The Literary Gothic | Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth

Extremely successful and prolific British "sensation" novelist (best known for Lady Audley's Secret), dramatist, short-story writer, and editor, as well as actress.

Sites:

The Mary Braddon Website

An excellent site for all things Braddon, including biographical and bibliographical information and several scholarly discussions, plus links and etexts. [Chris Willis]

Biographical note

Part of the Masterpiece Theater website for their production of Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters.

Biographical note

[Chris Willis, London Metropolitan U; Literary Encyclopedia]

Mary Braddon site

Biographical overview from the Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Collection.

Brief biographical note

Includes partial bibliography. [Wikipedia]

Brief biographical note

[Women of Brighton]

Mary Elizabeth Braddon Index

Part of the website of Sensation Press (a publisher and antiquarian bookseller specializing in Gothic and sensation fiction), this site features a number of excellent Braddon resources, including a biographical essay, photos, contextual information, and more.

Brief biographical note

[NNDB]

Brief biographical note

[John W. Cousins, A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910]

Braddon bibliography

Supernaturalist bibliography with book cover images. [Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Tartarus Press]

Bibliography

Includes brief biographical note. [FantasticFiction]

Brief newspaper article

Discusses a museum exhibition dealing with Braddon's life.[Richmond and Twickenham Times]

Braddon bibliography

[British Crime Writers List]

Braddon Hyper-Concordance

Part of the The Victorian Literary Studies Archive, this concordance allows you to search the etext of Lady Audley's Secret and other Braddon works.

click the cover image for more info from Amazon.com

Etexts:

"At Chrighton Abbey" [1871]

- at Chris Willis' site (79K)
- at BlackMask: HTML (72K) or PDF

"Eveline's Visitant"

- at BlackMask: HTML (24K) or PDF
- at HorrorMasters (PDF)

"The Cold Embrace"

First published in Welcome Guest magazine, September 29, 1860

- at Gaslight (22K)
- at BlackMask: HTML (21K) or PDF

"Good Lady Ducayne" [1869]

Braddon's (sort of) vampire story, recasting vampire supersitition in the context of mid-Victorian medical technology.

- at HorrorMasters (PDF, not printable)
- at Sacred Spiral )PDF, printable)
- at BlackMask: HTML this link opens a new window

or PDF

"John Granger"

First published in Belgravia magazine, 1871.

- at HorrorMasters (PDF)

Lady Audley's Secret (1862)

Perhaps Braddon's most famous novel, and the one that launched her writing career. It's been filmed four times, most recently in 2000; click the DVD cover image just below Braddon's image above to check it out.

- at BlackMask: HTML or PDF
- at Victorian Women Writers Project: Volume 1 (382K), Volume 2 (345K), Volume 3 (313K)
-- dramatic adaptation of Lady Audley's Secret by C. H. Hazelwood. [1863] (77K) [Gaslight]

"The Shadow in the Corner"

First published in All the Year 'Round in 1879. Victorian rationalism meets...well, something it has a hard time understanding, and that's before the ghost shows up....

- at Gaslight (50K)
- at BlackMask: HTML (46K) or PDF

Essays and Reviews:

[Mary Braddon and Sensation Fiction]

A substantial discussion of Braddon and her involvement in the tradition of sensation literature. [A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection, Michael E. Grost]

Review of The Literary Lives of Mary Elizabeth Braddon by Jennifer Carnell.

Reviewed by Mark Knight [New Books in 19th Century Studies, U Southern California]

Review of Beyond Sensation: Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Context, ed. Marlene Tromp et al (SUNY Press, 1999)

Reviewed by Carolyn Oulton [New Books in 19th Century Studies, U Southern California]

"The Trail of the Serpent"

Essay by Braddon in which she discusses her early literary efforts. [1897] (20K) [Gaslight]

"Sensation Novels"

A negative assessment of sensation fiction -- "sensation novels must be recognised as a great fact in the literature of the day, and a fact whose significance is by no means of an agreeable kind" -- from an 1863 review article in the British magazine Quarterly Review. [Karen Droisen, U Nevada - Las Vegas]