lady audley
The Style and Genre of Lady Audley's Secret Lady Audley's Secret, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, is a novel of many elements. It has been placed in many different style or genre categories since its publication. I feel that it best fits under the melodrama or sensational genre, and under the subgenre of mystery. It contains significant elements of both types of writing, so I feel it is best to recognize both, keeping in mind that melodrama is its main device and mystery is a type of Victorian melodrama. In order to understand how the story fits into these categories, it is necessary to explore the Victorian characteristics of each, and apply them to the text. In addition to establishing the genres, it is important to explain why and how these genres fit into Victorian culture. The term melodrama has come to be applied to any play with romantic plot in which an author manipulates events to act on the emotions of the audience without regard for character development or logic (Microsoft Encarta). In order to classify as a Victorian melodrama, several key techniques must be used, including proximity and familiarity to the audience, deceit rather than vindictive malice, lack of character development and especially the role of social status
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 98 (1998). Another part of the book that deals with madness occurs towards the end. She quickly seizes a book to appear occupied (Reed, 294). This disguise leads Robert on to unravel the mystery of his missing friend (Reed, 294). Before Robert Audley sends Helen Talboys to a mental hospital as a "punishment", he has a psychiatrist take a look at her to determine her level of sanity. Critics also attacked her because they felt that "an authoress of originality and merit ought to aspire to higher things" (Peterson, 160). Robert Louis Stevenson wrote to her once that he wished his "days to be bound each to each by Miss Braddon's novels", and Tennyson declared that he was "simply steeped in Miss Braddon" (Peterson, 161). Noticing the recognition that Collins was getting for her work, Braddon aimed her novel for the market Collins had created. The fact that the concept of madness was tossed around with no consequence made for a good mystery novel, in that people feared that things like that could happen to them, since the laws governing mental hospitals were so weak at the time. A very vital part of the plot of Lady Audley's Secret is developed through a technique called "buried information". Another technique found in mysteries that Braddon uses is the Return.
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