Milly Darrell

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret which won her both recognition and a fortune as a bestseller. It has remained in print since publication and has been dramatised and filmed several times. After a brief career on the stage, Braddon became a prolific writer, producing over 80 novels and numerous short stories with inventive plots, some in the genre of supernatural fiction. She also founded Belgravia magazine in 1866 which presented readers with serialised sensation novels together with poems, travel narratives and biographies, as well as articles on fashion, history and science, accompanied by plentiful illustrations. She also edited Temple Bar magazine. This story was first serialised in Belgravia magazine from November 1870 to January 1871, and is reprinted here from the text taken from "Milly Darrell and Other Stories," published in Asher's Collection of English Authors British and American, Emile Galette, Paris, 1873.