Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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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.
  • BirthName: Mary Elizabeth Braddon
  • Self-constructed: M. E. Braddon
    She published under this form of her name throughout her career and consistently at its end. The exceptions are a small number of anonymous or pseudonymous publications and an overwhelming number of allusive references to her authorship of Lady Audley's Secret.
  • Married: Maxwell
    She continued to publish as M. E. Braddon following her marriage.
  • Pseudonyms: Mary Seyton
    Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
    45-6
    MEB used Mary Seyton as both a pen name and a stage name.
    ; Babington White
    Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
    21, 178
    This pseudonym was composed of family names.
    Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
    21
    ; Lady Caroline Lascelles
    Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
    119
    The Feminist Companion incorrectly attributes the pseudonym Ada Buisson to MEB . Her only connection with that name was her editing of Put to the Test by Ada Buisson .
    Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
    496
    ; Aunt Belinda
    MEB used this pseudonym for her children's book The Good Hermione, 1886.
    British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
    Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
    340
    ; The author of Lady Audley's Secret
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.

Milestones

4 October 1835

MEB was born in London at 2 Frith Street, Soho, the youngest of three children.
She regularly gave her birth year as 1837.
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
19
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
19

6 July 1861

The first instalment of MEB 's hugely popular novel Lady Audley's Secret appeared in Robin Goodfellow; when this weekly sixpenny failed thirteen weeks later, she dropped Lady Audley for Aurora Floyd.
The editor of Robin Goodfellow, Charles MacKay , was the putative father of future novelist Marie Corelli .
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
4

January-December 1862

MEB 's sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret was serialised again, this time to its conclusion, in Ward and Lock 's Sixpenny Magazine; it appeared in volume form in October 1862.
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
5

1 October 1862

Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret was released in volume form.
This date is based on an advertisement that appeared in the Athenæum; a second edition was advertised on 11 October.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1824 (1862): 476
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1822 (1862): 413

18 September 1895

MEB and her publisher (Simpkin, Marshall) locked horns with Mudie's Circulating Library on the issue of her final triple-decker, Sons of Fire; she had three unpublished one-volume novels in hand to meet the new era in publishing.
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
321-2, 359

4 February 1915

MEB died at her home in Richmond, Surrey; she had been declining for several months, apparently from the gradual collapse of blood vessels in her brain.
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
404
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

By 5 October 1916

MEB 's last, part-autobiographical, novel, Mary, was published posthumously with her name.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. “Mary Elizabeth Braddon: A Brief Chronology”. Aurora Floyd, edited by Richard Nemesvari and Lisa Surridge, Broadview, 1998.
41
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
768 (5 October 1916): 478

Biography

Birth and Family

4 October 1835

MEB was born in London at 2 Frith Street, Soho, the youngest of three children.
She regularly gave her birth year as 1837.
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
19
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland, 1979.
19

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