Lady Audley's Secret
1862
In Victorian England's most scandalous sensation novel, a beautiful young woman named Lucy Graham escapes her humble origins by marrying the wealthy Sir Michael Audley, becoming Lady Audley. But her polished new life crumbles when her former husband Robert Audley discovers she's a bigamist, and worse, that she may have committed murder to keep her secrets buried. Braddon pulls no punches: Lucy pushes her first husband down a well, contemplates poisoning Sir Michael, and sets a hotel fire with men trapped inside. Yet what makes this novel endure isn't its melodrama, it's the terrifying question at its heart: what happens when a woman is trapped by society's rules and decides to break them all? Lady Audley's Secret reads like a proto-psychological thriller, its gorgeous prose masking genuine darkness. Braddon was condemned by critics for glorifying immorality, yet readers couldn't get enough. The novel gripped a nation still reeling from the real-life Constance Kent case. If you've ever wondered what Victorian readers stayed up late hiding behind their curtains to read, this is it.
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“there is very seldom mystery without wrong doing of some kind behind it.””
— M. E. Braddon
“People have different notions of happiness, you see,””
— M. E. Braddon
“A man is never at his best when he is worried by debts and financial difficulties.””
— M. E. Braddon
“I do not suppose that there is such a thing as perfect happiness in the world.””
— M. E. Braddon
“there are some feelings which seem to wear out as a man grows older,”
— M. E. Braddon
“He was a very gracious and communicative person, and seemed to take life in an easy agreeable manner, like a man whose habit it was to look on the brighter side of all things, provided his own comfort was secured.””
— M. E. Braddon
“Ah, your Marian is a star, single and alone in her brightness, like that planet up yonder!””
— M. E. Braddon
“Naught's had, all's spent, when our desire is got without content.' I wonder whether the fulfilment of one's heart's desire ever does bring perfect contentment? I think not.””
— M. E. Braddon
“And if a man comes by his wish basely, there is a taint of poison in the wine of life that neutralizes all its sweetness.””
— M. E. Braddon
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/lady-audley-s-secret-235ecc53-75d4-4d45-bb90-4a5f92b99994"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/lady-audley-s-secret-235ecc53-75d4-4d45-bb90-4a5f92b99994)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/lady-audley-s-secret-235ecc53-75d4-4d45-bb90-4a5f92b99994][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/lady-audley-s-secret-235ecc53-75d4-4d45-bb90-4a5f92b99994Cite this book
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Braddon, M. E.. Lady Audley's Secret. Lex, lex-books.com/book/lady-audley-s-secret-235ecc53-75d4-4d45-bb90-4a5f92b99994.Braddon, M. E. (1862). Lady Audley's Secret. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/lady-audley-s-secret-235ecc53-75d4-4d45-bb90-4a5f92b99994Braddon, M. E.. Lady Audley's Secret. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/lady-audley-s-secret-235ecc53-75d4-4d45-bb90-4a5f92b99994.
