ABSTRACT
Silk and velvet figure vividly in descriptions of the heroines' dress in popular literature from 1860 to 1900. In Victorian popular literature, a silk gown represents the heroines' rejections of ideal and virtuous femininity; they emphatically refashion their bodies, their identities and narratives. As a sartorial symbol, silk also represents a challenge to absolute reality and realism in representation, narrative structure and genre in Victorian popular literature. A new genre of popular literature emerged in sensation fiction with the publication of Collins's The Woman in White. The heroine of this genre was extravagantly dressed in gowns of white muslin, and silk and velvet; she was beautiful, daring and dangerous. The heightened visual impact of Lady Audley's velvet gowns and mantle is narratively aligned with Robert's revelation of her invisible crimes. Like Lady Audley's Secret, the "costume plot" of Aurora Floyd unfolds through mystery, anticipation and resolution according to the changes in the colour and texture of the heroine's dress.
