Armadale (Penguin Classics)

The "Athenaeum" reviewer of "Armadale" (1866)was only one of many contemporary critics horrified by Lydia Gwilt, the bigamist, husband-prisoner and laudanum addict whose intrgues spur the plot of this most sensational of Victorian "sensational novels." When Miss Gwilt flings herself from the first-class deck of a Thames steamer, her attempted suicide sets off events that lead to Allan Armadale inheriting Thorpe-Ambrose in Norfolk, romantic rivalries, espionage, counter-espionage and greedy plans for murder.