Lady Audley's Secret - by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Paperback)

About the Book

The bestselling Victorian saga: full of lies, desperation and determination.

Book Synopsis

Victorian writer Mary Elizabeth Braddon published Lady Audley's Secret to instant acclaim in 1862. Both a detective novel and a riveting portrayal of criminal duplicity, gender conventions and social class, Lady Audley's Secret remains a chilling page-turner.

Young governess Lucy Graham is the very picture of beauty, benevolence and grace. When she crosses paths with the village's wealthy widower, Sir Michael Audley, he is immediately smitten.

The couple marry, and Lucy's fortune and position are completely changed. Nobody really knows where she came from or where she grew up, but Lucy is now universally loved. By all except Robert, Sir Michael's nephew, who harbors a few suspicions and is determined to find out more.

What shadows might lurk in Lucy's past? Why has Robert's good friend George Talboys vanished all of a sudden, and does the new Lady Audley have something to do with it?

About the Author

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born in 1837 in London. Her parents separated when Mary was young, and her brother later moved to Tasmania. Braddon penned her debut novel in 1860, deciding to try her hand at fiction in order to support herself and her mother. The serial publication of her fourth novel, Lady Audley's Secret, in 1862, was a huge success. Braddon became wealthy. She lived with the publisher John Maxwell while he was still married to his wife. Though Maxwell publicly claimed they were legally married, he would only marry Mary in 1874 after the death of his first wife. Braddon wrote over 80 novels, and died in 1915.