Editing Mary Elizabeth Braddon

{{Short description|English popular novelist (1835–1915)}}{{Infobox author
| name             = Mary Elizabeth Braddon
| image            = Mary Elizabeth Braddon.gif
| caption          = Portrait of Braddon, circa 1875
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1835|10|04}}
| birth_place      = [[Soho, London, England]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1915|02|04|1835|10|04}}
| occupation       = Novelist
| death_place      = [[Richmond, London|Richmond, Surrey]]
| notable_works    = ''[[Lady Audley's Secret]]'' (1862)<br>''[[Aurora Floyd]]'' (1863)
| genre            = [[Sensation novels]]
| years_active     = 1860—1910
| spouse           = [[John Maxwell (publisher)|John Maxwell]]
}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
'''Mary Elizabeth Braddon''' (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular [[Novelists|novelist]] of the [[Victorian era]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (Maxwell) |magazine=Who's Who |year=1907 |volume= 59 |pages=201–202 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA201}}</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 [[Company rule in India|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 Calvert|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">{{Cite book |author1=Kay Boardman |author2=Shirley Jones |title=Popular Victorian Women Writers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rt2YCL0HABAC&pg=PA189 |year=2004 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6450-0 |pages=189–190}}</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. {{ISBN|0879722339}}, 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>{{Cite web |date=2014-07-02 |title=Biography |url=https://maryelizabethbraddon.com/biography/ |access-date=2022-08-05 |website=Mary Elizabeth Braddon |language=en-GB}}</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|St. Bride's Church]] in [[Fleet Street]]. Braddon had six children by him: Gerald, Fanny, Francis, William, Winifred Rosalie, and Edward Herry Harrington.[[File:Richmond Cemetery, tomb of Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (Braddon).jpg|thumb|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 [[Women's Institute|Woman's Institute]] in 1923, of which she became the first president.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sensationpress.com/fannymargaretmaxwell.htm |title=Fanny Margaret Maxwell |publisher=Sensationpress.com |access-date=2013-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512041438/http://www.sensationpress.com/fannymargaretmaxwell.htm |archive-date=12 May 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

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

Braddon died on 4 February 1915 in [[Richmond, London|Richmond]] (then in Surrey) and is interred in [[Richmond Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Meller |first1=Hugh |last2=Parsons |first2=Brian |title=London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer |edition=fifth |year=2011 |publisher=[[The History Press]] |location=[[Stroud]], Gloucestershire |isbn=9780752461830 |pages=290–294}}</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 [[St Mary Magdalene, Richmond|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, London#Societies|Richmond Local History Society]], fourth edition, 2022. {{ISBN|978 1912 314034}}</ref>

==Work==
===Writing===
[[File:Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (née Braddon) by William Powell Frith.jpg|thumb|338x338px|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 [[Serial (literature)|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">{{Cite ODNB |title=Braddon [married name Maxwell], Mary Elizabeth (1835–1915), novelist |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-34962 |access-date=2023-05-25 |year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/34962 |last1=Mullin |first1=Katherine |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</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 (magazine)|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 [[Deals with the Devil in popular culture|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 (writer)|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, {{ISBN|1558622063}} pp. 80–83.</ref><ref>E. F. Bleiler (1983), ''The Guide to Supernatural Fiction''. Kent, Ohio: Kent State UP. {{ISBN|0873382889}} 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 (writer)|Mike Ashley]] and William Contento, ''The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird, and Horror Anthologies''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. {{ISBN|0313240302}} p. 134.</ref> Braddon also wrote historical fiction. ''In High Places'' depicts the youth of [[Cultural depictions of Charles I of England|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 [[Cultural depictions of Charles II of England|Charles II]].<ref name="jn" /> ''Mohawks'' is set during the reign of [[Cultural depictions of Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]].<ref name="jn" /> ''Ishmael'' is set at the time of [[Napoleon III|Napoleon III's]] rise to power.<ref name="jn" />

===Publishing===

Braddon founded ''[[Belgravia (magazine)|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)|Temple Bar]]'' magazine.

===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). [http://fwsablog.org.uk/2013/11/15/mary-elizabeth-braddon-association/ Retrieved 7 August 2014.]</ref>

==Partial list of fiction==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*''[[The Trail of the Serpent]]'' (first published as ''Three Times Dead'', 1861)
*''The Octoroon'' (1861)
*''The Black Band'' (1861)
*''[[Lady Audley's Secret]]'' (1862) also at [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8954 Project Gutenberg]. French: ''Le Secret de Lady Audley'' (1863)
*''Ralph the Bailiff and Other Tales'' (1862)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34542 John Marchmont's Legacy]'' (1862–1863)
*''The Captain of the Vulture'' (1863)
*''[[Aurora Floyd]]'' (1863) also at [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48020 Project Gutenberg (Vol.1)], [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48021 (Vol.2)], [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48022 (Vol.3)]
*''Eleanor's Victory'' (1863)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9189 Henry Dunbar: the story of an outcast]'' (1864)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35485 The Doctor's Wife]'' (1864)
*''Only a Clod'' (1865)
*''Sir Jasper's Tenant'' (1865)
*''The Lady's Mile'' (1866). French: ''L'Allée des Dames'' (1868)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9362 Birds of Prey]'' (1867). French: ''Oiseaux de proie'' (1874)
*''Circe'' (1867)
*''Rupert Godwin'' (1867)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9102 Run to Earth]'' (1868). French: ''La Chanteuse des rues'' (1873)
*''Dead-Sea Fruit'' (1868). French: ''Un Fruit de la Mer Morte'' (1874)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9259 Charlotte's Inheritance]'' (1868). French: ''L'Héritage de Charlotte'' (1874)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11720 Fenton's Quest]'' (1871)
*''To the Bitter End'' (1872)
*''Robert Ainsleigh'' (1872)
*''Lucius Davoren; or, Publicans and Sinners'' (1873). French: ''Lucius Davoren'' (1878)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17801 Milly Darrell, and other tales]'' (1873)
*''Griselda'' (1873, drama)
*''Lost For Love'' (1874)
*''Taken at the Flood'' (1874)
*''A Strange World'' (1875)
*''Hostages to Fortune'' (1875)
*''Joshua Haggard's Daughter'' (1876).<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Review of ''Joshua Haggard's Daughter'' |journal=The Athenæum |page=591 |issue= 2558 |date=4 November 1876 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0aM5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA591|last1=Buckingham |first1=James Silk |last2=Sterling |first2=John |last3=Maurice |first3=Frederick Denison |last4=Stebbing |first4=Henry |last5=Dilke |first5=Charles Wentworth |last6=Hervey |first6=Thomas Kibble |last7=Dixon |first7=William Hepworth |last8=MacColl |first8=Norman |last9=Murry |first9=John Middleton |last10=Rendall |first10=Vernon Horace}}</ref> French: ''Joshua Haggard'' (1879)
*''Weavers and Weft, or, In Love's Nest'' (1876)
*''Dead Men's Shoes'' (1876)
*''An Open Verdict'' (1878)
*''[[The Cloven Foot]]'' (1879), also at [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73931 Project Gutenberg]
*''Vixen'' (1879) ([https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26236 Vol.1])
*''Just as I am'' (1880)
*''Asphodel'' (1881)
*''Mount Royal'' (1882)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10905 Phantom Fortune]'' (1883)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9052 The Golden Calf]'' (1883)
*''Ishmael. A novel'' (1884)
*''Flower and Weed and other tales'' (1884)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50037 Wyllard's Weird]'' (1885)
*''Mohawks'' (1886)
*''One Thing Needful'' (1886)
*''The Good Hermione: A Story for the Jubilee Year'' (1886, as ''Aunt Belinda'')
*''Cut by the County'' (1887)
*''The Fatal Three'' (1888)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70938 The Day Will Come]'' (1889)
*''One Life, One Love'' (1890)
*''The World, the Flesh and the Devil'' (1891)
*[[The Venetians (novel)|''The Venetians'']] (1893)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57405 All Along the River]'' (1893)
*''The Christmas Hirelings'' (1894)
*''Thou Art The Man'' (1894)
*''Sons of Fire'' (1895)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9377 London Pride; or, When the World was Younger]'' (1896)
*''Good Lady Ducayne'' (1896)
*''Rough Justice'' (1898)
*''In High Places'' (1898)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71631 His Darling Sin]'' (1899)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50676 The Infidel]'' (1900)
*''A Lost Eden'' (1904)
*''The Rose of Life'' (1905)
*''The White House'' (1906)
*''Dead Love Has Chains'' (1907)
*''During Her Majesty's Pleasure'' (1908)
*''Our Adversary'' (1909)
*''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54247 Beyond These Voices]'' (1910)
}}
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|Britannia Theatre Saloon]], London, 1863.<ref name="ODNB">G. C. Boase, Megan A. Stephan, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12804 "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>
*''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nj7cx/ "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 (1915 film)|Lady Audley's Secret]]'', starring [[Theda Bara]], [[Fox Film]] Corp., 1915.
*''[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/programs/ladyaudley/ Lady Audley's Secret]'', starring [[Neve McIntosh]], [[Kenneth Cranham]], and [[Steven Mackintosh]], ''PBS Mystery!'' 2000.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite book |last=Beller |first=Anne-Marie |url=https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/mary-elizabeth-braddon/%20 |title=Mary Elizabeth Braddon: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction |location=Jefferson, NC |publisher=McFarland |year=2012}}
*{{Cite book |last=Bleiler |first=Everett |author-link=Everett F. Bleiler |title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature |location=Chicago |publisher=Shasta Publishers |page=58 |year=1948}}
*Diamond, Michael. ''Victorian Sensation''. London: Anthem (2003) {{ISBN|1-84331-150-X}}, pp.&nbsp;191–192
{{refend}}
*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==
{{wikisource author|Mary Elizabeth Braddon}}
{{Commonscat}}
*{{Commonscat-inline}}
*{{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/m-e-braddon}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=2957| name=Mary Elizabeth Braddon}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Mary Elizabeth Braddon}}
*{{Librivox author |id=9757}}
*{{OL author|2657571A}}
*[http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/search?smode=simple;rmode=none;style=;brand=general;field1=browse-creator;text1=BraddonMEMaryElizabeth18371915;browseText=Braddon%2C+M.E.+%28Mary+Elizabeth%29+%281837-1915%29;sort=creator Works at the Victorian Women Writers Project]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIH0kWmSt2A Mary Elizabeth Braddon's ''The Higher Life'' audiobook with video at YouTube]
*[https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/backofthebookshelf/id/7223972 Mary Elizabeth Braddon's ''The Higher Life'' audiobook at Libsyn]

{{Authority control}}
{{Mary Elizabeth Braddon}}

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