The Most Scandalous Book You've Never Read

On Mary Elizabeth Braddon's "Lady Audley's Secret" and the Victorian sensation novel.

La Ghirlandata, Dante Gabriel Rossetti ca. 1873. In Lady Audley’s Secret, the titular character’s infamous portrait is painted by a pre-Raphaelite artist. Via Art UK.

A Victorian housewife curls up in her drawing room with a certain magazine tucked under her arm. She glances about, ensuring the servants aren’t hovering nearby, before diving into its salacious contents. The periodical Robin Goodfellow arrived in the post that morning, and she is eager to read the latest edition before her husband returns. After all, the novel serialized within has prompted equal amounts of uproar and intrigue—if whispers are to be believed, its author’s own life story mirrors that of her characters a little too well. 

Lady Audley’s Secret is easily one of the most scandalous books of the Victorian period, and one of the era’s top sellers. Written by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, it was serialized in Robin Goodfellow in 1861 before its first print run in 1862. Seven printings of the book sold out within three …