The Octoroon; or, The Lily of Louisiana

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Jennifer Carnell (Introduction)

The Octoroon (1861-1862) is a lurid tale of race, slavery and crime. It was the second anonymous novel written by Braddon for a rare lower class magazine, and was published to coincide with the first British performance of Dion Boucicault's drama of miscegenation in the Southern states of America.Educated in Britain, Cora only learns the truth about her mother's slave origins, and her own legal position as an Octoroon, when she returns to her father's plantation in Louisiana. Reviving issues raised by Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin , Braddon also utilised contemporary theatre and her own experience as an actress to create a novel which has much in common with melodramas of the period.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

211 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1861

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

[Sainaz Farzana Kazi · Rating 5 out of 5]

read for my course.

[Jason Shaffner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such melodrama! This fast-paced novel overflows with plot (and exclamation points) but I loved it. There is ample discomfort in the language of slavery (such as the title) but this is solidly an abolitionist text -- ending with an overt plea from the author to end the practice, just as the American Civil War was beginning. As a story of intrigue, deception, dueling, attempted murder, and good vs. evil it was just a lot of fun. Now one must confess that I'm a Braddon fan but this was surely the quickest and most theatrical work of hers I have yet read.

[Leilani Serafin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this 5 stars because it was written by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, about whom I am writing a dissertation chapter. It's a 19th-century novel about "octoroons," so clearly I do not endorse its politics. I feel like it has interesting connections to "Lady Audley's Secret," though.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even by Mrs Braddon's standards (and that of the sensation novel in general) this is a lurid tale that reads like a Victorian hiss and boo melodrama. Highly entertaining if not a great work of art!

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

🖊 On the face of it, it turns out that The Octoroon; or, The Lily of Louisiana by British authoress Mary Elizabeth Braddon is a case for abolition. This is a smoothly written and fascinating novel about prejudice, misunderstandings, social classes, and relationships. I enjoyed reading this even though the writing style in some areas is laughably dramatic. (Readers need to remember the times.)

📕 Published in October 1861.

જ⁀🟢The e-book version can be found on the Project Gutenberg website.
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✧⋆˚₊˚⋆✧Excerpt of note:

🔺> "Alas," exclaimed Cora, her beautiful eyes filling with tears, "who could it be if it was not her? No, Mr. Percy. I have never known even the poor consolation of hearing people speak of my mother. Every time I have ventured to address my father on the subject, he has replied in harsh and cold tones that have chilled my heart. All that I could ever learn was that she died young, at New Orleans. I dared not speak upon a subject which caused my poor father such painful emotions.". . . here and there you would find a negro who could read and write, who generally received such instruction from their owner's or overseer's children. Simon was twenty-five and Elsie eighteen years of age, both having the same mother, Aunt Dinah, and the same white father

🔻 "I mean that your angel, your nymph, your goddess, your siren is—a slave." "A slave?" exclaimed Gilbert. "Yes. The African blood runs in those purple veins. The hereditary curse of slavery hovers over that graceful and queen-like head." "But her skin is fairer than the lily."

🔺 Nothing could be more complete than the contrast between the Spanish girl and the Octoroon. Both were beautiful—both had eyes of deepest black, but the orbs of Cora Leslie were soft and pensive, while those of Camillia Moraquitos flashed with the burning flames of a southern clime. Cora's oval cheeks were pale as the unsullied leaf of the water-lily; Camillia's glowed with a rich crimson blush, of that splendid hue, rarely seen save in the petals of the damask rose. But each had offended the pride of the planter, and he determined that each should pay a bitter penalty for having dared to prefer another. He told his suit and was rejected with scorn.

🔻 Cora, the Octoroon! Yes, the fatal word which branded this lovely and innocent being is contained in those three syllables. She was an octoroon, removed in the eighth degree from the African race, with a skin purely white as the tint of the lilies sleeping upon the lakes of her native Louisiana. One drop of the blood of a slave ran in her veins, poisoned her inmost life, and stamped her with the curse of Cain. She was an Octoroon!

[Niki (nikilovestoread) · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid fan of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, I'm happily reading my way through every book of hers that I've been able to get my hands on. The Octoroon; or, The Lily of Louisiana was originally published in The Halfpenny Journal: A Magazine for All Who Can Read from 1861-1862. The story is an anti-slavery melodrama. Of all the books I've read by Braddon, The Octoroon has been by far the most influenced by her past as an actress. As I was reading, I kept feeling like I could very easily see the story being performed as a play. In true British fashion, at least for the time period, the story ignores the fact that Britain had a hand in starting the slave trade in the United States. Both slave owners and those in bondage felt more like caricatures than fleshed out characters. While anti-slavery in tone and message, the story was still very racist in its characterization of Black people. I guess we can chalk that up to the work being a product of its time. I would not say The Octoroon is among my favorites by Braddon, but she always knows how to weave a story full of drama, intrigue, and villainy.