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Chapter 5 j en n i fer ph egl ey Mary Elizabeth Braddon (835–95) Mary Elizabeth Braddon was one of the most popular and prolific writers of the nineteenth century, though she was also one of the most controversial. In 865 Henry James crowned Braddon “the founder of the sensation novel,” a title that brought with it more ridicule than accolades.¹ Sensation novels were a genre of fiction that exposed the lurid underbelly of Victorian middle-class society by depicting criminal activities such as forgery, bigamy, and murder perpetrated by seemingly respectable citizens who were often women. Braddon, a major purveyor of this genre, was an obvious target for critics who defined good literature as moralistic and realistic and saw sensation fiction as a dangerous manifestation of immorality and outrageous situations. While the three best-selling English novels of the nineteenth century were sensational—Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (860), Ellen Price Wood’s East Lynne (86), and Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (862)—Braddon received the brunt of the critical uproar over the genre. The critical focus on Braddon was partly due to her precarious personal life, which alienated her from “polite” society. Braddon violated Victorian codes of proper femininity as an actress, writer, and mistress who was thrust into the spotlight when her books started selling in the thousands . Braddon’s unsavory critical reputation was compounded when she took on the highly public position as editor of her own literary magazine. At the height of Braddon’s popularity and power, she began a correspondence with Charles Kent (823–902), a journalist and reviewer who took Braddon’s work seriously and viewed it favorably. While Braddon would ultimately attain longevity and respectability as a novelist, Kent was one of the first critics to defend her early controversial work in the press, and he thus became a lifelong 88 | jennifer phegley friend and ally. Reproduced here are eighteen letters Braddon wrote to Kent during the 860s, 70s, and 80s. Mary Braddon was born in London on 4 October 835 to Fanny and Henry Braddon. Braddon’s father was a solicitor whose business endeavors were not as successful or as honest as her mother would have liked. As a result of Henry Braddon’s adultery and financial failure, he separated from his wife and family when Mary was a child. From the age of five, Mary and her older sister Margaret were brought up in a single-parent household (their brother Edward was sent to boarding school and shuttled between his mother and father on holidays). Financial difficulties caused the family to move frequently, though Fanny made sure that her daughter received whatever education was available and affordable and that she was brought up in a respectable middle-class home. When, at the age of seventeen, Braddon decided to support herself and her mother by taking up a career as an actress, her relatives must have been shocked.² To protect her family name, she adopted the stage name Mary Seyton, and to further mitigate any damage to her reputation, she was diligently chaperoned by her mother as she embarked on an eight-year career as an actress. During this time she also began writing, hoping to have her own plays performed on the stage. Though she was unable to break through as a playwright, Braddon found a patron in the eccentric and wealthy John Gilby, a man she probably met at one of her performances. With Gilby’s professional ties and financial support, Braddon was able to break into the publishing industry. Under Gilby’s guidance, Braddon turned her attention more fully to authorship, writing a volume of poems entitled Garibaldi. However, Gilby was a harsh taskmaster who, it seems, stifled Braddon’s creativity. Braddon found writing the long epic poem he requested a tedious task and soon discovered a more amenable direction for her work when she began writing a serial novel on the side. The novel, Three Times Dead, was published in the Beverley Recorder in 860. While this tale of murder, blackmail, and detection was not an immediate success, it intrigued publisher John Maxwell enough that he reprinted it under the title of The Trail of the Serpent a year later. In this guise the novel sold rapidly, spurred on, no doubt, by the success of Lady Audley’s Secret, which was simultaneously being serialized (from 6 July to 28 September 86) in Maxwell’s magazine Robin Goodfellow...

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