Mary Elizabeth Braddon

04 October 1835 - 04 February 1915

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.

Full profile

Connections

Connections Sort descending	Author name	Excerpt
Literary responses	Mrs Alexander	Early critic Helen Black found Her Dearest Foe to be quite absorbing. Black, Helen C. Notable Women Authors of the Day. D. Bryce, 1893. 64 Later critic Muriel Smith argues that its claims rest on its significant contribution to the development of detective fiction, rather than...
Literary responses	Georgiana Chatterton	Henry Fothergill Chorley in the Athenæum wrote that this work had come from the pen of an amiable and accomplished lady and that it could only be described as an amazing production. Athenæum. J. Lection. 1879 (1863): 566
Literary responses	Ouida	In a Book Buyer article of January 1897, American novelist and short story writer Stephen Crane called this novel Ouida's Masterpiece and a song of the brave. He particularly liked the character Cigarette, a figure...
Literary responses	Ethel M. Dell	In response to a compliment on her writing EMD replied, they are not well written and will never be called classics. qtd. in Dell, Penelope. Nettie and Sissie. Hamish Hamilton, 1977. 129 Highbrow journals at her death were careful not to praise. The Times Literary...
Literary responses	George Eliot	Lewes , who wrote that if the book was not a hit I will never more trust my judgement in such matters, Eliot, George. The George Eliot Letters. Editor Haight, Gordon S., Yale University Press, 1954–1978, 9 vols. 3: 10 was vindicated when printing after printing was called for (15,000 copies...
Occupation	Constance Smedley	Since the Langham Place Group had provided a social space for women in 1860, several organizations had already challenged the flourishing institution of men's clubs. The Lyceum Club came on the scene at a time...
Occupation	Honoré de Balzac	Mary Russell Mitford translated some of Balzac's works. His oeuvre influenced many writers, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon , Storm Jameson , and Natalie Clifford Barney , and has attracted criticism from Anita Brookner .
Occupation	Queen Victoria	Not all of QV 's subjects were pleased with the idea of the Jubilee, however. Some were sceptical of the uncritical commercialization which played such a large role in the festivities. In Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Occupation	Gustave Flaubert	One of the great practioners of literary realism, he shifted the European novel significantly towards naturalism. His influence ranged far, from literary friends such as Émile Zola to writers in English, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Publishing	Charlotte Riddell	CR 's next publishers, Tinsley Brothers , had close ties to the circulating libraries and provided a real boost to her career. Their biggest recent success had been Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's Lady Audley's Secret...
Publishing	Mary Angela Dickens	MAD published Miss Braddon at Home, her interview with Mary Elizabeth Braddon , in The Windsor Magazine: For Men and Women. Dickens, Mary Angela. “Miss Braddon at Home”. The Windsor Magazine: For Men and Women, Vol. 6 , No. 33, Sept. 1897, pp. 415-18. 415-18
Publishing	Thomas Hardy	TH 's first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, was rejected in turn by Macmillan (after reading by Alexander Macmillan and John Morley ), by Chapman and Hall (after reading by George Meredith
Publishing	Beatrice Harraden	BH had her first short story accepted for Belgravia (formerly edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ) after Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine had declined it. Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/. She went on to publish other contributions to Blackwood's; even by...
Reception	Ellen Wood	The stage versions of East Lynne have been analysed critically in recent works such as E. Ann Kaplan 's Motherhood and Representation. Like many of the popular novelists of the period, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Reception	Sarah Waters	SW calls this book on the one hand a homage to the sensation novels of Braddon and Wilkie Collins , on the other hand a reflection of 1990s excitement over the concept of queer. Writing...

Timeline

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Texts

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Lady’s Mile. Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1866, 3 vols.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Octoroon. Editor Carnell, Jennifer, Sensation Press, 1999.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Rose of Life. Brentano’s, 1905.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Rose of Life. Hutchinson, 1905.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. The Trail of the Serpent. Ward and Lock, 1861.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, and Sarah Waters. The Trail of the Serpent. Editor Willis, Chris, Modern Library, 2003.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Thou Art the Man. Simpkin, Marshall, 1894, 3 vols.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Three Times Dead. W. M. Clark, 1860.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Vixen. J. and R. Maxwell, 1879, 3 vols.