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.

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 Mary was five. When Mary was ten years old, her brother Edward Braddon left for India and later

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, 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 took up writing novels. Mary met

John Maxwell (1824–1895) John Maxwell (1824–1895) was an Irish businessman, publisher and property developer in London. He is known for his weekly magazines containing fiction and gossip aimed at a working-class audience, which he ran while also cultivating upmarket re ...

, 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 St Bride's Church is a church in the City of London, England. The building's most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672 in Fleet Street in the City of London, though Wren's original building was largely gutted by fire d ...

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

. 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 Wyke Castle is a residence at the top of Pirates Lane, in Wyke Regis, near Weymouth, Dorset, England. It was built around 1855 and has been a Grade II listed building since 1974. It now forms three separate dwellings. History Wyke Castle was bui ...

, 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 (1866–1939). Richmond Cemetery, tomb of Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (Braddon)

Richmond Cemetery, tomb of Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (Braddon)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon died on 4 February 1915 in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

(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, 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'' (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 Richard Doddridge Blackmore (7 June 1825 – 20 January 1900), known as R. D. Blackmore, was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the nineteenth century. He won acclaim for vivid descriptions and personification of the ...

's anonymous sensation novel '' Clara Vaughan'' (1864) was wrongly attributed to her 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. 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. 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 Colin Henry Hazlewood (1823– 31 May 1875) was an English playwright. Hazlewood became a low comedian on the Lincoln, York and western circuits. In 1850, he wrote and produced at the City of London Theatre a farce entitled ''Who's the Victim?'' ...

, 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 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 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