Mary Elizabeth Braddon

The Factory Girl (1863)

Edited by Bridget M. Marshall

Publication date:

Q1 2025

Length of book:

560 pages

Publisher

University of Wales Press

Dimensions:

234x156mm

ISBN-13: 9781837722495

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Factory Girl (1863) was a cheap serial intended for working-class readers. The sprawling plot centres on Laura Leslie and her daughter, Dora, who are the targets of a diverse cast of villains. After Laura’s tragic death, Dora and her adoptive mother start a new life working in a cotton mill, but Dora’s beauty attracts unwelcome attention, putting them in danger. Dora is the classic factory girl, a nineteenth-century revision of the Gothic heroine. Republished in the US in both newspapers and as a book, and translated into French, the novel has been out of print since the 1860s. This edition reproduces the original Halfpenny Journal text and illustrations, and adds a scholarly introduction placing the novel in numerous cultural contexts, including the rise of sensation fiction; nineteenth-century popular theatre; the transformation of the genre of the Gothic; and the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution.

List of Illustrations Introduction Chapter I. MAGDALEN LESLIE’S VOWS. Chapter II. CAST OFF. Chapter III. CAST ON THE MERCY OF THE WORLD. Chapter IV. DORA’S INFANCY. Chapter V. THE NEW FOREWOMAN. Chapter VI. THE ANONYMOUS LETTER. Chapter VII. THE ABDUCTION. Chapter VIII. DEATH RELEASES THE VICTIM. Chapter IX. JANE MARCHANT’S PURSUIT. Chapter X. RETRIBUTION. Chapter XI. THE PUNISHMENT OF GUILT. Chapter XII. MARTON LISBEL’S SUGGESTION. Chapter XIII. JANE MARCHANT FLIES FROM THE MENACED DANGER. Chapter XIV. THE MANUFACTURER’S SON DECLINES THE HONOUR OF AN ARISTOCRATIC ALLIANCE. Chapter XV. TRUE LOVE. Chapter XVI. JOHN FAVERSHAM TAKES HIS OWN COURSE. Chapter XVII. THE MANUFACTURER GIVES HIS CONSENT. Chapter XVIII. LUXBOROUGH CHASE. Chapter XIX. STEPHEN FAVERSHAM’S WOOING. Chapter XX. THE RETURN OF THE DESTROYER. Chapter XXI. BEFORE THE BRIDAL. Chapter XXII. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. Chapter XXIII. SIR LASCELLES TEMPLE THREATENS HIS VICTIM. Chapter XXIV. AN INTERVIEW IN PETER BORGRAVE’S OFFICE. Chapter XXV. THE SHADOW OF DOUBT. Chapter XXVI. THE MEETING IN THE MOONLIGHT. Chapter XXVII. CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE. Chapter XXVIII. A TERRIBLE RECOGNITION. Chapter XXIX. THE MEETING IN THE TWILIGHT. Chapter XXX. GASTON LAMORVILLE. Chapter XXXI. THE BRIDAL DINNER. Chapter XXXII. THE MEETING BY THE WATER. Chapter XXXIII. CAST AWAY. Chapter XXXIV. GASTON LAMORVILLE SUGGESTS A PLAN. Chapter XXXV. THE DUEL IN THE FOREST. Chapter XXXVI. THE PLEADING OF THE TEMPTER. Chapter XXXVII. A STRANGE RECOGNITION. Chapter XXXVIII. THE BEARER OF DISMAL TIDINGS. Chapter XXXIX. THE TEMPTER’S PLANS. Chapter XL. PLOTTING AGAINST THE PLOTTER. Chapter XLI. ROBERT FAVERSHAM’S SORROW. Chapter XLII. A SLOW RECOVERY. Chapter XLIII. DISGRACE AND DEATH. Chapter XLIV. RESCUED FROM THE RIVER. Chapter XLV. THE BARONET’S TREACHERY IS REVEALED. Chapter XLVI. IN THE SICK CHAMBER. Chapter XLVII. THE PLOT THICKENS. Chapter XLVIII. THE RETURN OF THE WANDERER. Chapter XLIX. CHICANERY VERSUS HONESTY. Chapter L. LADY OLYMPIA’S RESOLVE. Chapter LI. STEPHEN FAVERSHAM OVERHEARS A CONVERSATION. Chapter LII. THE ENCOUNTER IN THE WOOD. Chapter LIII. THE FACTORY GIRL FINDS HERSELF A PRISONER. Chapter LIV. THE FEVER DRAUGHT. Chapter LV. GASTON LAMORVILLE OBTAINS A NEW POWER OVER SIR LASCELLES TEMPLE. Chapter LVI. THE CLERK’S TEMPTATION. Chapter LVII. THE PEDLAR SEEKS SHELTER. Chapter LVIII. DORA’S RESOLVE. Chapter LIX. LAWRENCE GLYNDON SEEKS FOR THE MISSING GIRL. Chapter LX. THE PRICE OF CRIME. Chapter LXI. REGINALD LESLIE’S DREAM. Chapter LXII. MARGARET CAMPBELL’S SUSPICIONS REVEALED. Chapter LXIII. THE MURDERESS TREMBLES. Chapter LXIV. OLYMPIA’S DESPAIR. Chapter LXV. THE SURGEON BARTERS HIS HONOUR FOR A BRIBE. Chapter LXVI. THE FRENCHWOMAN SHOWS HERSELF IN HER TRUE COLOURS. Chapter LXVII. SEEKING FOR THE WANDERER. Chapter LXVIII. SETTING THE TRAP. Chapter LXIX. THE FOX FALLS INTO THE TRAP. Chapter LXX. THE FIRE IN OWLSNEST LANE. Chapter LXXI. BETRAYED ONCE MORE. Chapter LXXII. MR. SCADDER’S ADVICE. Chapter LXXIII. THE MURDERESS ESCAPES. Chapter LXXIV. THE SILENT MURDER. Chapter LXXV. THE DEATH SIGNAL. Chapter LXXVI. MAGDALEN LESLIE’S DOOM.