Lady Audley's Secret

If this book hadn't been a pick for my book club, I doubt I would have finished it. The ending lasted longer than Return of the King's.

It's not that this book was bad. In fact it was a lot more readable than I expected it to be. Especially after I gave up on Middlemarch last month. But it is so far outside my normal wheelhouse. A sensation novel from the 1860s that moves impossibly slow for my more modern sensibilities. And completely predictable to boot. But getting exposure to stuff like this is why I joined a book club in the first place.

There were some highlights. Lady Audley, the villainess of the piece, is nearly sympathetic until she basically throws it all away in the end. She was so close to escaping scot free. But we can't have that. So her nephew, who spends the book investigating the disappearance of his friend and having long-winded inner monologues about women, convinces her to confess her sins and locks her away in a mad house. And everyone except her gets their happily ever after. Even the guy who was presumed dead for most of the book makes a triumphant and well-timed return to life.

I don't know that I'll be seeking out any of Braddon's other work. Or really any other Victorian literature (though Hardy's Tess is currently sitting on my shelf). But I guess I'm glad I read it. And it will be interesting to see if anyone else in the book club liked it. (They're mostly English majors, so I'm guessing yes.)

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