This article explores the interconnectedness of Victorian sensation fiction and modern erotic romance by
examining Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) and E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of
Grey (2011). Using a comparative literary approach and drawing on Catherine Roach’s theory of
‘reparative fantasy’ in popular romance fiction, this article investigates why women readers are
continuously drawn to socially and sexually transgressive characters within popular fiction. It also
examines how the construction of characters in these popular genres engages with reader response
theory and acts as a tool for reader engagement, especially for women reading romance narratives in a
patriarchal context. In Lady Audley’s Secret, Lady Audley’s embodiment of the ‘improper feminine’ allows
readers to indulge in feminine transgression from a safe distance and play an active role in repairing this
transgression. In Fifty Shades of Grey, readers project their experiences onto Ana as a ‘blank canvas’
heroine, allowing them to vicariously participate in the reparative process of subduing hero Christian’s
transgressive sexuality. Across both novels, the construction of a detective figure structurally aids the
reader in confronting, negotiating, and safely repairing sexual deviance or transgression. This article
investigates how reparative fantasy acts as a useful tool to confront and negotiate with gendered anxieties
around both power and sexuality, and invites a renewed understanding of how women’s reading practices
reflect their lived experiences of romantic relationships under patriarchal power structures.