Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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Standard Name: Braddon, Mary Elizabeth
Birth Name: Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Pseudonym: Mary Seyton
Pseudonym: Babington White
Pseudonym: Lady Caroline Lascelles
Pseudonym: Aunt Belinda
Pseudonym: The author of Lady Audley's Secret
Self-constructed Name: M. E. Braddon
Married Name: Mary Elizabeth Maxwell
Used Form: Miss M. E. Braddon
MEB made her name, scandalously, in the early 1860s as a founder of the intricately plotted sensation novel, and was particularly known for her transgressive heroines. Although still most strongly associated with this and the related genres of gothic, mystery and detective stories, she also contributed significantly during her 56-year career to the psychological and realist novels, in addition to writing several dramas (some of them produced) and publishing in her youth one long poem in a collection with shorter ones. Dedicated to writing for the new and expanding mass reading public (including fiction for the penny press), and associated from the outset with novel advertising and publishing practices, she issued her work serially, edited Belgravia magazine from 1866 to 1876 (as well as a Christmas annual), and survived the demise of the triple-decker novel.
Painting of Mary Elizabeth Braddon by William Powell Frith, exhibited 1865. She stands beside a desk with writing materials and stacks of books, looking at the viewer, in a long dark dress. The wall behind her and the desk chair are red. Her red-brown hair is coiled over her ears, and her clasped hands hold a handkerchief. National Portrait Gallery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Textual Features Sophie Veitch
The interdependence of her passionate feelings, athleticism, and goodness is made evident in her foil, Edith Cranley (later Edith Mason). Edith is a perfect little lady,
Veitch, Sophie. The Dean’s Daughter. National Publishing Company.
8
but she is also weak and selfish, while...
Textual Features Margaret Oliphant
Oliphant develops an extended critique of her chief bugbears, Mary Elizabeth Braddon (the leader of her school
Oliphant, Margaret. “Novels”. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
102
, W. Blackwood, pp. 257-80.
265
), Rhoda Broughton (not by name, but as author of Cometh Up As a Flower),...
Textual Features Charlotte Chanter
Critic John Sutherland discerns the influence of Wilkie Collins on the novel's plot. Certainly the figure of the mysterious woman in black who aims to avenge herself on her husband's destroyers recalls the description of...
Textual Features James Malcolm Rymer
The penny dreadful genre borrowed much from the chapbook tradition both in textual production and readership, as well as from the gothic, depicting scenes of violent crime, horror, and the supernatural. E. F. Bleiler ...
Textual Features Dorothy L. Sayers
Here she mounts a powerful appreciation of the novel, both for its importance in the development of the detective story (all the clues, she says, are clearly conveyed to the reader, something which seldom happened...
Textual Features Ellen Wood
The plot and pacing of the novel differ markedly from East Lynne, and are more in the style of Charlotte Yonge than EW 's sensational contemporary Mary Elizabeth Braddon . While the theft of...
Textual Features Ella D'Arcy
Perhaps aimed at a Temple Bar formula, it has thriller-style action and stilted dialogue which suggests a sensation novel by Wilkie Collins or Mary Elizabeth Braddon , but which proved not to be D'Arcy territory...
Reception Sarah Waters
SW calls this book on the one hand a homage to the sensation novels of Braddon and Wilkie Collins , on the other hand a reflection of 1990s excitement over the concept of queer. Writing...
Reception Ouida
Within a few years of her first novel's publication, Ouida had attained some celebrity as a writer, but not all the attention she received was positive. While her sales were strong, she was attacked for...
Reception Ellen Wood
The stage versions of East Lynne have been analysed critically in recent works such as E. Ann Kaplan 's Motherhood and Representation. Like many of the popular novelists of the period, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Reception Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White, along with Ellen Wood 's East Lynne,1861, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's Lady Audley's Secret, 1862, established the massive popularity of the sensation novel, a genre marked by...
Publishing Mary Angela Dickens
MAD published Miss Braddon at Home, her interview with Mary Elizabeth Braddon , in The Windsor Magazine: For Men and Women.
Dickens, Mary Angela. “Miss Braddon at Home”. The Windsor Magazine: For Men and Women, Vol.
6
, No. 33, pp. 415-18.
415-18
Publishing Thomas Hardy
TH 's first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, was rejected in turn by Macmillan (after reading by Alexander Macmillan and John Morley ), by Chapman and Hall (after reading by George Meredith
Publishing Beatrice Harraden
BH had her first short story accepted for Belgravia (formerly edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ) after Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine had declined it.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
She went on to publish other contributions to Blackwood's; even by...
Publishing Charlotte Riddell
CR 's next publishers, Tinsley Brothers , had close ties to the circulating libraries and provided a real boost to her career. Their biggest recent success had been Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's Lady Audley's Secret...

Timeline

June 1899: Belgravia: A London Magazine (formerly edited...

Writing climate item

June 1899

Belgravia: A London Magazine (formerly edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ) ceased publication.

Texts

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. John Marchmont’s Legacy. Tinsley Brothers, 1863.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. John Marchmont’s Legacy. Editors Sasaki, Toru and Norman Page, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Joshua Haggard’s Daughter. J. Maxwell, 1876.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Joshua Haggard’s Daughter. Harper and Brothers, 1877.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Lady Audley’s Secret. Tinsley Brothers, 1862.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Like and Unlike. Spencer Blackett, 1887.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Mary. Hutchinson, 1916.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. “Mary Elizabeth Braddon: A Brief Chronology”. Aurora Floyd, edited by Richard Nemesvari and Lisa Surridge, Broadview, 1998.
Hatton, Joseph, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. “Miss Braddon at Home: A Sketch and an Interview”. The Fatal Marriage and Other Stories, edited by Chris Willis and Chris Willis, Sensation Press, 2000, pp. 239-47.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Mohawks. J. and R. Maxwell, 1886.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth et al. “My First Novel”. The Trail of the Serpent, edited by Chris Willis and Chris Willis, Modern Library, 2003, pp. 415-27.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. One Thing Needful. J. and R. Maxwell, 1886.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Robert Ainsleigh. J. Maxwell, 1872.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Rough Justice. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1898.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Rupert Godwin. Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1867.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Sir Jasper’s Tenant. J. Maxwell, 1865.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Sons of Fire. Simpkin, Marshall, 1895.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Christmas Hirelings. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1894.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Doctor’s Wife. J. Maxwell, 1864.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Doctor’s Wife. Editor Pykett, Lyn, Oxford University Press, 1998.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Fatal Marriage and Other Stories. Editor Willis, Chris, Sensation Press, 2000.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Fatal Three. Simpkin, Marshall, 1888.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Fatal Three. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1891.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Lady Lisle. Ward and Lock, 1862.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Lady’s Mile. J. and R. Maxwell.