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).