M. E. Braddon

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. 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.

Braddon met John Maxwell (1824–1895), a publisher of periodicals, in April 1861 and moved in with him in 1861.Victor E. Neuburg, ''The Popular Press Companion to Popular Literature'', Popular Press, 1983. , pp. 36–37. 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". 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.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.

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. 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.

Work

Writing

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. 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.

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.

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". 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). Braddon also wrote historical fiction. ''In High Places'' depicts the youth of Charles I.Jonathan Nield (1925), ''A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales.'' G. P. Putnam's Sons, pp. 60, 68, 82 and 108. ''London Pride'' focuses on Charles II. ''Mohawks'' is set during the reign of Queen Anne. ''Ishmael'' is set at the time of Napoleon III's rise to power.

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.

Legacy

There is a critical essay on Braddon's work in Michael Sadleir's book ''Things Past'' (1944).

In 2014 the Mary Elizabeth Braddon Association was founded to pay tribute to Braddon's life and work.Feminist & Women's Studies Association (UK & Ireland)
Retrieved 7 August 2014.
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Partial list of fiction

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.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).
*
"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.
*''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.

References

Sources

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*Diamond, Michael. ''Victorian Sensation''. London: Anthem (2003) , 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 ProjectMary Elizabeth Braddon's ''The Higher Life'' audiobook with video at YouTubeMary Elizabeth Braddon's ''The Higher Life'' audiobook at Libsyn

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braddon, Mary Elizabeth
1835 births
1915 deaths
19th-century English women writers
20th-century English women writers
Burials at Richmond Cemetery
English horror writers
English people of Cornish descent
Victorian novelists
Victorian women writers
English women historical novelists
British women horror writers
Writers from the City of Westminster
Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period
Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age
People from Soho
English women short story writers
19th-century English novelists
19th-century English short story writers
Victorian short story writers
19th-century pseudonymous writers
Pseudonymous women writers
Sensation novelists
19th-century English poets
English women poets
Victorian poets
19th-century English actresses
English stage actresses
Writers from Surrey
20th-century English novelists