Vixen: “Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea.”

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born in London on 4th October 1835. Braddon suffered early family trauma at age five, when her mother, Fanny, separated from her father, Henry, in 1840. When she was aged ten her brother Edward left England for India and later Australia. However, after being befriended by Clara and Adelaide Biddle she was much taken by acting. For three years she took minor acting roles, which supported both her and her mother, However, her interest in acting began to wane as she began to write. It was to be her true vocation. In 1860, Mary met John Maxwell, a publisher of periodicals. By the next year they were living together. The situation and the view from polite society was complicated by the fact that Maxwell was already married with five children, and his wife was under care in an Irish asylum. Until 1874 Mary was to act as stepmother to his children as well as to the six offspring their own relationship produced. Braddon, with a large and growing family, still found time to produce a long and prolific writing career. Her most famous book was a sensational novel published in 1862, ‘Lady Audley's Secret’. It won her both recognition and best-seller status. Her works in the supernatural genre were equally prolific and brought new menace to the form. Her pact with the devil story ‘Gerald, or the World, the Flesh and the Devil’ (1891), and the ghost stories ‘The Cold Embrace’, ‘The Face in the Glass’ and ‘At Chrighton Abbey’ are regarded as classics. In 1866 she founded the Belgravia magazine. This presented readers with serialised sensation novels, poems, travel narratives and biographies, as well as essays on fashion, history and science. The magazine was accompanied by lavish illustrations and offered readers an excellent source of literature at an affordable cost. She was also the editor of The Temple Bar magazine. Maxwell’s wife died in 1874 and the couple who had been together for so long were at last able to wed. Mary Elizabeth Brandon died on 4th February 1915 in Richmond and is buried in Richmond Cemetery. After her death her short story masterpieces would be regularly anthologised. But for the rest of her canon her reputation then went into decline. In the past decade her reputation and talent is once more being given the attention it so rightly deserves.

Genres: Classics, Romance, Fiction, 19th Century, British Literature, Audiobook, Historical

341 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1879

About the author

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She was an extremely prolific writer, producing some 75 novels with very inventive plots. The most famous one is her first novel, Lady Audley's Secret (1862), which won her recognition and fortune as well. The novel has been in print ever since, and has been dramatised and filmed several times.

Braddon also founded Belgravia Magazine (1866), which presented readers with serialized sensation novels, poems, travel narratives, and biographies, as well as essays on fashion, history, science. She also edited Temple Bar Magazine. Braddon's legacy is tied to the Sensation Fiction of the 1860s.

She is also the mother of novelist W.B. Maxwell.

Reviews

[Wealhtheow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Violet Tempest grows up in a happy household, the beloved only child of amiable and generous parents. She and her father spend their days riding and hunting through the old forest that surrounds their home, and Violet (called "Vixen" for her auburn hair and manner) is strong of heart and body, not intellectual but very sensible. The only possible flaw is that her best friend Rorie's mother, the ambitious Lady Jane, does not approve of their close friendship. But then Violet's father dies, throwing Violet into deep mourning and leaving her in the care of a foolish widow. Captain Winstanely first courts Violet, but she takes an immediate dislike to him, and so instead he marries her mother, Pamela. This marriage to a younger, poorer man encourages Pamela's worst aspects, her vanity and inability to stand her ground. She sinks into a mere diaphanous shadow in the household, while Violet and the Captain struggle against each other: the Captain trying to save money for himself through smart economies, Violet trying to maintain the old ways of her father (old but beloved servants, open handed generosity to the village, etc). Meanwhile, Rorie has given in to his mother and betrothed himself to Lady Mable. Eventually all comes out right: Mable finds a man whose ambition and interests match hers and breaks her engagement to Rorie, Rorie is free to marry Violet, and the Captain loses both his wife and her income and leaves the country to marry some other heiress.

It's all exceedingly pleasant and diverting, told with a wonderful mixture of light ironic humor and sincere good will. The descriptions of the Violet's forest are captivating, and her love for it is my favorite theme in this book. There's also a running question of the meaning and legacy of people's lives. Miss Skipworth devotes herself to creating a universal religion that will bring glory to her dying name; Lord Mallow to Ireland (though he couldn't bear to stay there more than few weeks out of the year), Lady Mable to writing immortal verse in order to prove she's worth more than other women. And there are the characters who seek more physical and immediate purpose: Pamela and the Captain to physical comfort and the notice of their peers, the Duke to growing gigantic turnips and cattle. Violet and Rorie, meanwhile, each suffer long periods of feeling idle and useless. It is only when they are together that their lives have meaning, and that is of a purely personal sort; they seek only to be happy with themselves, to feel that they've behaved well toward others and love someone worthy. It's a sweet turn on the idle rich, and I quite liked it. In fact, I liked this much better than Braddon's more famous and gothic work, Lady Audley's Secret. I think the writing here is at least as fine, but without all the annoying sexism.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vixen is not as sensational as some of M.E. Braddon’s work but it is still a gripping page-turner. In Violet Tempest (aka Vixen) we have a spirited heroine, something of a tomboy with a fiery temper and a vicious tongue (for those who deserve it) and she has a witty and withering way with her put downs. Indeed it is the humour that makes this book stand out from the many other Braddon novels that I have read. Some of the minor characters are comic creations of whom Jane Austen could be proud (though Vixen herself is far too outspoken and headstrong to be at home in an Austen novel). In the tradition of the sensation novel, there is a villain in the piece, but his behaviour is credible when compared with some of the genre’s evil rogues, and there are no remarkable coincidences or far-fetched plots that we fans of the genre sometimes have to swallow. A Victorian classic that deserves wider recognition.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful story of an impetuous young girl, the apple of her father’s eye, her relationship with a neighbor boy as they grew up together as playmates, and people surviving dysfunctional families. Not a mystery, like most of Braddon’s stories, but still full of times you just want to gnash your teeth at some of the choices, motives, and prejudices that are presented. First published in 1879. I listened to this as a free download from LibriVox.org.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5* Ughh. A predictable romance that goes on for boring-ever. I was irritated and bothered, and kept on listening (?!) - and the best bit, the mispronunciations of the amateur reader,(I wouldn't normally mention this out of respect for anyone willing to give their time to such a wonderful cause but this was beyond beyond)were such gems - my 2 favorites "invalid", as in ill, or unwell, was pronounced as if it were an "invalid" passport - oh I got chuckles out of that. But the best one was "antimacassar", which was pronounced "anti-massacre". Geez!It changed the whole tone of the story, and just may have been an improvement? *shakes head doubtfully*

Bright spot: the mention of Gypsies. Yes! I am coming across them everywhere.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of the best M.E. Braddon's novels, but I liked it anyway, especially the part in which the leading- character, Violet "Vixen" Tempest, goes away and the story gives space to other characters.
The plot is a very thin one: Violet, nicknamed Vixen because of her auburn hair, is in love with her old play-fellow Rorie, who's instead engaged to be married, against his own will, to his cousin Mable. On his mother's death-bed he swears to be faithful to this promise, so he can't break up with Mable and marry Vixen...
Readable.

[April Andruszko · Rating 3 out of 5]

an enjoyable read but a bit overlong for the plot. A really enagaging heroine. Beautiful descriptions of the New Forest

[Sobriquet · Rating 4 out of 5]

He had found he host's lively stepdaughter stonily indifferent to the Hibernian cause. She had said 'Poor things' once or twice, when he dilated on the wrongs of an oppressed people; but her ideas upon all Hibernian subjects were narrow. She seemed to imagine Ireland a vast expanse of bogs, chiefly inhabited by pigs.

'There are mountains, are there not? she remarked once; 'and tourists go there? But people don't live there, do they?'

'My dear Miss Tempest, there are charming country seats; if you were to see the outskirts of Waterford, or the hills above Cork, you would find almost as many fine mansions as in England'.

'Really?' exclaimed Vixen, with most bewitching incredulity; 'but people don't live in them? Now I'm sure you cannot tell me honestly that anyone lives in Ireland. You, for instance, you talk most enthusiastically about your beautiful country, but you don't live in it'

'I go there every year for the fishing.'

'Yes; but gentleman will go to the most uncomfortable places for fishing - Norway, for example. You go to Ireland just as you go to Norway.'

'I admit that the fishing in Connemara is rather remote from civilisation ---'

'Of course. It is at the other end of everything. And then you go into the House of Commons, and rave about Ireland, just as if you loved her as I love the Forest, where I hope to live and die. I think all this wild enthusiasm about Ireland is the silliest thing in the world when it comes from the lips of landowners who won't pay their beloved country the compliment of six months' residence out of twelve'.

After this Lord Mallow gave up all hope of sympathy from Miss Tempest.

I loved the character of Violet Tempest. I would put this into the genre of a drama with a romance sub-plot, it is less gothic than some other Braddon novels. It is certainly melodramatic at times, but good fun, and a cosy read that is more light hearted than some of her other works.

[Bettielee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure 3 stars is fair for a book I stayed up all night to read... but this is definitely a "sensational" Victorian novel. Everyone is just a little too full of their own sensibility. All Vixen does is mourn for her dead father and all Mama does is think of dress; if it be for weddings, funerals, traveling or if not her own gowns, those of other people. All Rorie does is hunt. So the characters are a little flatter than I'd like - even tho I really love Vixen's gumption and the way she sticks up to her monstrous step father. I didn't like the way that same gumption had her throw away her happiness, or mourn so excessively she couldn't go on with her life. But it did have me turning the pages, and I wondered how on earth it would all work out.

[Kari]

Not the best of her work. Readable for its vapidity, but pretty hum-drum. Possibly interesting for the character of Winstanely and the interesting...perhaps unreliable? perspective that the surrounding characters have of him? The Gothic/Bluebeard (see 2nd to last ch) Villain who is not one? Passion v. reason.

[Fiona Brichaut · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a spirited, independent and intelligent young woman, her search for love, life in the country, and how her freedom of action is hampered, in particular by her silly mother's new husband.

[T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet Victorian novel.