Blackwell Reference Online

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In 1865 the critic W. F. Rae denounced Mary Braddon for being able to “boast of having temporarily succeeded in making the literature of the Kitchen the favourite reading of the Drawing room” ( Rae 1864 : 204). What was this “literature of the Kitchen” that, according to Rae, was welcomed by “the lowest in the social scale, as well as in mental capacity”? How can it help us understand the sensation fiction of the drawing room? Braddon herself goes some way to answering these questions in her novel about the dangers of reading, The Doctor's Wife ( 1864 ). Set initially in 1852, we meet Mr Sigismund Smith … a sensation author. That bitter term of reproach, “sensation,” had not been invented for the terror of romancers in the fifty-second year of this present century; but the thing existed nevertheless in divers forms …. Sigismund Smith was the author of about half-a-dozen highly-spiced fictions, which enjoyed an immense popularity amongst the classes who like their literature as they like their tobacco – very strong. Sigismund had never in his life presented himself before the public in a complete form; he appeared in weekly numbers at a penny … ( Braddon 1864 in King and Plunkett 2005 : 306) While publishing The Doctor's Wife in a drawing-room shilling monthly, Braddon was also appearing “in weekly numbers at a penny” and even less (see Carnell 2000 ). The creator of Sigismund ... log in or subscribe to read full text