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 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...
Literary responses Ethel M. Dell
In response to a compliment on her writing EMD replied, they are not well written and will never be called classics.
Dell, Penelope. Nettie and Sissie. Hamish Hamilton.
129
Highbrow journals at her death were careful not to praise. The Times Literary...
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
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...
Literary responses Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
Bulwer's Newgate novels were insistently skewered by William Maginn , and after 1836 by Thackeray , in Fraser's Magazine.
Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press.
Paul Clifford and Bulwer's later Lucretia (1846, based on an actual poisoning case) were singled...
Intertextuality and Influence Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
This was among his most controversial novels; W. Fraser Rae later praised it in his attack on Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's sensation fiction, and George Sala cited it as a laudable antecedent in her defence.
Rae, W. Fraser. “Sensation Novelists: Miss Braddon”. North British Review, Vol.
43
, pp. 180-04.
202
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Wolff, Robert Lee. Sensational Victorian. Garland.
206
Intertextuality and Influence Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
Bulwer-Lytton in his later years mentored the young Mary Elizabeth Braddon , offering her advice on her writings, often with reference to his own. Their literary friendship lasted until his death. Charles Reade was also...
Literary responses George Eliot
Lewes , who wrote that if the book was not a hit I will never more trust my judgement in such matters,
Eliot, George. The George Eliot Letters. Editor Haight, Gordon S., Yale University Press.
3: 10
was vindicated when printing after printing was called for (15,000 copies...
Leisure and Society Emmuska, Baroness Orczy
Music was very important to EBO (though she says she had inexplicably little talent), and she gives one of the five books of her memoirs to her musical life. She heard Edvard Grieg conducting his...
Occupation Gustave Flaubert
One of the great practioners of literary realism, he shifted the European novel significantly towards naturalism. His influence ranged far, from literary friends such as Émile Zola to writers in English, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Textual Production Mary Fortune
If MF is indeed the author of either The Stolen Specimens or Traces of Crime, then she is, Lucy Sussex argues, the earliest known female writer of detective fiction. Both stories pre-date the serialization...
Textual Features Elizabeth Gaskell
Some of the lesser characters are interesting. Sally, the crusty but faithful servant, presses her savings on her employers when they fall on hard times; she was satirised by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Rupert Godwin...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Gaskell
The book was well received. The situation and character of its father and daughter probably informed Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's Joshua Haggard's Daughter (1877).
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...
Textual Production Anna Maria Hall
In her capacity as editor of this journal she mentored and supervised Mary Elizabeth Braddon , who was also working for it. The St. James's Magazine continued to publish (ending on the original title after...

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.