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
Occupation Queen Victoria
Not all of QV 's subjects were pleased with the idea of the Jubilee, however. Some were sceptical of the uncritical commercialization which played such a large role in the festivities. In Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Textual Production Lucy Walford
On 24 June this year Mudie's radically reduced the price it would pay publishers per volume (already well below the price charged to other buyers). This caused publishers (led by Simpkin, Marshall with their issue...
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...
Literary responses Ellen Wood
Discussing the presentation of madness in The Woman in White, Lady Audley's Secret and this novel, Rebecca Stern suggests that St. Martin's Eve, unlike the earlier works, leaves no space for a subversive...
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
Textual Production Ellen Wood
The novel had been twice offered to the publishing house of Chapman and Hall , and was recommended by William Harrison Ainsworth . After their reader (novelist George Meredith ) twice rejected it, EW took...
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
Literary responses Ellen Wood
Early discussions of EW as a sensation writer often linked her writing to that of Mary Elizabeth Braddon , despite the two authors' vastly different styles and perspectives. In 1863 a review of Our Female...
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...

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