SOURCE: “The Wickedness of Woman: M. E. Braddon and Mrs. Henry Wood,” in The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s, Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 106-36.

In the following essay, Hughes discusses the role of the sinful woman in the works of Braddon and her contemporary, Mrs. Henry Wood.

I.

“My own Edgardo!—and you still love me? You still would marry me in spite of this dark mystery which surrounds me? In spite of the fatal history of my race? In spite of the ominous predictions of my aged nurse?”

“I would, Selina”; and the young man passed his arm around her yielding waist. The two lovers gazed at each other's faces in unspeakable bliss. Suddenly Selina started.

“Leave me, Edgardo! leave me! A mysterious something—a fatal misgiving—a dark ambiguity—an equivocal mistrust oppresses me. I would be alone!”

“Ah!—what if he...