(This novel is about a shocking murder cut short a blossom...)
This novel is about a shocking murder cut short a blossoming romance between beautiful young heiress Sibyl Higginson and her cousin Brandon Mountford. When Mountford, an epileptic subject to seizures and memory loss, awakened near a bloody corpse, he was forced to escape to avoid execution for the crime.
(Lady Audley’s Secret was published in 1862. The story fol...)
Lady Audley’s Secret was published in 1862. The story followed a beautiful and cunning young woman named Helen Taboys. In public, Helen appears to be socially graceful and charming, but underneath, evil lurks. Believing that she had been abandoned by her husband who had been away for an extended period of time, Helen altered her identity, becoming Lucy Graham. As Graham, she seeks employment as a governess. When a wealthy older man named Audley proposes, she accepts, keeping her other marriage a secret. However, suspicion soon follows as her first husband returns and searches for her. Complications ensue as the new husband’s nephew turns out to be Lady Audley’s first husband’s best friend. In an effort to cover her tracks, Lady Audley pushes the nephew down a well, and torches the hotel where her first husband is staying. Truth prevails, however, as the nephew is saved, the husband survives the fire, and Lady Audley is committed to an insane asylum.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon was an English author and writer. She was a popular novelist of the Victorian era.
Background
Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born on 4 October 1835, in London, United Kingdom. She was the daughter of Henry Braddon, solicitor, of Skirdon Lodge, Cornwall, and sister of Sir Edward Braddon, prime minister of Tasmania.
While her family was middle class, her parents’ separation would cause havoc on their finances. After the divorce, Braddon’s father drifted in and out of her life, rarely supporting the family financially.
Education
Braddon was privately educated.
Career
In an effort to take care of her mother, Braddon took to the stage in the late 1850s, making a name for herself as an actress in a time when women were not readily accepted in theater productions. In the early 1860s, Braddon left acting to pursue writing. In fiction, she saw the potential for more money, and this served as her sole motivation for the change in career paths. Still concerned about taking care of her mother, Braddon would quickly become a prolific writer whose literary output was not only voluminous but popular.
Her first novel, Lady Audley, that was published in 1862, became an instant success, both with critics and the public. While it was controversial in subject matter, dealing with bigamy, murder, and madness, it nonetheless struck a chord with readers. Within three months of its first publication, Lady Audley underwent eight reprintings and made Braddon an overnight sensation. While people disagreed on whether or not her fate was fair, for many, according to Morris, Lady Audley represented “the archetypal feminine victim of hypocrisy and chauvinism, condemned for her independence and intelligence.”
Braddon would capitalize on her early success, publishing numerous works in rapid succession over the course of her career. She is credited with not only shaping the modem crime novel but with domesticating it as well, taking murder from the slums into Victorian homes, and making the murderer young, female, and of the Victorian era.
Not only was Braddon able to produce work under strict deadlines, but she was also able to produce stories that the public craved. While Braddon herself recognized that her writing could have been better had she made time for rewrites and polishes, she nonetheless received much critical, as well as public, praise. In addition, for much of her career, Braddon experienced periods of wealth and fame. While career success came easy, personal security was less easily attained.
In 1866, Braddon slowed her hectic work pace, publishing an average of two novels per year. While she owed much of her success to the crime novel she had helped shape, she also experimented with various other genres, always finding some degree of success.
While she continued writing after her husband's passing, in 1895, she was much less prolific in these later years. In 1915, at the age of seventy-nine, Braddon died.
Braddon was fascinated with the concepts of good and evil, and they became themes throughout her work, often creating moral paradoxes. She was also interested in the wicked side of beauty, as illustrated in the character of Lady Audley.
Braddon’s writing style was considered fresh and powerful, and full of sensationalism. Always knowing what the public wanted, she delved into various subjects, including fraud, kidnapping, and blackmail. While the only off-limit topic was sex, much of her writing was laced with sexual tension.
Personality
Part of the reason for Braddon's incredible literary output was Braddon’s fears of financial destitution. The monetary stresses from childhood never fully left her.
Quotes from others about the person
“Flouting the unwritten rule that no lady should earn a living on the stage was Braddon's first act of social defiance.” - Virginia B. Morris
“Braddon saw writing as a business rather than an art, and it was a business at which she had few equals.” - Virginia B. Morris
Connections
In 1861, Braddon met and fell in love with a man named John Maxwell. The problem was that Maxwell was already married. While his wife had been institutionalized for many years, it would have been unacceptable for the two to publicly profess their love for one another. Therefore, they kept their love affair under wraps for the better part of thirteen years, having four children together during those years. Those who did know about the ongoing affair were highly critical of Braddon for her boldness. She was socially ostracized, and her work received a great deal of criticism that often included overt references to her personal life.
In 1874, Maxwell’s wife passed away and he and Braddon were finally able to marry. They did so later that year, consummating what would become a lifelong partnership encompassing work, finances, and a deep love for one another. They had four children. Her son, W. B. Maxwell, afterwards becoming known as a clever novelist and newspaper correspondent. Maxwell passed away in 1895, devastating Braddon.