Without consulting anyone in her domestic sphere, further compromising

We end with a final relief image of Aurora Floyd fleeing by train She effectively prunes the critics, rather than allowing them to dictate her art. Taunting the critics by putting them in their place. Signature responses to their remarks in the novel itself, publicly Mary Elizabeth Braddon entertained her critics by posting The reader into her private life of bigamy, black-mail, murder, and Aurora Floyd experienced passionate emotions, drawing Using the framework of mystery and suspense to show women were more than Braddon crossed the boundary lines of predominant ideas, That 'pruned' women to be pure and chaste domestic 'angels' Structured in a male/female strata of behavior with a strict moral code The Victorian times in which Braddon lived were heavily Mary Elizabeth Braddon, through personal interviews and critical public The third cameo inspects the private life of author Over fashion and the parallels between female and equine fashion are In her life and her work, such as divorce law and bigamy, the debate Like other controversies that are present both Braddon, well-read and intelligent, would haveīeen versed in the controversies of the day surrounding both female andĮquine fashions, namely the corset for women and the curb-bit andīearing rein for horses. In Aurora Floyd Braddon addressesĬriticisms of the sensation novel head-on, using devices of allusion andĬharacterization to comment on contemporary literary discourses.Īnother cameo begins with Aurora Floyd's and Braddon’s mutual love of Sensation movement, and how she became its primary figurehead and, for The first cameo will look at Braddon’s close association with the Braddon’s life, much like aĬameo, consisted of more than “two layers of different colors,” andĬontained an “inner stratum” differently colored from the outer (“Cameo” OED).

Aspects of social spheres reached aįeverish pitch, as a hodgepodge of cultures and classes began buzzingīack and forth, crisscrossing each other on underground trains.Įach cameo will detail a specific “layer” or focus and how it relatesīoth to the novel and to Braddon’s life. Like Aurora,īraddon was a fashionable, “fast” young woman in the midst of the Though Aurora Floyd wasīranded 'an abomination' by its critics, the populace would send MaryĮlizabeth Braddon’s work soaring to unprecedented heights. What is presented here is a brief series of “cameos” on the sensational novel Aurora Floyd, serialized in Temple Bar between 1862-63.

Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon