The Secret Book Society

The Secret Book Society (2025) is a historical fiction novel by Madeline Martin, a New York Times bestselling author known for works that center on the power of literature, such as The Last Bookshop in London and The Keeper of Hidden Books. Set in 1895 London, the novel follows four women chafing against the rigid patriarchal structure of Victorian society. When the enigmatic Countess of Duxbury invites Eleanor, Rose, and Lavinia to a clandestine book club, they discover a sanctuary where they can read forbidden novels and form a powerful alliance. This sisterhood gives them the courage to confront the abuse, control, and dangerous secrets that define their lives. The novel explores themes of The Liberating Power of Literature, Female Solidarity as a Means of Resistance, and Using Performance to Survive a Restrictive World.

This guide is based on the 2025 Hanover Square Press edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of gender discrimination, bullying, physical abuse, emotional abuse, substance use, mental illness, child abuse, child death, illness, death, and death by suicide.

Language Note: The text uses offensive terms to refer to mental illness and psychiatric hospitals. This study guide replicates this language only in quotations.

Plot Summary

In London in June 1895, Lady Clara Chambers, the Countess of Duxbury, gets a visit from a young boy named Sam, who carries a lady’s black boot embroidered with roses. Sam tells Lady Duxbury that a friend of hers handed him the boot as she was being taken to Leavenhall Lunatic Asylum. She asked him to take the boot to Lady Duxbury’s address.

Recognizing the boot, Lady Duxbury panics, realizing her efforts to help a group of women have gone awry. She then receives a foreboding bouquet of flowers from a woman who has harmed her in the past. Inside the boot, Lady Duxbury finds a note she wrote two months earlier, inviting women to a Secret Book Society.

The narrative flashes back two months to April 1895. Beautiful and poised Eleanor Clarke lives with her violent, controlling husband Cecil, who monitors her every move. Eleanor is looking forward to the respite she will receive in June when her husband travels to Peru for work, allowing her more time with their son, William. Cecil allows Eleanor to see William only for a few hours every two days, believing her influence will “soften” the small child.

Eleanor’s maid, Bennett, secretly gives her an invitation from Lady Duxbury to a book club for women longing for a space to read. Lady Duxbury also sends Eleanor a formal invitation for tea to foil Cecil’s possible suspicions. Cecil allows Eleanor to visit the well-connected Lady Duxbury, viewing the tea as a social opportunity.

At the first meeting of the secret book society, Eleanor meets Rose Wharton, an American “dollar princess” (a dated term for wealthy American women married into British families) who feels like an outsider in English society, and shy, young Lady Lavinia Cavendish. Lady Duxbury tells the women she formed the book club to provide a sanctuary for women who love reading but are forbidden to do it. In the process, she hopes the women can also form friendships.

Lady Lavinia tells the group that her father restricts her reading, believing that books will excite her into going “mad,” like her grandmother, who is in a psychiatric hospital. Lady Duxbury gives Lavinia a scorched copy of Jane Eyre, which Lavinia recognizes as her own from before her brother threw it in a fire. She realizes that her father sold their family’s book collection to Lady Duxbury.

The women’s friendship deepens at a ball hosted by Eleanor. Lavinia meets the young, sensitive solicitor William Wright, who defends her from an insult. After William leaves, Lavinia feels overwhelmed by the rising crowd at the ball and has a panic attack. Eleanor discreetly leads her to a quiet room. Cecil later punishes Eleanor for leaving his side to help Lavinia, leaving a bruise on her arm.

At the society’s next meeting, Rose reveals that her husband Theodore forbids her from reading under the demand of her dying brother-in-law, the Earl of Amsel. Theodore believes reading is an unsuitable pastime for a future countess. Encouraged by the exchange of confidences, Eleanor almost confesses her own abuse but stops herself. In the library, Lady Duxbury subtly directs Eleanor to a loose knot in a bookcase, where Eleanor finds a secret compartment containing Lady Duxbury’s diary.

The diary begins in 1878, 15 years ago, when Lady Duxbury, or Clara, would have been just 17 or 18 years old. Clara writes that she ran away from home to escape an arranged marriage, nearly fell into the hands of a brothel owner, and was saved by a young, handsome bookseller, Elias, with whom she fell in love. Elias believed Clara was a member of the working class, like him. Clara’s friend Alice revealed her deception to him, however, and returned to Clara with the message that he rejected her. By this time, Clara was pregnant. To secure a future for her child, her parents forced her to marry Viscount Morset. Morset believed Clara’s son, George, was his heir.

As the secret society continues to meet, Eleanor realizes that Lady Duxbury wants her to read the diary. Lady Duxbury can also tell that Cecil physically abuses Eleanor, since Eleanor’s arms are often covered with bruises. From Lady Duxbury’s diary, Eleanor learns that Alice revealed George’s true parentage to Clara’s husband in 1883, enraging him. Shortly thereafter, Morset died under mysterious circumstances.

In 1888, Clara’s second husband, the Earl of Esterly, caused George’s death by locking the child out in a storm. Consumed by grief, Clara vowed revenge. Esterly died as well. By 1893, Clara was married to the elderly Earl of Duxbury. She had hoped the marriage would provide her with a respite, but Duxbury kept her under lock and key, fearing she would betray him.

After Duxbury’s death, Clara swore never to marry again and use the wealth she inherited from him to help women. In the final diary entries, Eleanor learns that after Lord Duxbury died, Clara reunited with a dying Elias, who urged her to use her wealth to help other women. Meanwhile, Clara’s maid discovered that the son of Alice, now Lady Meddleson, was born outside of her marriage.

As the book society continues to meet, the women begin sharing confidences. Lavinia reveals that she fears her extremes of emotion mean she will inherit her grandmother’s mental illness, but Lady Duxbury reframes Lavinia’s passion as an artistic gift and encourages her to write. 

Meanwhile, Rose discovers she is pregnant but keeps the news both from her friends and her husband Theodore. Though Rose and Theodore have had a loving marriage, Rose now feels that Theodore thwarts her to please his dying brother.

Lady Duxbury invites the women for an overnight trip to her country home, Rosewood Cottage. Eleanor manipulates Cecil into letting her go by hinting at a valuable secret she might learn. During a visit with her son William in his nursery, Eleanor finds the child mimicking Cecil’s behavior, which cements Eleanor’s fear that he will grow up to be like his father.

At Rosewood cottage, the women meet an American woman named Smith, who teaches them hatpin fighting. Eleanor turns out to have a knack for the skill. The next morning, Lady Duxbury shows the women her secret garden of poisonous plants, explaining their potential for both healing and harm. Eleanor feels that Lady Duxbury shows her the garden because she knows Eleanor may need its knowledge. Rose reveals her pregnancy to the group.

Matters take a turn for the worse for Eleanor when she returns home and finds Cecil in a rage. Cecil hits Eleanor, calling her a bad mother for staying out all night. Eleanor decides to leave Cecil and secretly packs her and William’s luggage with Bennett’s help. She visits the book club for help, and Lady Duxbury promises her asylum in one of her country homes. However, when Eleanor returns home, she learns Cecil has discovered her plans. Cecil reveals he has already arranged for her to be committed to Leavenhall Asylum.

As she is forced into a carriage, Eleanor throws one of Rose’s embroidered boots to Sam, a young boy she has met through her charitable work, telling him to alert Lady Duxbury.

Meanwhile, Lavinia’s father discovers her poetry journals and declares her “mad,” but her mother intervenes by giving him books by famous male poets. He finally understands Lavinia’s talent and allows her to read books. Rose and Theodore reconcile, and Theodore vows never to try to change Rose.  

Lady Duxbury asks Rose and Lavinia for help rescuing Eleanor. Lavinia contacts Mr. Wright, who enlists the help of his mentor, a solicitor named Mr. Brogan, who specializes in wrongful committals. At Lady Meddleson’s soiree, the women spread a rumor that Eleanor is ill with a fever to account for her absence. Mr. Brogan secures Eleanor’s release, and the women retrieve her, finding her drugged and traumatized after Eleanor endures five days of horrific abuse in the asylum.

Eleanor insists on returning to her home and rescuing her son that night. Lady Duxbury provides her with a vial of nightshade extract to use on Cecil if necessary. Eleanor returns home with Davies, Lady Duxbury’s butler. Cecil ambushes them, knocking Davies unconscious with a granite bust. He hits Eleanor, breaks her poisoned hatpin, and threatens to send her to a worse asylum. As he taunts her, Cecil chokes to death on a date from a box that Lady Duxbury sent earlier as a gift. Eleanor watches him die, then calmly retrieves William from his nursery and sleeps with him in her own bed, finally free.

An epilogue set in March 1896 reveals the book society’s success. Lavinia is engaged to Mr. Wright and is a celebrated poet. Rose has a baby daughter named Clara and has become a leader in a charity for the poor, employing Sam. Eleanor is a content widow raising William. Lady Duxbury prepares to help another woman, Lady Pempton, who has come seeking membership in the Secret Book Society.