author
Bertha M. Clay
1865–1922
Best known as the pen name behind a huge stream of Victorian romance and sensation fiction, these novels captivated readers with secrets, love, class tensions, and dramatic turns of fate. The name became so popular that it outlived its original author and continued to appear on later works as a kind of publishing brand.
6 Audiobooks
A tragedy of love and hate : or, a woman's vow
by Bertha M. Clay
Loved and lost : or, A deadly secret
by Bertha M. Clay
A woman's trust; or, Lady Elaine's martyrdom : a novel
by Bertha M. Clay
Suffered in vain : or, A plaything of fate
by Bertha M. Clay
Margery Daw : A novel
by Bertha M. Clay
In love's hands : or, For her heart's sake
by Bertha M. Clay
About the author
Bertha M. Clay was the bestselling pen name associated with English novelist Charlotte Mary Brame, born in 1836. In the United States especially, the name became closely tied to serialized popular fiction and inexpensive editions that reached a wide mass audience.
Brame is best remembered for emotional, fast-moving stories of love, betrayal, hidden identities, and social difference. Her novel Dora Thorne was one of her most enduring successes, and the appeal of the Bertha M. Clay name was so strong that publishers kept using it after Brame's death in 1884.
Because of that, books issued under Bertha M. Clay were not all written by one person. The name functioned partly as a pseudonym and partly as a commercial label, which helps explain why it remained familiar to readers for decades.