Mary Elizabeth Braddon was a prolific British author, best known for her sensational novels during the Victorian era. Born on October 4, 1835, she wrote over 80 novels throughout her career, but she gained widespread fame with her breakthrough novel Lady Audley's Secret (1862), which became one of the most popular sensation novels of the time. Sensation novels were a genre of Victorian fiction that mixed mystery, crime, and domestic drama with themes of deceit, hidden identities, and shocking secrets.