Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Her eldest daughter, Fanny Margaret Maxwell (1863–1955), married the naturalist Edmund Selous on 13 January 1886. Braddon had six children by him: Gerald, Fanny, Francis, William, Winifred Rosalie, and Edward Herry Harrington. Mary acted as stepmother to his children until 1874, when Maxwell's wife died and they were able to get married at St. In 1864, Maxwell tried to legitimize their relationship by telling the newspapers that they were legally married 'however, Richard Brinsley Knowles wrote to these papers, informing them that his sister-in-law and true wife of Maxwell was still living, thereby exposing Braddon's 'wife' status as a façade'. While Maxwell and Braddon were living as husband and wife, Crowley was living with her family. However, Maxwell was already married to Mary Ann Crowley, with whom he had five children. Mary met John Maxwell (1824–1895), a publisher of periodicals, in April 1861 and moved in with him in 1861. Adelaide noted that Braddon's interest in acting waned as she took up writing novels. They were only playing minor roles, but Braddon was able to support herself and her mother.

Mary worked as an actress for three years, when she was befriended by Clara and Adelaide Biddle.

When Mary was ten years old, her brother Edward Braddon left for India and later Australia, where he became Premier of Tasmania. Her mother Fanny separated from her father Henry because of his infidelities in 1840, when Mary was five. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret, which has also been dramatised and filmed several times.īorn in Soho, London, Mary Elizabeth Braddon was privately educated. Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. Mary Elizabeth Braddon by William Powell Frith, 1865

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon