Lady Audley's Secret

Description

Lucy Graham is a beautiful but impoverished governess when she meets the wealthy widower Sir Michael Audley who, instantly besotted, makes her his wife. Their life at Audley Court is happy and uneventful until the arrival of Sir Michael's nephew Robert with his friend George Talboys, who has recently returned from making his fortune in Australia. When George suddenly vanishes from the house under mysterious circumstances, Robert begins to delve into his friend's past and becomes convinced that Lady Audley may not be as ignorant - or as innocent - as she seems. As compelling as the sensation novels by Wilkie Collins, Lady Audley's Secret (1862) is a disturbing exploration of the dark side of respectable Victorian society, with one of the great villainesses of nineteenth-century literature.

Mary E Braddon (1835-1915) began writing at the age of eight but it was not until she won an admirer as an actress that she could settle down to write serial fiction. She became a bestselling 'sensation' author and was read avidly by Tennyson, Dickens and Thackery. She wrote over eighty novels. Jenny Bourne Taylor studied at York and Warwick universities and is currently a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Sussex. She has published widely.