Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. She is best known for her 1862
sensation novel
The sensation novel, also sensation fiction, was a literary genre of fiction that achieved peak popularity in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s.I. Ousby ed., ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'' (1995) p. 844 Its literary forebears i ...
''
Lady Audley's Secret
''Lady Audley's Secret'' is a sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon published in 1862. John Sutherland. "Lady Audley's Secret" in ''The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction'', 1989. It was Braddon's most successful and well-known novel. ...
'', which has also been dramatised and filmed several times.
Biography
Born in
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
, London, Mary Elizabeth Braddon was privately educated. Her mother Fanny separated from her father Henry because of his infidelities in 1840, when Mary was five. When Mary was ten years old, her brother
Edward Braddon
Sir Edward Nicholas Coventry Braddon (11 June 1829 – 2 February 1904) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Tasmania from 1894 to 1899, and was a Member of the First Australian Parliament in the House of Representatives. Bradd ...
left for
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and later
Australia, where he became
Premier of Tasmania
The premier of Tasmania is the head of the executive government in the Australian state of Tasmania. By convention, the leader of the party or political grouping which has majority support in the House of Assembly is invited by the governor of ...
. 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 took up writing novels.
Mary 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. On 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". Mary 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
Edmund Selous (14 August 1857 – 25 March 1934) was a British ornithologist and writer. He was the younger brother of big-game hunter Frederick Selous. Born in London, the son of a wealthy stockbroker, Selous was educated privately and matricul ...
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.
The second eldest son was the novelist
William Babington Maxwell
William Babington Maxwell (1866–1938) was a successful British novelist and playwright.
Early life
Born on 4 June 1866, William Babington Maxwell was the son of novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Irish businessman John Maxwell. Th ...
(1866–1939).
![Richmond Cemetery, tomb of Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (Braddon)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Richmond_Cemetery%2C_tomb_of_Mary_Elizabeth_Maxwell_%28Braddon%29.jpg)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon died on 4 February 1915 in
Richmond (then in Surrey) and is interred in
Richmond Cemetery
Richmond Cemetery is a cemetery on Lower Grove Road in Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. The cemetery opened in 1786 on a plot of land granted by an Act of Parliament the previous year. The cemetery has been expande ...
. Her home had been Lichfield House in the centre of the town, which was replaced by a block of flats in 1936,
Lichfield Court
Lichfield Court, in Richmond, London, consists of two Grade II listed purpose-built blocks of flats. Designed by Bertram Carter and built in fine Streamline Moderne style, it was completed in 1935.
Lichfield House
Lichfield Court is built o ...
, now listed. She has a plaque 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
Braddon was a prolific writer, producing more than 80 novels with inventive plots. The most famous is ''
Lady Audley's Secret
''Lady Audley's Secret'' is a sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon published in 1862. John Sutherland. "Lady Audley's Secret" in ''The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction'', 1989. It was Braddon's most successful and well-known novel. ...
'' (1862), which won her recognition and a fortune as a bestseller.
It has remained in print since its publication and been dramatised and filmed several times.
R. D. Blackmore's anonymous sensation novel ''
Clara Vaughan
''Clara Vaughan'' is a sensation novel by R. D. Blackmore, who was later to achieve lasting fame for another romantic novel, ''Lorna Doone''. ''Clara Vaughan'', his first novel, was written in 1853 and published anonymously in 1864. It remains i ...
'' (1864) was wrongly attributed to her by some critics.
Braddon wrote several works of supernatural fiction, including the
pact with the devil
A deal with the Devil (also called a Faustian bargain or Mephistophelian bargain) is a cultural motif exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, as well as being elemental to many Christian traditions. According to t ...
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
Augustus Montague Summers (10 April 1880 – 10 August 1948) was an English author, clergyman, and teacher. He initially prepared for a career in the Church of England at Oxford and Lichfield, and was ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1908. He ...
'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 Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
.
[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.
Braddon founded ''
Belgravia
Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dang ...
'' 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.
There is a critical essay on Braddon's work in
Michael Sadleir
Michael Sadleir (25 December 1888 – 13 December 1957), born Michael Thomas Harvey Sadler, was a British publisher, novelist, book collector, and bibliographer.
Biography
Michael Sadleir was born in Oxford, England, the son of Sir Michael ...
'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.
/ref>
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
*
*
* 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
*
*
*
*
*
*
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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braddon, Mary Elizabeth
1835 births
1915 deaths
Writers from London
English people of Cornish descent
Victorian novelists
Victorian women writers
English women novelists
English horror writers
Women historical novelists
English historical novelists
Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period
Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age
19th-century English women writers
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English writers
Women horror writers
Burials at Richmond Cemetery