The Secret Woman (novel)
1970 novel by Eleanor Hibbert
The Secret Woman is a Gothic romance and suspense novel written by English author Eleanor Hibbert under the pseudonym Victoria Holt. It was originally published in 1970 and is considered to be a bestseller. Set in 1887, it chronicles Anna Brett's scandalous romance with the married ship captain Redvers Stretton. As they sail across the South Seas, tensions build among Anna, Redvers, and everyone else on-board The Serene Lady, and a mystery involving murder, the destruction of ship called The Secret Woman, and a missing fortune of diamonds begins to unravel.
Plot summary
Anna Brett was born in India, due to her father being in the Indian Army, and when she was about eight years old her parents moved her to live in Langmouth, England with her Aunt Charlotte into what is referred to as the Queen's House. While in Langmouth, Anna was educated and began to learn the ways of Aunt Charlotte's antique business as she grew up.
On one autumn night, a sailor named Redvers Stretton comes to see Anna and their romantic interest in each other starts to grow. As Aunt Charlotte grows older and weaker, she hires a nurse, Chantel Loman, to look after her. Chantel seems to brighten up the normally dreary Queen's House and quickly becomes close friends with Anna. Then one morning, Chantel finds Charlotte dead from an opium tablet overdose.
“The Secret Woman (novel)” enters the record as 1970 novel by Eleanor Hibbert. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Secret, Woman and novel can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55648707. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970 and 1887.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Secret Woman (novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.