Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret, which has also been dramatised and filmed several times. Her novel Circe (1867) was published under the pseudonym Babington White.

Biography

Born in Soho, London, Mary Elizabeth Braddon was privately educated. Her mother Fanny separated from her father Henry because of his infidelities in 1840, when Braddon was five. When Braddon was ten years old, her brother Edward Braddon left for India and later Australia, where he became Premier of Tasmania. Mary worked as an actress for three years, when she was befriended by Clara and Adelaide Biddle. They were only playing minor roles, but Braddon was able to support herself and her mother. Adelaide noted that Braddon's interest in acting waned as she began writing novels.<ref name="BoardmanJones2004">Template:Cite book</ref>

Braddon met John Maxwell (1824–1895), a publisher of periodicals, in April 1861 and moved in with him in 1861.<ref name="ven">Victor E. Neuburg, The Popular Press Companion to Popular Literature, Popular Press, 1983. Template:ISBN, pp. 36–37.</ref> However, Maxwell was already married to Mary Ann Crowley, with whom he had five children. While Maxwell and Braddon were living as husband and wife, Crowley was living with her family. In 1864, Maxwell tried to legitimize their relationship by telling the newspapers that they were legally married; "however, Richard Brinsley Knowles wrote to these papers, informing them that his sister-in-law and true wife of Maxwell was still living, thereby exposing Braddon's 'wife' status as a façade".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Braddon acted as stepmother to his children until 1874, when Maxwell's wife died and they were able to get married at St. Bride's Church in Fleet Street. Braddon had six children by him: Gerald, Fanny, Francis, William, Winifred Rosalie, and Edward Herry Harrington.

Tomb of Mary Elizabeth Maxwell in Richmond Cemetery

Her eldest daughter, Fanny Margaret Maxwell (1863–1955), married the naturalist Edmund Selous on 13 January 1886. In the 1920s, they were living in Wyke Castle, where Fanny founded a local branch of the Woman's Institute in 1923, of which she became the first president.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Their second eldest son was the novelist William Babington Maxwell (1866–1939).

Braddon died on 4 February 1915 in Richmond (then in Surrey) and is interred in Richmond Cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Her home had been Lichfield House in the centre of the town, which was replaced by a block of flats in 1936, Lichfield Court. There is a plaque commemorating Braddon in Richmond parish church, which calls her simply "Miss Braddon". A number of nearby streets are named after characters in her novels – her husband was a property developer in the area.<ref> The Streets of Richmond and Kew, Richmond Local History Society, fourth edition, 2022. Template:ISBN</ref>

Work

Writing

Portrait of Mary Elizabeth Braddon by William Powell Frith, 1865

Braddon was a prolific writer, producing more than 80 novels with inventive plots. The most famous is Lady Audley's Secret (1862), which won her recognition and a fortune as a bestseller.<ref name="ven" /> Braddon began publishing the first chapters of her novel serially in July, 1861, in Robin Goodfellow, a literary magazine owned by Maxwell, and then later Sixpenny Magazine. Lady Audley's Secret was then republished as a novel and sold through nine editions in its first year of publication. It has remained in print since its publication and been dramatised and filmed several times, with the first stage adaptation opening in London by the winter of 1863.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite ODNB</ref>

In addition to Lady Audley's Secret, Braddon's other best-known novel, Aurora Floyd, was published in 1863. Since it also featured a woman trapped in a bigamous relationship, Aurora Floyd and Lady Audley's Secret have been referred to as Braddon's "bigamy novels." Like Lady Audley, Aurora Floyd was first serialized in Temple Bar, a magazine, before appearing in novelized form.<ref name="auto" />

R. D. Blackmore's anonymous sensation novel Clara Vaughan (1864) was wrongly attributed to Braddon by some critics.

Braddon wrote several works of supernatural fiction, including the pact with the devil story Gerard or The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1891), and the ghost stories "The Cold Embrace", "Eveline's Visitant" and "At Chrighton Abbey".<ref>Mike Ashley "BRADDON, M(ary) E(lizabeth)" In St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, & Gothic Writers, ed. David Pringle. Detroit: St. James Press/Gale, 1998, Template:ISBN pp. 80–83.</ref><ref>E. F. Bleiler (1983), The Guide to Supernatural Fiction. Kent, Ohio: Kent State UP. Template:ISBN pp. 77–78.</ref> From the 1930s onwards, these stories were often anthologised in collections such as Montague Summers's The Supernatural Omnibus (1931) and Fifty Years of Ghost Stories (1935).<ref>Mike Ashley and William Contento, The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird, and Horror Anthologies. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. Template:ISBN p. 134.</ref> Braddon also wrote historical fiction. In High Places depicts the youth of Charles I.<ref name="jn">Jonathan Nield (1925), A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales. G. P. Putnam's Sons, pp. 60, 68, 82 and 108.</ref> London Pride focuses on Charles II.<ref name="jn" /> Mohawks is set during the reign of Queen Anne.<ref name="jn" /> Ishmael is set at the time of Napoleon III's rise to power.<ref name="jn" />

Braddon founded Belgravia magazine in 1866. By running her own magazine, Braddon added to the dramatic techniques she had already used in her earlier novels. Through Belgravia, she raised the reputation of her genre by showcasing it in an intentional way.<ref name="Palmer">Template:Cite book</ref> Literary scholar Kate Mattacks, following Braddon's first biographer Robert Wolff, argues that Braddon was trapped into repeating the same formula as Lady Audley’s Secret—making sensational stories that maintained her income but may have hurt her artistic credibility.<ref name="Palmer"/> This view reflects what Braddon's early critics claimed, that she was "a slave to the style she created." However, when her work as an author and editor of Belgravia is examined, it becomes clear that Braddon's use of sensation was not a limitation but a deliberate and empowering choice.<ref name="Palmer"/>

"Spoiler" culture appears to have developed mainly as a backlash against sensation fiction. Revealing key plot twists—or spoilers—became a tactic used to undermine the genre's reputation and popularity.<ref name="Tarr 2022 428–452">Template:Cite journal</ref> Authors like Wilkie Collins and Braddon, who were both initial writers of sensation fiction, tried to counter these criticisms by urging reviewers not to reveal their stories' hidden secrets.<ref name="Tarr 2022 428–452"/>

Publishing

Braddon founded Belgravia magazine (1866), which presented readers with serialised sensation novels, poems, travel narratives and biographies, along with essays on fashion, history and science. It was accompanied by lavish illustrations and offered a source of literature at an affordable cost. She also edited Temple Bar magazine.

Braddon was not just a writer of novels, she also worked as a magazine publisher.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Thanks to its many illustrations and low cost, Belgravia helped bring literature to a broader audience.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legacy

There is a critical essay on Braddon's work in Michael Sadleir's book Things Past (1944).<ref name="ven" />

In 2014 the Mary Elizabeth Braddon Association was founded to pay tribute to Braddon's life and work.<ref>Feminist & Women's Studies Association (UK & Ireland). Retrieved 7 August 2014.</ref>

Inspiration and personal life

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was an avid reader and began writing stories when she was 11 years old.

She had two siblings, Edward and Maggie: Edward left for India in 1847, and Maggie married Antonion Cartighoni and moved to Naples,<ref name="Braddon 2003">Template:Cite book</ref> leaving Mary and her mother alone. This created freedom for Braddon, who moved to the provinces in 1852. She was interested in the theatre and performance, and she began a career on stage.<ref name="Braddon 2003"/> Between the years 1852 and 1860, she spent most of her time travelling the provinces as an actress under the supervision of her mother.<ref name="oxfordscholarship.com">Template:Cite book</ref> She acted in a variety of dramas, for example; Shakespeare, pantomimes, comedies, burlesques, and topical dramas about India and the Crimea.<ref name="oxfordscholarship.com"/> Braddon also took roles in "some of the most famous melodramas of the period", including well-known plays such as Black-Eyed Susan and Charles Reade's new works, which would later be transformed into sensation novels. Despite her enthusiasm for and dedication to the theatre, she never had leading roles and due to it, she gradually transferred her energies to writing novels instead.<ref name="oxfordscholarship.com"/> Her acting career inspired her to later write plays and poetry.

In January 1864, Maxwell claimed that Braddon and Maxwell were not married.<ref name="Braddon 2003"/>

Partial list of fiction

Template:Columns-list Some bibliographical material in this incomplete list comes from Jarndyce booksellers' catalogue Women's Writers 1795–1927. Part I: A–F (Summer 2017).

Dramatisations

Several of Braddon's works have been dramatised, including:

• Aurora Floyd, by Colin Henry Hazlewood, first performed at Britannia Theatre Saloon, London, 1863.<ref name="ODNB">G. C. Boase, Megan A. Stephan, "Hazlewood, Colin Henry (1823–1875)", rev. Megan A. Stephan, (quoting The Britannia diaries, 1863–1875: selections from the diaries of Frederick C. Wilton, ed. J. Davis (1992)) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (accessed 3 December 2011).</ref>
• "The Cold Embrace", starring Jonathan Firth, BBC Radio 4, 2009.
• Lady Audley's Secret, by Colin Henry Hazlewood, first performed at the Victoria Theatre, London, 1863.<ref name="ODNB" />
• Lady Audley's Secret, starring Theda Bara, Fox Film Corp., 1915.
• Lady Audley's Secret, starring Neve McIntosh, Kenneth Cranham, and Steven Mackintosh, PBS Mystery! 2000.

Sources

• Template:Cite book
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• Diamond, Michael. Victorian Sensation. London: Anthem (2003) Template:ISBN, pp. 191–192

• Pamela K Gilbert Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Oxford University Press, 2011) (bibliography)
• Jessica Cox, ed. New Perspectives on Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, 2012)
• Marlene Tromp, Pamela K. Gilbert and Aeron Haynie, eds Beyond Sensation: Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Context (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000)
• Saverio Tomaiuolo In Lady Audley's Shadow: Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Victorian Literary Genres (Edinburgh University Press, 2010)

External links

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• Works at the Victorian Women Writers Project
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon's The Higher Life audiobook with video at YouTube
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon's The Higher Life audiobook at Libsyn