Victorian drama in Gothic setting (Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon)

The article analyses thematic and figurative connection between early Gothic novels by English writers and Mary Braddon's Victorian best-seller Lady Audley's Secret, especially in terms of chronotope. Braddon's literary creation follows the main principles of sensational fiction, featuring a thrilling plot and magnetic characters, but the problem set behind the family drama is closely interwoven with the topical issues of Victorian society - stereotyped view of female depravity, social and gender inequality, connections between mental illness and moral corruption. Combining Gothic and sensational elements, Braddon makes her novel more complicated and controversial, than the plot and subgenre suggest.

chronotope, literary Gothic, Victorian society, sensational fiction, family drama, mystery