SOURCE: An introduction by Norman Donaldson, in Lady Audley's Secret, Dover Publications, Inc., 1974, pp. v-xiv.

In the following introduction to the 1974 edition of Lady Audley's Secret, Donaldson provides an overview of critical comment on the novel through the twentieth century.

A rare treat is in store for any reader who encounters Lady Audley's Secret for the first time. The book has been strangely neglected in recent decades, but for half a century after its appearance in 1862 it was one of the most popular mystery stories in the English-speaking world. It made an instant reputation for its mysterious young author, Miss Braddon, who was later to number some of the greatest names of English letters among her admirers. Thackeray once walked to the local railroad station three times in a single day to enquire whether his copy of her latest novel had arrived. Tennyson declared himself “steeped in Miss...