . That slow lump of torpidity he calls his heart can beat, I suppose, once in a quarter of a century: but it seems that nothing but a blue-eyed wax-doll can set it going. I should have given him up long ago if I’d known that his ideal of beauty was to be found in a toy-shop.’”

In this passage, Alicia Audley describes Lady Audley as a “wax-doll” whose beauty could be “found in a toy-shop.” There are different ways to look at this passage. One way to look at this is that by comparing Lady Audley’s beauty to that of a doll’s, it can be said that Alicia is saying Lady Audley’s beauty is unreal; the woman’s beauty is fake just as the doll’s is. Another way to look at this is that Alicia thinks that Lady Audley is only good for her beauty. One of a doll’s main purposes is to look pretty on a shelf (at least when they are the expensive kind). By comparing Lady Audley to a doll, Alicia is stating that Lady Audley is good for standing there and looking pretty.

What I find most interesting about the comparison is that dolls don’t have feelings; they are emotionless. They may have a smile on their face but it is fake, only put there for the owner’s sake. It can be argued that Lady Audley does not have sympathetic or empathetic capabilities. Just like a doll, Lady Audley will put on a fake smile but will not actually feel any emotions toward someone unless that person threatens her own happiness. Lady Audley does have emotions but they are very much watered down when it comes to having any feelings for others. Lady Audley is like a doll in the sense that she does not feel for others just as a doll does not feel at all.  

Alicia Audley, in saying that Lady Audley has a doll like beauty, has given Lady Audley the biggest insult.