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
Intertextuality and Influence Flora Thompson
From her account it is clear how she respects, even loves, the people she describes, but also how she is not one of them, but is marked off by tiny gradations of knowledge and privilege...
Friends, Associates Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
His friends included Benjamin Disraeli , Charles Dickens , John Forster , and Thomas Babington Macaulay . Later in life he conducted a long, mentoring friendship by letter with Mary Elizabeth Braddon . He also...
Friends, Associates Ellen Wood
Probably as early as 1862, the publisher Richard Bentley asked EW for her critical opinion of the work of Mary Elizabeth Braddon . She replied with a balanced, judicious, and respectful assessment.
Sussex, Lucy. “Mrs Henry Wood and her Memorials”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
15
, No. 2, pp. 157-68.
159
Friends, Associates Rhoda Broughton
The sisters were in general popular in Oxford society, but Rhoda, although at first she dined regularly at the table of scholar Benjamin Jowett ,
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(29 November 1940): 5
, was then ostracized in some...
Friends, Associates Rhoda Broughton
RB 's vitality, sincerity, and pungent wit gained her the friendship of some of the most notable people of her day.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Her wide circle of friends and acquaintances included Henry James (the two became extremely...
Education Katharine Tynan
Owing to what KT calls an extraordinary wave of Puritanism throughout the Irish Catholic Church,
Tynan, Katharine. Twenty-Five Years: Reminiscences. Smith, Elder.
45
her reading was censored: her mother forbade her to read Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's Aurora Floyd (1863). She thought...
Education Stella Gibbons
SG learned to read fairly late, but then read voraciously. The glowing Eastern landscapes and brilliant figures
Oliver, Reggie. Out of the Woodshed: A Portrait of Stella Gibbons. Bloomsbury.
20
of Disraeli 's Alroy and Thomas Moore 's Lalla Rookh made a particular impression. She also developed...
Education Henry Handel Richardson
The child Ethel Richardson was a great reader. She identified with male fictional characters, and cherished three books which her father gave her almost on his death-bed: The Pilgrim's Progress by Bunyan , Robinson Crusoe...
death Jean Middlemass
Her obituary in the Times noted her accomplishments as a writer and suggested that her output as a novelist exceeded that of Mary Elizabeth Braddon .
“Obituary: Miss Jean Middlemass”. Times, p. 15e.
15

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