“We regret to learn that Miss Braddon is out of her mind”: Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Life and Fiction

This article examines the relationship between experiences of mental ill health in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s life and the representations of insanity in her fiction. It discusses the response of the periodical press to the famous sensation novelist’s illness and disappearance from public view in 1869, which reveal the cultural stigmas around psychological distress and confinement in asylums, despite the prevalence of mental ill health in the period. Examples from a range of novels across Braddon’s career are discussed to trace the development of her literary treatment of “madness” and asylums. I contend that this representation becomes more informed and sensitive following her own experience of mental ill health. The article considers the place of the private lunatic asylum in the lives of the mid-Victorian middle classes, focusing particularly on Brooke House, the Metropolitan Licensed House in which it is suggested for the first time that Braddon may have been a patient. Previously unknown archival sources are examined for the first time in connection with Braddon’s research on psychological conditions and treatments as well as the Victorian press’s response to her illness in 1869.