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 Production Bryony Lavery
BL 's numerous plays for radio include some original and some adapted from other works: Laying Ghosts, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Velma and Therese (a parallel version of the film Thelma and...
Textual Production Katharine S. Macquoid
KSM first reached print with a short story in a recently-launched periodical, The Welcome Guest, A Magazine for All.
Her publications here and later in Temple Bar and Belgravia magazines suggest a sustained connection...
Textual Production Helen Mathers
The story, a sketch of her brother-in-law Mr Hamborough and his wife (the author's sister), was inspired by a visit with them to Jersey in the Channel Islands.
Black, Helen C. Notable Women Authors of the Day. D. Bryce, 1893.
75
It was composed, rapidly put...
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...
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...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Sarah Tytler
Clearly delighted with the opportunity to mix in literary circles, ST recorded her personal observations of these authors in Men and Women Met by the Way, the final 100-page-long section of her family autobiography...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Edith J. Simcox
EJS could be unreservedly critical in her reviews: she deemed Mary Elizabeth Braddonanother victim to the diseased appetite of the class that would rather read half-a-dozen bad novels than one good one, and...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Vernon Lee
In her first essay, Lee offers a summary analysis of the English novelistic tradition. Judging them especially, though not entirely, on their treatments of morality, she evaluates writers including Jane Austen , Maria Edgeworth ,...
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...

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Texts

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