SOURCE: “Madness and Civilization: Generic Opposition in Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret,” in Essays in Literature, Vol. 23, No. 2, Fall, 1996, pp. 218-33.

In the following essay, Gilbert maintains that Braddon's narrative structure in Lady Audley's Secret supports a feminist reading of the novel.

Much has been written in the last few decades rereading Lady Audley as a victim of patriarchy, beginning with Elaine Showalter's famous statement that “Lady Audley's real secret is that she is sane, and, moreover, representative” (167). Attempts to recast the novel, however, have paid little attention to the narrative structure which has supported what feminist critics today see as an egregious misreading sustained for the first century of the novel's existence. Moreover, little has been said of the narrative structure that would support their own reading of the novel. In fact, both supporting structures do exist in Lady Audley's Secret; their coexistence comments not only...