Forging a New Path: Fraud and White-Collar Crime in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1870s Fiction

Hatter, Janine

Abstract

Janine 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', 'The Cloven Foot', ‘Dr. Carrick’ and ‘Mr. and Mrs. de Fontenoy’, the chapter examines how Braddon updates her 1860s sensation fiction’s representation of the position of women and criminal activities in line with the changing historical context of the first Married Women’s Property Act (1870). The essay then considers how Braddon uses fraud and white-collar crime to emphasise 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, gaining her a wider geographical and social readership for her warnings about white-collar crime.

Citation

Hatter, J. (2020). Forging a New Path: Fraud and White-Collar Crime in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1870s Fiction. In A. E. Gavin, & C. W. de la L. Oulton (Eds.), British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, Volume 2: 1860s and 1870s (265-278). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38528-6

• Online Publication Date: Aug 27, 2020
• Publication Date: Aug 27, 2020
• Deposit Date: Dec 14, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 22, 2023
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 265-278
• Series Title: British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840–1940
• Series ISSN: 2523-7160
• Book Title: British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, Volume 2: 1860s and 1870s
• Chapter Number: 17
• ISBN: 978-3-030-38527-9
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38528-6
• Keywords: Mary Elizabeth Braddon; sensation fiction; crime; genre; gender; class; the periodical press
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4482876