Definition
Sensation fiction was the leading genre of the 1860s into the 1870s. It was both wildly popular and critically denigrated. Most sensation fiction was originally serialized in weekly or monthly magazines, often with formulaic plots involving domestic scandals and mystery. Sensation fiction drew on pre-existing genres such as the Gothic and, as popular fiction, drew criticism for its mass production. Although it had prominent male contributors, the genre was widely associated with women writers and a female readership.
Introduction
Sensation fiction was the leading genre of the 1860s into the 1870s. It was both wildly popular and critically denigrated. The most famous female authors of sensation fiction (then and now) are Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Ellen (Mrs Henry) Wood. Their Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) and East Lynne (1861), respectively, formed, alongside Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White(1860), a triumvirate of sensation novels which dominated the literary market...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Anon. 1864. The perils of sensation. Saturday Review 18 (471): 558–559.
Beller, Anne-Marie. 2013. Sensation fiction in the 1850s. In Cambridge companion to sensation fiction, ed. Andrew Mangham, 7–20. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Broughton, Rhoda. 2010. Cometh up as a flower, ed. Pamela K. Gilbert. Peterborough: Broadview.
E. B. 1874. The sensation novel. The Argosy 18: 137–143.
Mansel, Henry. 1863. Sensation novels. Quarterly Review 113 (226): 481–514.
Maunder, Andrew, ed. 2004. Varieties of women’s sensation fiction: 1855–1890. Abingdon: Taylor and Francis.
Oliphant, Margaret. 1867. Novels. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 102 (623): 257–280.
Palmer, Beth. 2011. Women’s authorship and editorship in Victorian culture: Sensational strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Phegley, Jennifer. 2005. Domesticating the sensation novelist: Ellen Price Wood as author and editor of the Argosy Magazine. Victorian Periodicals Review 38 (2): 180–198.
Sala, George Augustus. 1867. The cant of modern criticism. Belgravia 4: 45–55.
Wood, Ellen. 2006. East Lynne. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3322/3322-h/3322-h.htm
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ifill, H. (2019). Sensation Fiction. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_18-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_18-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02721-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02721-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities