In the latter years of the nineteenth century, Mary Elizabeth Braddon was one of the best known, and best-selling, authors of the day. Arnold Bennett described her, in 1901, as 'part of England', and wrote that while some might know of Hardy or Meredith, EVERYONE knew of Miss Braddon. Her best-known work was undoubtedly LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET (1862), a melodramatic tale of bigamy, madness, desertion, and murder which catapulted its author to the forefront of the literary world. In the years which followed she turned out dozens of novels and scores of short stories, in addition to editing two of her husband's publications: the monthly magazine BELGRAVIA and the Christmas annual THE MISLETOE BOUGH. Amongst Miss Braddon's prodigious output were many tales of the supernatural and the weird, scattered throughout her collections of short stories and her magazine appearances; but the scarcity of these tales has led to all but a handful being overlooked by anthologisers. Richard Dalby has collected together eighteen of Miss Braddon's finest tales of the uncanny, all of which demonstrate her mastery of the form and show why she was one of the best-selling authors of her time. In his extensive introduction, Dalby also takes a thorough look at a fascinating woman, who lived through hardship and scandal to become a respected and much-loved literary figure.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Victorian ghosts at their chilling best,
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This review is from: The Cold Embrace and Other Ghost Stories (Hardcover)
Mrs. Braddon had a positive genius for writing ghost stories. This collection is a pleasure. The stories are arranged chronologically from 1860 to 1896.
There are ghosts that come to say farewell, ghosts that give warnings, a ghost in the form of a sinister shadow, ghostly hunters, a coach full of ghosts, an island of ghosts, a particularly oppressive ghost that is "a hideous indistinctness," and a ghost that turns out to be all too human. Several stories are more horrible than ghostly, hinging upon some diabolical wickedness. Sometimes there's no hope of escape from a grim fate. But other times romance blossoms in the very face of evil, and a lover saves the day. Above all, no one surpasses Mrs. Braddon at describing the awful sensations of an overnight guest in a haunted room. Her characters, good and evil, are wonderfully drawn. My favorites in this collection are a young man feverishly addicted to Arctic exploration, a sun-scorched colonel just back from the Punjab who doggedly tracks down a missing friend, and a very old woman who will do almost anything to prolong her life. I love the richly literate style of accomplished Victorian writers like Mrs. Braddon, so deeply observant of human nature. In The Cold Embrace, Mrs. Braddon is at her best. She holds the reader captive from the very first sentence of every story. Lovers of classic Victorian ghost stories will not want to miss this collection. The introduction by Richard Dalby gives a good, concise overview of Mrs. Braddon's life and work.
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