An early work by one of the most popular authors of Victorian suspense, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, 'The Cold Embrace' is gothic tale of young love, betrayal and tragic consequences...
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00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:30 The Story begins
00:29:20 Credits, thanks and further listening
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) was born in London. She was privately educated, although her childhood was disrupted by her parents' separation when she was five years old. Her older brother Edward emigrated aged 16, and later became Premier of Tasmania. She worked as an actress in her early 20s, and was successful enough to support her mother and herself, before turning to writing fiction. She had an early success with 'Lady Audley's Secret' (1862), one of the best known of the "sensation novels" which were hugely popular in the mid-Victorian era and she is most closely associated with that genre. It's the work for which she is best remembered today and has never been out of print. In addition, she also wrote a number of supernatural short stories, the best known of which include 'The Cold Embrace', 'At Chrighton Abbey' and 'The Shadow in the Corner' (also available to listen to on this channel).
Braddon married John Maxwell (1824-1895), a publisher and property developer, in 1874, although they were in a relationship and living together for more than a decade prior to this. At the time they met in 1860, he had a wife who was confined to a mental asylum in Ireland. Braddon and Maxwell had six children together, including Fanny Margaret Maxwell, Gerald Melbourne Maxwell (who became an actor) and William Babington Maxwell, a successful novelist and playwright. The family lived in Richmond, Surrey, where a number of the streets are named after characters in her fiction (thanks to her property developer husband).
'The Cold Embrace' is one of Braddon's earliest published stories, having first appeared in 'The Welcome Guest' in September 1860.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2022.
24 июл 2024
