B raddon, M ary E lizabeth

Abstract

Although Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) is far better known for her Sensation novels (see sensation fiction ), her supernatural and weird fiction has gained greater attention since the 1970s, despite the fact that an unevenness in quality marks her supernatural fiction, with that in short‐story form being the superior. Like Poe (see poe, edgar allan ) Braddon's finest efforts in supernatural fiction are short stories and novellas, as if brevity makes the otherworldly more convincing. Braddon experimented with varied themes in these works, often reminding readers of antecedent Gothic tradition. “The Dreaded Guest” ( Belgravia Christmas Annual , 1871) and “The True Story of Don Juan” ( Belgravia Christmas Annual , 1869) evoke themes of premature burial and, in the former, a supposedly dead man's ironic return to life. Braddon mutes gruesome details of burial alive, avoiding extended melodramatics. These stories neatly balance the supernatural or seeming supernatural with elements of utter reality. The latter story may allude to the Don Juan legend as filtered through Byron's fashioning of that lore, and both stories may also acknowledge Braddon's gratitude to Bulwer Lytton's advice and fiction (see bulwer lytton, edward ).