Manifestations of gothic in “A sombra da morte” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Abstract

The fictional genre sensation novel emerged in the 1860s in England with the publication of three novels: The Woman in White (by Wilkie Collins published between 1859 and 1860), East Lynne (by Ellen Wood, published between 1860 and 1861) and Lady Audley’s Secret (by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, published between 1861 and 1862). Braddon became known as one of the leading authors of sensation novels, a genre that incorporated hitherto unusual themes into Victorian fictional narratives, such as murder and bigamy relationships. In this article we will analyze a short story by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, which has terror as a noted characteristic, the result of a historical period in which the gothic, the morbid and the cult of sensations returned to the cultural scene in the 19th century. The idea of the terrible, one of the main sources for the sublime according to the philosopher Edmund Burke, is present in the short story “A sombra da morte” as it is intended to be demonstrated.