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.