Lucy, Lydia and Lilith: Sensation Fiction, Painting, and Hair.

Abstract

In this paper I explore the relationship between Sensation fiction and Pre-Raphaelite painting manifestations through the multi-layered dialogue some paintings, especially Rosetti’s Bocca Baciata (1859), with two of the most popular Sensation novels: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) and Wilkie Collins’ Armadale (1864-6). This dialogue, I argue, was based on the depiction of women’s bodies and hair.