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
Literary responses Mrs Alexander
Early critic Helen Black found Her Dearest Foe to be quite absorbing.
Black, Helen C. Notable Women Authors of the Day. D. Bryce.
64
Later critic Muriel Smith argues that its claims rest on its significant contribution to the development of detective fiction, rather than...
Intertextuality and Influence Anna Atkins
Though AA 's preface concedes the the talent, the ingenuity, the very clever writing of sensation-authors,
Atkins, Anna. A Page from the Peerage. T. Cautley Newby.
i
it also hints that they are in it for the money, and expresses outrage at what it sees...
Occupation Honoré de Balzac
Mary Russell Mitford translated some of Balzac's works. His oeuvre influenced many writers, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon , Storm Jameson , and Natalie Clifford Barney , and has attracted criticism from Anita Brookner .
Intertextuality and Influence Mary Anne Barker
MAB 's discussion of schools leads her into an account of a visit made by the Norwegian missionary, Bishop Schreuder , to a later Zulu chief, Cetshwayo , taken from a blue-book or government report...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Theodora Benson
In 1951 TB returned to partnership with Bentley though not with Askwith in a different treatment of famous people, London Immortals in Allan Wingate 's The Londoners' Library series. This goes through London street by...
Intertextuality and Influence Charlotte Mary Brame
Published with an epigraph from Anne Hunter about the emotional cost of keeping a painful secret, Lady Damer's Secret presumably drew inspiration for its title from Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's Lady Audley's Secret, although...
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...
Wealth and Poverty Rhoda Broughton
RB , who published almost exclusively with Bentley throughout her career, preferred to receive a lump sum for her novels rather than to rely on royalites and copyright earnings. In her reminiscence Ethel Arnold suggests...
Intertextuality and Influence Rhoda Broughton
Esther Craven, this novel's unworldly heroine, lives in an isolated farmhouse in the Welsh countryside and dreams of a romantic hero in a fashion reminiscent of Isobel Gilbert in Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's The Doctor's Wife.
Literary responses Rhoda Broughton
Eliza Lynn Linton , in an article that was in general highly complimentary, defended RB 's characterisation of Lenore: She is irritating and faulty, but not corrupt. Her temper and her taste are both equally...
Literary responses Rosa Nouchette Carey
The Athenæum was lavish with faint praise. It likened Only the Governess to a tranquil backwater out of the main current of the turbid stream of modern fiction.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
3151 (1888): 337
Praising Carey for not...
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...
Literary responses Georgiana Chatterton
Henry Fothergill Chorley in the Athenæum wrote that this work had come from the pen of an amiable and accomplished lady and that it could only be described as an amazing production.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1879 (1863): 566
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...

Timeline

1532-early 1552: These years saw the gradual appearance of...

Writing climate item

1532-early 1552

These years saw the gradual appearance of the work of scurrilous, obscene, and philosophicalsatire generally known in English as Gargantua and Pantagruel, by François Rabelais (1483?-?9 April 1553).

1826: American-born black actor Ira Aldridge debuted...

Building item

1826

American-born black actor Ira Aldridge debuted in London as Othello at the Royalty Theatre .

1842: A bill to legalize marriage between a man...

Building item

1842

A bill to legalize marriage between a man and his deceased wife's sister was introduced in the House of Commons . It did not pass.

1843: John Maxwell founded his own publishing house...

Writing climate item

1843

John Maxwell founded his own publishing house in London.

1 October-15 December 1856: Gustave Flaubert serially published his first...

Writing climate item

1 October-15 December 1856

Gustave Flaubert serially published his first novel, Madame Bovary, in the Revue de Paris.

1858: Brothers William and Edward Tinsley formed...

Writing climate item

1858

Brothers William and Edward Tinsley formed a partnership as the Tinsley Brothers , publishers, at 18 Catherine Street, Strand, London.

18 November 1861: The English production of Dion Boucicault's...

Writing climate item

18 November 1861

The English production of Dion Boucicault 's The Octoroon, or Life in Louisiana opened at the Adelphi Theatre , London.

April 1863: Henry Mansel in the Quarterly Review attacked...

Writing climate item

April 1863

Henry Mansel in the Quarterly Review attacked sensation novels as preaching to the nerves and as indications of a wide-spread corruption, of which they are in part both the effect and the cause; called into...

Later 1866: Robert Williams Buchanan published an essay...

Writing climate item

Later 1866

Robert Williams Buchanan published an essay on Immorality in Authorship in the Fortnightly Review, and, under the pseudonym of Caliban in the Spectator, attacked Swinburne in a poem called The Session of the Poets.

1867: Metta Victoria Fuller Victor (a successful...

Writing climate item

1867

Metta Victoria Fuller Victor (a successful American writer and publisher, as was her husband, Orville James Victor ) serialised under the pseudonym Seeley Regester her novelThe Dead Letter.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.
under Orville James Victor
Nickerson, Catherine Ross, and Metta Victoria Fuller Victor. “Introduction”. The Dead Letter; and, The Figure Eight, Duke University Press, pp. 1-10.
1-2

1868: Tractarian F. E. Paget published his satiric...

Writing climate item

1868

Tractarian F. E. Paget published his satiricsensation novelLucretia; or, the Heroine of the Nineteenth Century.

1875: Charles Reade dedicated his novel The Wandering...

Writing climate item

1875

Charles Reade dedicated his novelThe Wandering Heir to Mary Elizabeth Braddonas a slight mark of respect for her private virtues and public talents.
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland.
250

1876: John Maxwell sold Belgravia to Chatto and...

Writing climate item

1876

John Maxwell sold Belgravia to Chatto and Windus , ending Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's association with the monthly.

Late 1884: Publisher Henry Vizetelly produced the first...

Writing climate item

Late 1884

Publisher Henry Vizetelly produced the first English translations of Émile Zola : the novels Nana and L'Assommoir.

27 June 1894: Mudie's Circulating Library and bookseller...

Writing climate item

27 June 1894

Mudie's Circulating Library and bookseller W. H. Smith together announced they would not pay more than four shillings a volume for novels; this forced publishers to abandon triple-decker format, and quickly led to its replacement...

Texts

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. A Strange World. Donohue, Henneberry.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. A Strange World. J. Maxwell, 1875.
Willis, Chris et al. “Afterword”. The Trail of the Serpent, edited by Chris Willis and Chris Willis, Modern Library, 2003, pp. 408-14.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Aurora Floyd. Tinsley Brothers, 1863.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Aurora Floyd. Editors Nemesvari, Richard and Lisa Surridge, Broadview, 1998.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Beyond These Voices. Hutchinson, 1910.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Birds of Prey. Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1867.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Charlotte’s Inheritance. Ward, Lock, and Tyler , 1868.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Circe. Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1867.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Dead Love has Chains. Hurst and Blackett, 1907.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Dead Love Has Chains. Sensation Press, 2001.
Wolff, Robert Lee et al. “Devoted Disciple: The Letters of Mary Elizabeth Braddon to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, 1862-1873”. Harvard Library Bulletin, Vol.
22
, pp. 1 - 35, 129.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Eleanor’s Victory. B. Tauchnitz, 1863.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Eleanor’s Victory. Tinsley Brothers, 1863.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. “Flower and Weed”. The Mistletoe Bough, J. and R. Maxwell, 1882.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Garibaldi and Other Poems. Bosworth and Harrison, 1861.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Henry Dunbar. J. Maxwell, 1864.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Hostages to Fortune. J. Maxwell, 1875.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Hostages to Fortune. J. and R. Maxwell, 1876.
O’Toole, Fionn, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. “Introduction”. Vixen, Alan Sutton, 1993, p. vii - xi.
Sasaki, Toru et al. “Introduction”. John Marchmont’s Legacy, edited by Toru Sasaki et al., Oxford University Press, 1999, p. vii - xxiv.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. “Introduction”. The Octoroon; or, The Lily of Louisiana, edited by Jennifer Carnell, Sensation Press, 1999, p. vii - xvii.
Waters, Sarah, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. “Introduction”. The Trail of the Serpent, edited by Chris Willis and Chris Willis, Modern Library, 2003, p. xv - xxiv.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Ishmael. J. and R. Maxwell.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Ishmael. J. and R. Maxwell, 1884.