One of the earliest reviews
of Braddon’s novel was printed in The
Times, written by Eneas Sweetland Dallas, it emphasises the similarities in
the genre: ‘Miss Braddon’s story belongs to a class of fiction which Mr. Wilkie
Collins has rendered extremely popular’ (Dallas, ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’,
1862:4). The reception of sensation fiction was negative, with several critics
referring to the public interest as a sickness. John R. de C. Wise writes:
Just as in the Middle Ages people were afflicted with the
Dancing Mania and Lycanthropy
[…] so now we have a Sensational Mania. Just, too, as those diseases always occurred in seasons of dearth
and poverty, and attacked only the
poor, so does the Sensational Mania in Literature burst out only in times of mental poverty; and afflict
only the most poverty stricken mind. (‘Belles
Lettres’, 1866:269).
This popular opinion gave
sensation fiction a negative label. The idea that the public interest in and
popularity of such novels was just a sickness that would pass, became a way to
reassure others that ‘normality’ would return soon. The Lady’s Newspaper published a review with a similar opinion:
‘this epidemic will surely be a fleeting one […] the public taste, let us hope,
will soon have a surfeit, and then resume its sounder tone’ (1862:100). The
review wrote of the ‘regret’ that society experienced to see Braddon joining
the ranks of sensation novelists.
One review in The Times attempts to overlook the bad criticism that sensation fiction and Braddon herself received, calling Lady Audley’s Secret, ‘a good galloping novel, […] to be enjoyed rather than criticized’ (4). Like many reviews of the Victorian period, it revealed the plot of the novel, and while taking into account the bigamy and controversial ideas, states the cleverness and talent that Braddon expresses through her writing, as ‘characteristic of the modern novel’ (4). While the reviewer suggests that the topics in the novel are disreputable, he acknowledges that they create excitement for the reader, something typical of sensation fiction. There is a crime to be discovered and hints are dropped with which the readers form theories, but the secret or crime itself baffles detectives, and it is down to the reader to continue and reveal the secret themselves.
Victorian critic and author, Margaret Oliphant, had
several things to say about Lady Audley’s
Secret in a review for Blackwood’s
Edinburgh Magazine. She states that Braddon ‘has brought in the reign of
bigamy as an interesting and fashionable crime […] it goes against the seventh
commandment’ (‘Novels’, 1867:263). Oliphant makes a biblical reference to the
commandment against committing adultery, suggesting that she is, herself,
religious and that Braddon’s novel displeases her. She suggests that bigamy is
becoming ‘fashionable’ and that Braddon and other sensation novelists are to
blame; with her invention ‘of the fair-haired demon of modern fiction […] this
change has been wrought by Lady Audley and her influence on contemporary
novels’ (263). Oliphant admits that the novel is popular and that it has an
impact on literature, however she completely disapproves of the concepts within
it. Her disgust is apparent: ‘nasty thoughts, ugly suggestions, an imagination
which prefers the unclean, is almost more appalling that the facts of actual
depravity’ (274-5). The boundary between what is acceptable and what is not, is
manipulated within Braddon’s novel and other examples of sensation fiction.
Oliphant claims that ‘it is a shame to the women who read and accept it as a
true representation of themselves and their ways’ (275); in many ways stating
that women should not be reading this type of literature, and that doing so is
undignified.
References
Dallas, E. S. (1862) ‘Lady
Audley’s Secret.’ The Times. 18th
November. p. 4.
Fullom, S. W. (1857) The Man of the World, or, Vanities of the Day.
3rd ed., London: Ward and Lock.
Oliphant, M. (1867) ‘Novels.’ Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 101(1)
pp.257- 280.
Manchester Courier and
Lancashire General Advertiser (1866) ‘Cheap Edition of “Lady Audley’s Secret”.’
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General
Advertiser. 16th April, p 1.
The Morning Post (1863)
‘“Aurora Floyd,” and “The Man of the World.”’ The Morning Post. 27th March, p. 3.
The Morning Post (1863) ‘”Lady
Audley’s Secret,” “Aurora Floyd,” and Mr Fullom.’ The Morning Post. 27th March, p. 3.
The Lady's Newspaper (1863)
‘Library: A Sensation Novel.’ The Lady’s
Newspaper. 14th February, p. 273.
The Lady's Newspaper (1862)
'The Popularity of "Lord Dundreary" and "Lady Audley’s Secret”’.
The Lady’s Newspaper. 13th
December. p. 100.
Wise, J. R. de C. (1866)
‘Belles Lettres.’ Westminster Review,
86(1) pp. 268-80.”
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