More tales of intrigue, horror and the world beyond Lovers of the Victorian fiction of Wilkie Collins know that to discover his female counterpart they need look no further than the works of Mary Elizabeth Braddon. She was a prolific author of the kind of dark melodrama much loved by her contemporary audience and her most renowned work, 'Lady Audley's Secret, ' has been often dramatised, filmed and, indeed, has never been out of print from the time of its original publication. Never was the accolade, 'The Queen of Sensation' so well deserved as it was by her. It is not unusual that a writer who produced so much material-and much of that with a flavour of the Gothic-should also turn her talents to the genre of supernatural and strange fiction, since there was much precedent for it among her literary peers and much appetite for it among the reading public. So it is, perhaps, unsurprising that this Leonaur collection of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's forays into the other worldly and bizarre runs to four substantial, satisfying volumes.
The entire, substantial novel, 'Gerard or The World, the Flesh and Devil'-originally published in two volumes-is accompanied here by one of Braddon's best short stories, and one that has appeared in many anthologies as an example of the finest stories of the genre, 'The Shadow in the Corner.' Braddon further establishes the reputation of women writers of her period as being the mistress's of the supernatural tale in the other three stories included in this volume-'Sir Philip's Wooing, ' 'The Scene Painter's Wife' and 'John Granger.'
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.