Victorians! discussion

Please use this thread to share any background information on the author or novel.
Please link resources when available.

From Wikipedia (I don't want to link, because there are spoilers in the first paragraph.)

Lady Audley's Secret was partly serialised in Robin Goodfellow magazine July–September 1861, then entirely serialised in Sixpenny Magazine January–December 1862 and once again serialised in London Journal March–August 1863. It was published in 1862 in three volumes by William Tinsley.[1]

Braddon initially sold the rights to the Irish publisher John Maxwell, with whom Braddon also lived and had children. Maxwell published it in his ailing magazine Robin Goodfellow, but Braddon did not labour much, writing the final third in less than two weeks. Not until it was published as a three-volume novel by William Tinsley did it become a success and allow Braddon to be financially independent for the remainder of her life. It also enriched her publisher William Tinsley, who went on to build a villa at Barnes, 'Audley Lodge', with the profits.[2]

Notably for the bigamous nature of the plot, Maxwell himself was married to another woman and thus Braddon was unable to marry him until his wife died in 1874. When it became public that Maxwell and Braddon had been living in an "irregular" arrangement all those years, it caused a minor scandal during which all their servants gave notice.[2]"

From Wikipedia...
"The novel mirrors many of the same themes from the real-life Constance Kent case of June 1860 that gripped the nation with headline news for years.[4]The first instalment of Lady Audley's Secret came out almost exactly one year after the Kent murder.[4]"

Constance Kent (who lived 100 years from 1844-1944)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Const...

The detective in the case was Detective Jack Whicher, who is said to be the model for some very famous novel detectives, such as Inspector Bucket (Dickens/Bleak House), Sergeant Cuff (Collins/The Moonstone), and Robert Audley (Braddon/Lady Audley's Secret) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_...

Renee:

When are you going to start reading this with this group?

Off topic - I noticed on your profile that you were going to read Ulysses. Is that with a group?

Thanks,
Fran

I'm still working on the schedule, but the plan is to begin on Feb. 13.

I pulled these for my f2f group, which was considering Lady Audley's Secret. (We did not select it.) These are links to articles about the sensation novel, of which LAS is an example:

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=...
http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/sen...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensati... -- note comparison with Sarah Waters
British Library: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victor...

(There may be spoilers in these -- I didn't read all of them completely. But each had at least something of interest.)

Good stuff, Lily!

I scanned them all fairly quickly, and the last link definitely has major spoilers and should be avoided by anyone who hasn't read the novel.

Pip wrote: "Good stuff, Lily!

I scanned them all fairly quickly, and the last link definitely has major spoilers and should be avoided by anyone who hasn't read the novel."

Thx, Pip. I was fairly oblivious to spoilers when I scanned these -- as I usually am, since I am a non-believer about spoilers in concert with my view any book worth reading is worth reading twice, even if one never does. I.e., except for books where the suspense is part of the pleasure (as some can certainly claim it would be for LAS), how the author puts together and develops the story is often more interesting than the story -- in fact, immersing in a plot can get in the way of observing the denouement, i.e., its unraveling.

Speaking of spoilers, when I ordered the book from my library system, I noticed they had the masterpiece theatre film version, and ordered it at the same time. Big mistake. A pretty good movie, but almost nothing to do with the book, except for the main incidents. So if you want to watch it, wait until after you read the book!

The Mary Elizabeth Braddon society website has a decent biography of this fascinating woman here: http://maryelizabethbraddon.com/biogr...

As far as I can make out, there are no major spoilers.

I started this a little early and I'm digging it so far.

Thought it was my first Braddon but I just remembered that I've previously read her The Trail of the Serpent, which...didn't make a huge impression on me either way.

Alex wrote: "I started this a little early and I'm digging it so far.

Thought it was my first Braddon but I just remembered that I've previously read her The Trail of the Serpent, which...didn't ..."

The GR link describes the Trail of the Serpent as "exuberantly campy". And yet it didn't make an impression on you...?! Braddon apparently wrote absolute piles of sensationalist stuff, much of it not far off the standard of the penny dreadfuls. Still, it's great to see a woman making an independent living from her writing at that time.

I've only ever read Lady Audley; I may re-read it but whether I do or not, I'm sure I will enjoy the discussion :-)

Pip wrote: "Braddon apparently wrote absolute piles of sensationalist stuff, much of it not far off the standard of the penny dreadfuls."

Sutherland describes her as "The 'Queen of the Circulating Libraries' and the most consistent of Victorian bestseller novelists..." According to him, she began to write at age 8, and she lived to 80, which gives a lot of time to publish! She also went on the stage at one point as "Mary Seyton," leaving after three years.

Sutherland goes on to comment that "Lady Audley's Secret began inauspiciously as a serial in Maxwell's ailing paper "Robin Goodfellow." (Maxwell was a publisher who because the most important man in Braddon's life; though she was married to another man, she went to live with hi and had children with him. Reminiscent of George Eliot? ) She didn't "labor over it, writing the third volume in less than a fortnight (two weeks)"

Everyman wrote: "...Maxwell was a publisher who because the most important man in Braddon's life; though she was married to another man, she went to live with him and had children with him. Reminiscent of George Eliot? ..."

Yes, although I don't recall that Eliot had children. Also, interesting to contrast with these comments by Woolf about Eliot: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wome...

Pip wrote: "The GR link describes the Trail of the Serpent as "exuberantly campy". And yet it didn't make an impression on you...?!"

I don't know, I see that I complained about it being unbelievable even for a Victorian mystery. It's been a while, so I don't trust my opinion of it. I'm having a blast with Lady Audley here.

I just started this one on audiobook today. Ended up folding laundry, doing dishes, and taking the dog out just so I had an excuse to keep listening.

That's. Great recommendation! The first discussion thread opens today. I look forward to you comments. :)

Audley Court was based on the real life Ingatestone Hall (http://www.ingatestonehall.com/index.php) . If it looks familiar, it may be because Ingatestone was also used by the BBC as Bleak House in their recent-ish adaptation. (Cant remember how recent - anything since 1993 seems recent to me ;-))

Quite the place! Thanks for the link. Nice to have a visual to set the story in.

Very cool. I had no idea her description was based on an actual place. I thought it was a just a well-embroidered compilation.

For an interesting site to look at some of the novels of the sensation genre and more information on M.E. Braddon have a look at http://www.sensationpress.com/

A lovely article about the painting. There are spoilers, as the blogger tells you at the beginning. https://dantisamor.wordpress.com/2013...

Ginny

I have just read and immensely enjoyed the article you posted. Yes, there are spoilers, and readers' beware, but having read the novel before I found the article to be very interesting. The illustrations were grand too. Who cannot enjoy such grand art?

One more article before we leave Audley Court for the environs of North and South.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003...

Renee wrote: "One more article before we leave Audley Court for the environs of North and South.

Thank you! I enjoyed this article mirroring Braddon's life with her fictional characters. A good way to digest the story of Lady Audley!

I'm glad you liked it, Charlotte. I felt the same way. The members of this group are amazing at finding articles and information that enhances our reads. I was happy to find a little something that contributed in that way. :)

Renee wrote: "One more article before we leave Audley Court for the environs of North and South.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003..."

Thanks for the link. It certainly gives us a good look into Braddon's life. I have a copy of the Jennifer Carnell biography and it is really good. Hopefully, we'll read another Braddon novel in the future.

Ooo. I'll look into the biography. Braddon is someone I knew nothing about until this read, and now I'm fascinated by her.

Renee wrote: "Ooo. I'll look into the biography. Braddon is someone I knew nothing about until this read, and now I'm fascinated by her."

If you go back to my message message 21 on this thread there is a link to the biography and lots of other sensation literature material as well.

Thank you for the reminder. I looked at the link when originally posted but didn't think to consider a purchase. I definitely will now.