Mad? MAD?! Who Are You Calling "Mad"?!

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was quite a potboiler!  Reminded me of that Thomas Hardy book, Desperate Remedies that was published in the years following, especially the part where someone attempts to burn their way out of their problems.  I had to stop halfway through because it was about to turn into something that I find even more disgusting than burning someone to death: calumny.  Lady Audley embarks on a scheme to discredit her persecutor by insinuating that he is mad, that there is madness somewhere in his family, and that his behavior towards her is a sort of mania.  Why she abandons this very effective ruse and instead tries to fry two birds with the same arson is beyond me - except that she has to lose in the end. 
Her antagonist (who is, I suppose, the protagonist in this story, being the "hero" and all, but Lady Audley is at least titular character) is "Bob" Audley, a lazy dullard who hands over all the clues and witnesses he has amassed so that she can (a) steal them, which she does or (b) kill them, which she never quite gets around to, but she has the information just in case she needs it! 
All is sorted out because this is a Victorian novel and Lady Audley must have a punishment that fits the crime and everyone else must live happily ever after, getting married and having adorable children. 
I was able to finish this book by sneaking a peak at the Wikipedia article about it and learning about the happy solution of setting fire to people instead of convincing their friends and relatives that they are mad.  Originally I read it to see if I could fit it in with my Cozy Mysteries discussions, but decided against it and moved on to P. G. Wodehouse instead.  The writing styles are similar in the more light-hearted sections of Audley where the author stops to describe love and that idiot Bob. 
This was a Gutenberg Project book read on the Kindle



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