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| First Written | 1862 |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Origin | UK |
| My Copy | library copy |
| First Read | July 27, 2022 |
Lady Audley's Secret
Kind of pulpy mystery novel from 1862. It's a fun read, although completely transparent in its mystery. Like many books it's not really a whodunit - while there is some mystery we definitely know. It's more of a 'how will they resolve the aftermath of this crime once everybody in the book learns whodunit', which probably has its own genre name.
Noted on July 27, 2022
Perhaps in that retrospective reverie she recalled the early time in which she had first looked in the glass and discovered that she was beautiful: that fatal early time in which she had first begun to look upon her loveliness as a right divine, a boundless possession which was to be a set-off against all girlish short-comings, a counter-balance of every youthful sin. Did she remember the day in which that fairy dower of beauty had first taught her to be selfish and cruel, indifferent to the joys and sorrows of others, cold-hearted and capricious, greedy of admiration, exacting and tyrannical, with that petty woman's tyranny which is the worst of despotisms? Did she trace every sin of her life back to its true source? and did she discover that poisoned fountain in her own exaggerated estimate of the value of a pretty face? Surely, if her thoughts wandered so far along the backward current of her life, she must have repented in bitterness and despair of that first day in which the master- passions of her life had become her rulers, and the three demons of Vanity, Selfishness, and Ambition had joined hands and said, "This woman is our slave; let us see what she will become under our guidance."
Quoted on July 29, 2022