Rachel Ray offers a masterly and entertaining evocation of a small community living its life in mid-nineteenth-century England. The novel first appeared in 1863, a year in which public reaction against the excesses of the popular sensationalist novel prompted Trollope to state that he was writing about "the commonest details of commonplace life among the most ordinary people."
Aurora Floyd (1862-3) and Braddon's earlier novel Lady Audley's Secret established her as one of the ruling triumvirate of the popular and notorious "sensation novelists." Like Lady Audley, Aurora is a beautiful young woman bigamously married and threatened with exposure by a blackmailer. In this, the only critical edition of a popular "sensation novel," P.D. Edward's introduction evaluates its leading place among "bigamy-novels" and Braddon's treatment of the power struggle between the sexes, as well as considering the similarities between the author and her heroine.