June: Reading Mary Elizabeth Braddon

It's June 3 already ... what are you reading?

I'm enjoying Lady Audley's Secret very much. The cover of my Virago Modern Classics edition is a pre-Raphaelite painting by Rossetti. Last night I read a passage involving a painting of Lady Audley, done by a pre-Raphaelite artist. Brilliant.

I will probably start Aurora Floyd this weekend. I started late last month with my Josephine Tey selections, although I still plan to finish them.

I'm starting Lady Audley's Secret today. I've read the first part of the introduction which was a brief biography of Mary Elizabeth Braddon. She was interesting in her own right and someone should write a novel based on her life. I stopped because the author warned if you didn't want to know whatthe secret is start reading the book and go back to the introduction later. Yay for the spoiler alert!

Like kiwiflower, I will be reading Lady Audley's Secret and so far have just read (some of) the introduction. The introduction in my Oxford World Classics edition didn't actually warn me to stop reading but I decided to once the plot started to be discussed, just in case!

Braddon's life does sound fascinating and now I want to read more about her. Better start with the novel first though!

I, too, am reading Lady Audley's Secret (kindle version) and am liking it a whole lot. Am about 20% through it and so far it has more than held my interest. Have to tear myself away to read other, much less interesting, book.

Oh, I'm really enjoying Lady Audley's Secret. Braddon was certainly good at what she did. It has me rapidly turning the pages and (inwardly) oohing and aahing at what we know and the characters don't and also wondering madly about what we don't know!

As soon as I finish the novel I am presently reading, I plan to start Lady Audley I am happy so many are reading the same book! Thanks for the intro alert!

>6 Soupdragon:: I know what you mean, Soup! I also like the way she puts the reader inside Robert Audley's mind.

Yesterday I finished book 1. I am really liking this book! It's definitely 'sensational' fiction but who cares? I tried to imagine living back then in the 1860's no tv, internet and books weren't as available as they are now not even in libraries and so reading a serialised book like this one would have been great entertainment. In fact it's like our weekly TV shows.

I have also been keeping in mind that this was serialised book, readers would have to wait a week to find out 'what happens next' and so I'm noticing that each chapter ends on a bit of a cliff hanger.

The character of Robert Audley would be right at home in a Georgette Heyer novel. Rich, well bred, lazy, and almost a bit of a bore. The storyline is strongly reminding me of Rebecca. I wonder if Daphne Du Maurier read this book and if it influenced her?

>9 kiwiflowa:: kiwi, I agree with your last paragraph ... I hadn't thought about the similarities to both Heyer and Rebecca but you are absolutely right !

I'll be reading Aurora Floyd but probably won't get to it until mid-month.

I'll be starting Lady Audley's Secret sometime this month. Everyone's comments on it are getting me excited to pick it up!

I finished Lady Audley's Secret. My review is posted here on LT and on my blog -- you can find the review and links here, on my 75 Books Challenge thread (no spoilers). I looooved this book!

I finished Lady Audley's Secret last night. I thought it was brilliant too! I will wait to discuss it further as to not spoil it for others.

Just started Lady Audley's Secret using the gutenberg.org download. It fits in nicely with The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins which I am reading in weekly installments sent by www.womaninwhite.co.uk

Must be in a Victorian frame of mind, 'cause I'm also trying to finish Dickens' Little Dorrit which I started last year . . .

Read Chapter I of LAS today. Can already say I'm hooked! :)

I, too, am finding it comparable to The Woman in White but about 10 bajillion percent better. I tried to read TWiW last year and got hopelessly stalled and finally abandoned the whole thing. Totally hated it. Lady Audley is the complete opposite.

I have now finished Lady Audley's Secret and loved it...

#8. Yes, Lindsacl. One of the book's strengths was seeing the events through Robert's eyes. I don't think I would have cared almost as much otherwise! I did get rather fond of Robert. I liked the way he was portrayed as a bit of an oddball amongst his upper-class associates especially when they laughed at his dogs!

#9. I liked your parallel with weekly tv shows kiwiflowa. I did feel a bit like I do when my friend and I are watching the same serial and when one episode is over, I want to ring her and say, "can you believe what he/she just did?"

#13. Loved your review. My Oxford Classics introduction also discussed what Braddon did with the "painted doll" stereotype. Would like to discuss Lady Audley's character further when everyone's finished reading.

I am so so so glad that I am reading LAS right now when my life is in total commotion and chaos! I can't believe I've never read Braddon! Let's remember to have some kind of discussion the last few days of June, before everyone moves on the to the next author?

I, too, will be reading Lady Audley's Secret for June. I am so looking forward to it after all the comments I have read & heard. I have heard about this book all my life but have never read it. Shame on me.
belva

Having already read Lady Audley's Secret in college, I went with the only other Braddon novel available in my library region, The Trail of the Serpent.

> 20 - I read The Trail of the Serpent recently and enjoyed it immensely. Althought the writing is a little immature, it is a very good story. I hope your edition contains the endnotes which were very useful) and I hope you enjoy it.

>20 bell7: there are eleven other Braddon selections available for free download from gutenberg.org (That's where I got LAS.) Means you would have to print it yourself or read off a screen, but it's an option . . . I think librivox.org has a few Braddon audio books available for free download as well . . .

>20 bell7: Thanks mrspenny, I'm looking forward to it.

>21 mrspenny: Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to see how much time I've got this month, since I just took a second part-time job and will have, erm, severely reduced reading time. But I'll definitely look into it if I get a chance. :)

Here is something that Mrspenny wrote on another thread and gave me permission to post here. It's from Fictional Virago Readers, on the Virago group thread: It's from the novel The Brontes Shopped at Woolworths:

"Lets go for our favourite walk," I would say to Katrine, with bitter sarcasm, and this led us for two miles to a village where there was a tiny "circulating library" at the back of the fancy goods.

Four miles for a book! We would bring back all we could manage at a time, but it was heavy work, and I thought, we shall exhaust it long before our time is up, at this rate. It certainly gave me an insight into the works of Mrs Henry Wood and Miss Braddon that I never expected to acquire. (P69)(Virago edition).

Thanks #22 for reminding me to check Librivox. I downloaded LAS and I'm enjoying listening to it in the car. Elizabeth Klett is the reader and she does an excellent job. Can't wait to get back in the car for the next instalment!

Want to add before our month is up that I rented the tv version of Lady Audley thinking it might be fun and I was appalled. I would say, a minus-5 on our rating system. My husband couldn't understand anything that went on it was so badly cut up and twisted around -- someone decided that the pov would be that poor Lady Audley was driven to what she did by her constrained circumstances as a woman...... And Robert comes off as a vindictive ------- fill in the blank as you please, who is madly in love with her, furious he can't have her. He barely seems to care about George, not really. They leave out completely that he actually falls in love with George's sister.... in short a travesty! The 'stupid clock'-- one of the marvelous metaphors of the novel even has two hands!!!!!!!!!!!!! They just used the book as a backdrop for stagey Victorian shots and outfits. Ugh ugh ugh

Definitely won't be watching the tv version of LAS but I did love the book. I listened to it via Librivox and my only regret is that I didn't have access to an informative introduction found in the book itself.

I found myself smiling at the end of the book because there were no loose ends. I'm a sucker for a happy ending (only for the good and deserving characters). I won't say more until we've all finished and can discuss it freely.

For what it's worth I even posted a review on Netflix hoping that it will deter some Audley fans.......

I started reading the file from gutenberg, but ended up listening to the Librivox recordings . . . unfortunately, I listen much slower than I read :) so I only just finished this last week . . . very much enjoyed how it all came together in the end . . .

Hi! I'm interested in the "painted doll" idea for Lady Audley and would like to track down the introduction you mention. Can you tell me whether the author was David Skilton or Lyn Pykett? I would be really grateful!

>30 Magpie82:: I have PMed you.