Readers will find a great deal of social criticism, some subtle and some not so subtle, in Braddon’s fearless first novel. There are attacks on hypocrisy, the permanency of marriage, and other topics, but The Trail is especially progressive in its portrayal of physical difference (or “disability”) and hand-based communication. In this respect, it stands out against other Victorian novels, many of which have acquired a dismal reputation for contributing to the creation of “disability” as a concept that stigmatizes and marginalizes real-life people. In The Trail, Braddon often represents her female characters in ways that defy typical Victorian gender norms. Unlike some of Dickens’s novels, there are no doll-like women or perfect Angel-in-the-House heroines. Today, it continues to be as fascinating in its social commentary as it is entertaining to read. (from Catherine M. Welter’s Introduction to the present volume)

I wrote with all the freedom of the one who feared not the face of a critic; and, indeed, thanks to the obscurity of its original production, and its re-issue as the ordinary two-shilling railway novel, this first novel of mine has almost entirely escaped the critical lash, and has pursued its way as a chartered libertine. People buy it and read it, and its faults and follies are forgiven as the exuberances of a pen unchastened by experience, but faster and more facile at the initial stage than it ever became after long practice. (Mary Elizabeth Braddon, “My First Novel: The Trail of the Serpent“)