Lady Audley's Secret was partly serialised in Robin Goodfellow magazine in July–September 1861, then entirely serialised in Sixpenny Magazine in January–December 1862 and once again serialised in The London Journal March–August 1863. It was published in 1862 in three volumes by William Tinsley.[2]
Braddon initially sold the rights to the Irish publisher John Maxwell, with whom Braddon also lived and had children. Maxwell published it in his magazine Robin Goodfellow. Braddon wrote the final third in less than two weeks. It was published as a three-volume novel, and it became a success, allowing Braddon to be financially independent for the rest of her life. It was also a financial success for Tinsley, who went on to build a villa in Barnes, "Audley Lodge", with the profits.[2]
Notably – given the theme of bigamy in the novel's plot – Maxwell himself was married to another woman, and so Braddon was unable to marry him until his wife died in 1874. When it became public that Maxwell and Braddon had been living in an "irregular" arrangement all those years, it caused a minor scandal during which all their servants gave notice.[2]
In 1997 a Wordsworth Limited edition was released with an Introduction by Keith Carabine from the University of Kent in which he states, "In the latter half of the nineteenth century, everyone knew Lady Audley’s Secret."[6]
