Braddon, Mary Elizabeth

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (1835-1915), English novelist who, along with Wilkie Collins, was one of the principal exponents of the sensation novel. She was born in Soho Square, London, and from the age of four was brought up by her mother, who had walked out on her husband, a dissolute solicitor. Later, in order to help support the family, Mary turned to acting, at the time still a disreputable profession for a woman. From 1857 to 1860 she performed in repertory under the stage name Mary Seyton, but her stage career was only moderately successful.

In 1860 Braddon was commissioned by the Yorkshireman John Gilby to write an epic poem about the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. At the same time she worked on her first novel, the melodrama Three Times Dead, influenced by G. W. M. Reynolds and Charles Dickens. The book drew little attention initially, but after Braddon had rewritten it as The Trail of the Serpent for the London publisher John Maxwell, it sold well. She went on to live with Maxwell for many years, until the death of his first wife allowed them finally to marry in 1874. They had six children together.

Braddon had her greatest success in 1861-1862 with the serialization of Lady Audley's Secret in Robin Goodfellow, a magazine of which Maxwell was the proprietor, and The Sixpenny Magazine. Afterwards the story was published in three volumes and quickly became a bestseller. Featuring a bigamous anti-heroine guilty of child abandonment, arson, and capable of murder, Lady Audley's Secret transposed the mysteries of the Gothic novel into a contemporary domestic setting to become one of the first sensation novels, establishing Braddon’s reputation.

Although she is chiefly known for Lady Audley’s Secret, Braddon’s output as a writer was prodigious. She produced over 80 novels and several plays, poems, and short stories. Her other novels include Aurora Floyd (1863), an English adaptation of Madame Bovary by Flaubert, The Doctor's Wife (1864), and The Rose of Life (1905), loosely based on the downfall of Oscar Wilde. Braddon’s popularity waned after her death, but there has been a revival of interest in her work since the 1990s.