Abstract
Hatter examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1870s sensation fiction and the changing relationship between crime, genre, gender, class, and the periodical press. Focusing on Taken at the Flood (1874), The Cloven Foot (1879), ‘Dr. Carrick’ (1878), and ‘Mr. and Mrs. de Fontenoy’ (1870), the chapter examines how Braddon updates the representation of the position of women and criminal activities of her 1860s sensation fictions in line with the changing historical context of the first Married Women’s Property Act (1870). The chapter then considers how Braddon uses fraud and white-collar crime to emphasize male middle-class criminal strategies and ingenuity, highlighting their wider impact on society. The chapter concludes by considering syndication of Braddon’s work in provincial newspapers, which gained her a wider geographical and social readership for her warnings about white-collar crime.
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Works Cited
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Hatter, J. (2020). Forging a New Path: Fraud and White-Collar Crime in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1870s Fiction. In: Gavin, A., de la L. Oulton, C. (eds) British Women's Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, Volume 2. British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840-1940, vol 2. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38528-6_17
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