Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915)
Author of Lady Audley's Secret
About the Author
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, the daughter of a solicitor, was educated privately. As a young woman, she acted under an assumed name for three years in order to support herself and her mother. In 1860 she met John Maxwell, a publisher of periodicals, whose wife was in an asylum for the insane. Braddon show more acted as stepmother to Maxwell's five children and bore him five illegitimate children before the couple married, in 1874, when Maxwell's wife died. Braddon's most famous novel, Lady Audley's Secret (1862), was first published serially in Robin Goodfellow and The Sixpenny Magazine. One of the earliest sensationalist novels, it sold nearly one million copies during Braddon's lifetime. Its plot involves bigamy, the protagonist's desertion of her child, her murder of her first husband, and her thoughts of poisoning her second husband. The novel shocked and outraged her contemporary, Margaret Oliphant, who said Braddon had invented "the fair-haired demon of modern fiction." Throughout her long literary career, during which she wrote more than 80 novels and edited several magazines, Braddon was often excoriated for her penchant for sensationalizing violence, crime, and sexual indiscretion. Nevertheless, Braddon had many well-known devotees, among them William Makepeace Thackeray, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Braddon died in 1915. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON Ultimate Collection: Mystery Novels, Victorian Romances & Supernatural Tales: Lady Audley's… (2019) 4 copies
The Infidel 3 copies
Rupert Godwin 3 copies
The Works of Mary Elizabeth Braddon 2 copies
Like and Unlike 2 copies
Joshua Haggard's Daughter 2 copies
Asphodel 2 copies
The Complete Works of Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Murder Mystery Novels, Victorian Romances & Dark Fantasy Tales: Lady… (2019) 2 copies
A Strange World 1 copy
Only a Clod 1 copy
Wyllard's Weird, Volume 1 1 copy
All Along the River 1 copy
The White House 1 copy
Hostages to Fortune 1 copy
The Conflict 1 copy
To the Bitter End 1 copy
Only a Woman 1 copy
The Lady's Mile 1 copy
BRITISH MURDER MYSTERIES: The Greatest Thrillers of Mary Elizabeth Braddon: The Trail of the Serpent, Lady… (2019) 1 copy
Her Last Appearance 1 copy
Mohawks 1 copy
Belgravia: A London Magazine 1 copy
The Little Woman in Black 1 copy
An Open Verdict 1 copy
Taken at the Flood 1 copy
Lost for Love 1 copy
The Blue Lenses / Eveline's Visitant — Author — 1 copy
Il segreto di Lady Audley 1 copy
Associated Works
Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories (2010) — Contributor — 292 copies
The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published (2009) — Contributor — 186 copies
Dracula's Brood: Vampire Classics by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, M.R. James and Others (1987) — Contributor — 174 copies
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (2010) — Contributor — 149 copies
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: A Collection of Victorian Detective Tales (2008) — Contributor — 109 copies
In the Shadow of Agatha Christie: Classic Crime Fiction by Forgotten Female Writers, 1850-1917 (2018) — Contributor — 94 copies
The Darker Sex: Tales of the Supernatural and Macabre by Victorian Women Writers (2009) — Contributor — 49 copies
The Gentlewomen of Evil: An Anthology of Rare Supernatural Stories from the Pens of Victorian Ladies (1967) — Contributor — 28 copies
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Greatest Detective Stories: 1837-1914 (2019) — Contributor — 25 copies
Ladies of Horror: Two Centuries of Supernatural Stories by the Gentle Sex (1971) — Contributor — 24 copies
The Graphic Canon of Crime & Mystery, Vol. 2: From Salome to Edgar Allan Poe to The Silence of the Lambs (2021) — Contributor — 14 copies
A Serious Occupation: Literary Criticism by Victorian Women Writers (2003) — Contributor — 12 copies
Murder by Gaslight: Victorian Tales — Contributor — 3 copies
Duchy Zimowej Nocy 1 copy
Traditional British Mysteries: 30 Novels (Boxed Set) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Braddon, M.E.
- Legal name
- Braddon, Mary Elizabeth
- Other names
- White, Babington
- Birthdate
- 1835-10-04
- Date of death
- 1915-02-04
- Burial location
- Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, England, UK
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Place of death
- Richmond, Surrey, England, UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
- Education
- privately educated
- Occupations
- actor
novelist
short story writer
editor - Relationships
- Maxwell, W. B. (son)
- Short biography
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born in London and her parents separated when she was five years old. Mary worked as an actress to support herself and her mother. In 1860, she met John Maxwell, a publisher, and began living with him despite the fact that he was married with five children; his wife was in an asylum in Ireland. Mary acted as a stepmother to the children until 1874, when Maxwell's wife died and they were able to marry. They had six children together, including the future writer William Babington (W.B.) Maxwell. Mary was an extremely prolific writer, producing more than 80 novels and numerous short stories. In 1866, she founded Belgravia, a lavishly illustrated magazine that published serialized novels, poems, travel narratives, and essays on fashion, history and science.
Members
Discussions
June 2022: Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Monthly Author Reads (June 2022)
Victorian Q1 Read-Along: Lady Audley's Secret in Club Read 2022 (April 2022)
Group read: Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Virago Modern Classics (May 2020)
The Trail Of The Serpent by Mary Elizabeth Braddon - lyzard tutoring SqueakyChu in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (March 2015)
June: Reading Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Monthly Author Reads (June 2011)
Reviews
Lady Audley's Secret (Oxford World's Classics) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Brilliant! 10 stars, a more perfect sensational novel has not been written!
I enjoyed this Victorian ghost story by an author I knew nothing about. Thanks to Jack Wilson, host of "The History of Literature" Podcast.
This was a pretty fun book with plenty of Victorian soliloquies and dramatizations. Haha! Very typical 19th century sensation novel---oh, if only Jane Austen could have read it! We might have been treated to something inspired to rival Northanger Abbey in her old age. While I thought the "villain" ultimately deserved a lot worse than was doled out, I was satisfied overall with the ending.
OMG - where has Mary Elizabeth Braddon been all my life? She was a contemporary of Dickens, the precursor of Wilkie Collins, and (the foreward argues) instrumental in establishing the detective fiction genre - so you'd think her works would be more widely available. Alas, no - female writers of "sensational fiction" weren't taken seriously back in the 19th century and didn't fare much better in the 20th century, so her works (excepting her "Lady Audley's Secret") gradually passed out of print. Thank you, Modern Library, for bringing back this gem!
"The Trail of the Serpent" has everything you could want in a "sensational novel" of the Victorian era: foundlings, wastrels, prodigal sons, identical twins separated at birth, bigamy, greed, love, hate, secret marriages, murder, madness, depravity, alchemy, secret societies, abject poverty, egregious wealth, a mute detective (how's that for "woke"?), and practically every other melodramatic trope you can imagine, all tied together by the machinations of a gloriously clever, deliciously evil villain determined to do whatever it takes to rise from obscurity to the heights of European society.
Which could be a hot mess in the hands of a schlock, but make no mistake about it - Braddon can write! She's intelligent, witty, and a gifted storyteller. Yes, her plot is sensational, but it's also stuffed with biting social commentary, delicious satire/irony, and laugh-out-loud comedic set-pieces.
Kirkus Review calls this "exuberantly campy" and it's hard to improve on this as a two-word summary. But Trail of the Serpent isn't just fun; it marks an important transition from the sensational, serialized novels of the day to the more serious literary writing of Dickens and his ilk. So go ahead and read it for the fun, then boast about reading it for the literary cred!… (more)
"The Trail of the Serpent" has everything you could want in a "sensational novel" of the Victorian era: foundlings, wastrels, prodigal sons, identical twins separated at birth, bigamy, greed, love, hate, secret marriages, murder, madness, depravity, alchemy, secret societies, abject poverty, egregious wealth, a mute detective (how's that for "woke"?), and practically every other melodramatic trope you can imagine, all tied together by the machinations of a gloriously clever, deliciously evil villain determined to do whatever it takes to rise from obscurity to the heights of European society.
Which could be a hot mess in the hands of a schlock, but make no mistake about it - Braddon can write! She's intelligent, witty, and a gifted storyteller. Yes, her plot is sensational, but it's also stuffed with biting social commentary, delicious satire/irony, and laugh-out-loud comedic set-pieces.
Kirkus Review calls this "exuberantly campy" and it's hard to improve on this as a two-word summary. But Trail of the Serpent isn't just fun; it marks an important transition from the sensational, serialized novels of the day to the more serious literary writing of Dickens and his ilk. So go ahead and read it for the fun, then boast about reading it for the literary cred!… (more)
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 131
- Also by
- 68
- Members
- 4,523
- Popularity
- #5,547
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 148
- ISBNs
- 498
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 25
