From Page to Screen: Transforming M. E. Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret

Abstract

This paper compares Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 1862 novel, Lady Audley's Secret, with Donald Hounam's 2000 TV adaptation of the text. Braddon's novel is a key example of the sensation literature of the 1860s, characterised by the subversion of notions of Victorian domesticity and femininity. Although not overtly feminist, the novel nevertheless raises important questions about the social situation of the nineteenth-century woman, especially through its concerns with marriage and female insanity. In particular, this essay focuses on the translation of the feminist message from the novel to the screen, and considers the implications of the status of the Victorian woman writer and twentieth-century male scriptwriter on their respective versions of the text. Specific consideration is given to the conclusion of the film adaptation, which is radically different from that of the original narrative. The conclusion of the paper examines the overall effectiveness of Hounam's film adaptation of a Victorian narrative.