God, Lady Audley folds like a tailgate chair once Robert turns out to be alive. She cannot shut up with the confessions. If it were me I’d have denied everything, and I’d have gone back to my husband to emphasize Robert’s insanity. Once Robert’s committed to an insane asylum he can’t gather witnesses, can he? The only obstacle I see is Phoebe and Luke, and if Lady Audley just smothered Luke real quick (he’s all burned; he can’t fight her), Phoebe could live her life in freedom. PHOEBE! Then Sir Michael offers to kill Robert, which Lucy doesn’t take him…
13 CommentsTag: Lady Audley’s Secret
WHOA WHAT THERE IS ANOTHER SECRET? “I am weary of my life here, and wish, if I can, to find a new one. I go out into the world, dissevered from every link which binds me to the hateful past, to seek another home and another fortune. Forgive me if I have been fretful, capricious, changeable. You should forgive me, for you know why I have been so. You know the secret which is the key to my life.”–Helen Talboys So she already had a secret before she ever went out to be a teacher and governess? All right, Lady…
14 CommentsIt means “dismissal.” The more you know! In the first chapter of this segment of readalong, Robert gets chucked out of the Audley house for paying too much attention to Lady Audley. Here is Braddon’s representation of how the conversation went down. I, um, it sounds like Sir Audley could have minced his words a little bit more. Sir Michael Audley told his nephew that the Court was no home for him, and that my lady was too young and pretty to accept the attentions of a handsome nephew of eight-and-twenty. Deprived of the ability to spend all day saying…
10 CommentsThe third section of Alice‘s Lady Audley’s Secret readalong starts with a bang. Or, I suppose, a resounding well-falling-down. (I’m not a hundred percent sure about this, but like — he fell down the well, right? That’s obviously what happened. Right?) Robert wakes up and discovers that George Talboys is nowhere to be found. In some anxiety, he makes inquiries and establishes to his satisfaction that George must have gone back to London by train. Oh, foolish Robert! George is beyond help! In the face of George’s new deadness disappearance, Robert forgets about his crush on Lady Audley and realizes…
12 CommentsSorry I missed the first batch of readalong posts, readalong friends! I have no excuse. I got distracted doing something else. I promise to faithfully post every Thursday from here on out. Sorry, lovely host Alice! Have we already established the number of readalong participants whose awareness of Lady Audley’s Secret prior to this readalong was limited to / originated from that time Tacy’s father burned the copy of it that Betsy had borrowed from her maid and lent to Tacy? If not, can I get a show of hands in the comments? & some critical remarks about Mr. Kelly…
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