
BRITISH MURDER MYSTERIES: The Greatest Thrillers of Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. The Trail of the Serpent, Lady Audley's Secret, Aurora Floyd, Henry Dunbar, Run to Earth, The Cloven Foot, Wyllard's Weird…By Mary Elizabeth BraddonLength136h 21m
About this audiobook
BRITISH MURDER MYSTERIES: The Greatest Thrillers of Mary Elizabeth Braddon gathers the dark energies of Victorian sensation fiction into a compelling anatomy of crime, secrecy, and social performance. Braddon's narratives turn drawing rooms, country houses, and respectable marriages into sites of danger, where hidden identities, forged documents, madness, bigamy, and murder disturb the polished surfaces of middle-class life. Her style combines melodramatic propulsion with sharp psychological observation, placing her work in dialogue with Wilkie Collins and the emerging detective tradition. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, one of the most prolific and commercially successful writers of the nineteenth century, knew intimately the pressures and contradictions of Victorian respectability. Her own unconventional life, early experience on the stage, and career in the expanding literary marketplace helped shape her fascination with disguise, reputation, and female constraint. She wrote for readers hungry for suspense, yet her thrillers also expose the anxieties beneath domestic ideology. This volume is recommended for readers of classic mystery, Victorian literature, and gothic-inflected psychological suspense. It offers not only gripping plots but also a revealing portrait of a society haunted by its own secrets.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreMystery and Thriller, Literary Classics
Length136 hrs 21 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 6, 2019
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1BRITISH MURDER MYSTERIES: The Greatest Thrillers of Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Annotated)
2Introduction
3Historical Context
4Synopsis (Selection)
5The Trail of the Serpent
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6Book the First. A Respectable Young Man
7Chapter I. The Good Schoolmaster
8Chapter II. Good for Nothing
9Chapter III. The Usher Washes His Hands
10Chapter IV. Richard Marwood Lights His Pipe
11Chapter V. The Healing Waters
12Chapter VI. Two Coroner’s Inquests
13Chapter VII. The Dumb Detective a Philanthropist
14Chapter VIII. Seven Letters on the Dirty Alphabet
15Chapter IX. “Mad, Gentlemen of the Jury”
16Book the Second. A Clearance of All Scores
17Chapter I. Blind Peter
18Chapter II. Like and Unlike
19Chapter III. A Golden Secret
20Chapter IV. Jim Looks Over the Brink of the Terrible Gulf
21Chapter V. Midnight by the Slopperton Clocks
22Chapter VI. The Quiet Figure on the Heath
23Chapter VII. The Usher Resigns His Situation
24Book the Third. A Holy Institution
25Chapter I. The Value of an Opera-Glass
26Chapter II. Working in the Dark
27Chapter III. The Wrong Footstep
28Chapter IV. Ocular Demonstration
29Chapter V. The King of Spades
30Chapter VI. A Glass of Wine
31Chapter VII. The Last Act of Lucretia Borgia
32Chapter VIII. Bad Dreams and a Worse Waking
33Chapter IX. A Marriage in High Life
34Chapter X. Animal Magnetism
35Book the Fourth. Napoleon the Great
36Chapter I. The Boy from Slopperton
37Chapter II. Mr. Augustus Darley and Mr. Joseph Peters Go Out Fishing
38Chapter III. The Emperor Bids Adieu to Elba
39Chapter IV. Joy and Happiness for Everybody
40Chapter V. The Cherokees Take an Oath
41Chapter VI. Mr. Peters Relates How He Thought He had a Clue, and How He Lost It
42Book the Fifth. The Dumb Detective
43Chapter I. The Count De Marolles at Home
44Chapter II. Mr. Peters Sees a Ghost
45Chapter III. The Cherokees Mark Their Man
46Chapter IV. The Captain, the Chemist, and the Lascar
47Chapter V. The New Milkman in Park Lane
48Chapter VI. Signor Mosquetti Relates an Adventure
49Chapter VII. The Golden Secret is Told, and the Golden Bowl is Broken
50Chapter VIII. One Step Further on the Right Track