| 'Producing Beyond Sensation at a
time when Braddon criticism could benefit from some
reshaping and updating allows this collection to be
labeled "groundbreaking." And there are many excellent
essays, including Gilbert's on Braddon's negotiation of
the two genres of sensationalism and realism, particularly
in Joshua Haggard's Daughter; Tabitha Sparks's
discussion of how representations of women, such as Isabel
Sleaford in The Doctor's Wife, are limited by
similar negotiation of genres (in this case,
sensationalism, realism, and sentimentalism); Toni
Johnson-Woods's interesting
and entertaining piece on Braddon's popularity in
Australia in the 1870s,
1880s, and 1890s; and Carnell & Law's useful research
on Braddon's publication
in British provincial weeklies beginning in the early
1870s. As a result, Beyond Sensation will have a
strong influence on the future
direction of Braddon criticism.'
Molly Youngkin, California State University, Dominguez Hills Review in Women's Writing, 8:2 (2001) 339-42 |
| 'Law and.Jennifer Carnell, in the longest
of the contributions, offer what is effectively an
over-view of her whole later career in their study of her
relationship with the newspaper syndication agencies and
of the
financial and artistic implications of her punishing
writing schedule. Amongst
their useful factual information is a table ... giving all
the known details
of her newspaper serialization from 1876 to1901.' Helen Debenham, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Review in Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 26:3 (2002) 192-4 |
| 'In addition to focusing on readings of
Braddon's best-known novels, the collection also explores
the status of her literary output within the cultural
marketplace. Toni Johnson Woods's essay on Braddon's
representations of Australia and her reception there is
packed with interesting background on publishing history,
as is the important essay by Jennifer Carnell and Graham
Law on the serialization of Braddon's novels in local
journals and newspapers.' Ann Cvetkovich, University of Texas at Austin Review in Victorian Studies 45:3 (Spring 2003) 547-9 |
| 'Graham Law and Jennifer Carnell offer the
only collaborative essay in the collection, a discussion
of their research into Braddon's relationship with the
provincial weeklies that reveals a firm command of the
material. It includes thorough analysis of the motives
that give rise to Braddon's choice of different genres
at different times in her life.' Carolyn Oulton, Canterbury Christ Church University College Review in USC English Department's Webpages New Books in Nineteenth-Century British Studies |
| Emma Liggins, Edge
Hill College Several citiations in 'Her Mercenary Spirit: Women, Money and Marriage in Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 1870s Fiction', Women's Writing 11:1 (2004) |
| 'The book's most important
essay is by Graham Law and Jennifer Carnell, whose
argument is based
in part on the information generated by Law for his Serializing
Fiction in the Victorian Press. Casting doubt on the
easy elision of 1860s
sensation fiction with lowerclass reading which is so
often made by others
who write about Braddon (including several in this
volume), "'Our Author':
Braddon in the Provincial Weeklies" persuasively argues
that "In the 1860s
there is a sharp cleavage in Braddon's fiction between
those novels aimed
at the popular market for penny and shilling dreadfuls and
those issued
in the middle-brow monthlies and for the circulating
libraries" (140).
It was not, Law believes, the famous early books such as Lady
Audley's Secret and Aurora Floyd which had
broad class readership but
the books after 1873, when syndication made it possible
for Braddon to enjoy
the income from weekly publication in the provinces
"without compromising [a book's] status for the libraries
or the reviewers" (140).' Sally Mitchell, Temple University Comments in Review Essay 'Reading Class', Victorian Literature and Culture 33:1 (March 2005) 331-339 |