Lady Audley’s Secret Review
4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Written in 1862 by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
I read this classic for my Victorian Literature class.
PLOT:
Sir Michael Audley is a wealthy man who marries a young woman named Lucy Graham. When Michael’s nephew Robert Audley visits the mansion with his best friend George Talboys— George goes missing.
Robert becomes dedicated on solving his friend George Talboy’s disappearance. It’s revealed that Lucy Graham was George’s wife who faked her death to find a richer husband. But what did she do to George?
REVIEW:
Lady Audley is definitely one of the OG Gold Diggers! She gave me Cruella De Vil vibes honestly— she didn’t even like Robert’s dog 😭😂 I have no sympathy for her. Everything she does is for her own selfish reasoning and honestly she should have been put on trial!
Instead she gets taken to a Mad House but she wasn’t mentally ill— she was just an evil woman who wanted to maintain a wealthy ethereal facade.
The symbolism when she gets taken to the mad house and mistakes burnished tin for mirrors was an excellent way to display her downfall.
She realizes beauty is only skin deep and despite her beauty its still brought her to a mad house.
It’s almost as if Lady Audley believed her beauty itself had supernatural powers and now it’s finally revealed she’s human
I loved Luke and him being the last missing puzzle piece. I do feel like the narrator was Phoebe.
Robert & George should have been endgame. If this was written in today’s age they would’ve been. You’re telling me George spent MONTHS trying to solve the murder of George Talboys and he had no feelings for the man whatsoever? I don’t buy it! Then he ends up marrying Clara Talboys (George’s Sister) who’s barely in the story??! No! George & Robert belonged together! 😭😂😂
Lady Audley had many identities and she became consumed by the secret of her crimes — that she became the secret herself, locked and hidden away from society.
Arty Feliz 