Susan Ferrier (1782–1854)
Författare till Marriage
Om författaren
Foto taget av: R. Thorburn
Verk av Susan Ferrier
Scottish Forgotten Authors: Marriage, Gillespie, Ringan Gilhaize (Scottish Lost Treasures) (2014) 7 exemplar
Marriage : Volume 1 1 exemplar
Marriage : Volume II 1 exemplar
The Inheritance : Volume I 1 exemplar
The Inheritance : Volume II 1 exemplar
The Novels of Miss Ferrier: Marriage Vol. 1 1 exemplar
Associerade verk
The Other voice : Scottish women's writing since 1808 : an anthology (1988) — Bidragsgivare — 9 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Vedertaget namn
- Ferrier, Susan
- Namn enligt folkbokföringen
- Ferrier, Susan Edmonstone
- Födelsedag
- 1782-09-07
- Avled
- 1854-11-05
- Begravningsplats
- St. Cuthbert's Cemetery, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Kön
- female
- Nationalitet
- UK
- Födelseort
- Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Dödsort
- Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Bostadsorter
- Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Utbildning
- privately educated
- Yrken
- novelist
- Relationer
- Scott, Sir Walter (friend)
- Kort biografi
- Susan Edmonstone Ferrier was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the daughter of James Ferrier, principal clerk of the Court of Session and a colleague of Sir Walter Scott, and his wife Helen. Susan was privately educated. From her early years, she knew many notable Edinburgh intellectuals and writers, including Scott and novelist Henry Mackenzie. In 1797, her father took her to visit Inveraray, home of his client and patron John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll. She became a friend of the family, especially of a granddaughter, Charlotte Clavering, with whom she corresponded. After her mother died, Susan kept house for her father. Her first novel, Marriage, was written in 1810 and published anonymously in 1818 to great success. Her publisher paid £1000 for her second novel, The Inheritance (1824). Her third novel, Destiny or The Chief's Daughter, appeared in 1831. All three combined sarcastic humor, wit, and vivid accounts of Scottish social life of the period, as well as the author's sharp views on marriage and female education. She dedicated her last novel to Sir Walter Scott, who was her lifelong friend and admirer. She visited him at Ashiestiel Farm and House on the River Tweed in 1811 and at his new house Abbotsford in 1829 and 1831. Her account of the visits was published posthumously in the magazine Temple Bar (1874).
Medlemmar
Diskussioner
Group read: Marriage by Susan Ferrier i Virago Modern Classics (februari 2016)
Recensioner
Listor
Priser
Du skulle kanske också gilla
Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 14
- Även av
- 1
- Medlemmar
- 362
- Popularitet
- #66,319
- Betyg
- 3.6
- Recensioner
- 9
- ISBN
- 47
- Språk
- 1
I can see why she is compared to Austen, although it does her a disservice, because no one can truly match Austen for wit and economy of language. Still, Ferrier paints amusing enough portraits. I suspect that a 19th-century reader would have found much more to laugh at than I did. My chuckling moments were rather far between.
This is a tale of two generations. Lady Juliana marries for love and regrets it (because she expects to always be wealthy, pampered and amused). Her husband takes her from England to his native Scotland, and she HATES it. One of the funniest scenes in the book is her introduction to the bagpipe, and her husband's family's total confusion at why she would be frightened of such an innocuous thing. As soon as she can leave, she does, but not before bearing twin daughters. She mildly approves of one baby and is actively disgusted by the cries and ill-health of the other. Her sister-in-law, a kindly, rational, loving woman, begs to be allowed to raise the second daughter as her own, and thus the households are split.
Fast-forward about 18 years. Mary (the second daughter) has grown up into a well-adjusted, sensible, pretty girl with a sense of humor. When she goes to England to meet her long-estranged mother and sister, she's in for some rude shocks. They are cold and selfish. Mary's only ally is her cousin Emily, an honest though sometimes short-tempered girl who speaks her mind and comes to admire Mary, even though she doesn't always agree with her.
The novel examines the effect various behaviors and choices in marriage have on a person's happiness. Some love-marriages are unsuccessful, but some mercenary marriages are equally so. Mary watches and measures these different situations against the upbringing she had in Scotland, before finally engaging herself to a man that offers her every chance at a loving and rational happiness.
I liked Mary very much, I liked that she wasn't a stupid heroine, and that she was often said to laugh. She is very religious, but not judgmental of other people, and she isn't gullible or overly sentimental most of the time.
What kept me from liking this book more was that key moments of drama were glossed over. For instance, the moment when she and her suitor become engaged takes up... a couple of sentences. In fact, from that moment on there's not one line of dialogue between them. Not very satisfying. I recognize, of course, that the purpose of fiction has changed somewhat over time. Where we now expect to be entertained and to feel every feeling of our heroine, in the past the narrative's larger purpose was to illustrate lessons or broad commentary on life.
There were also whole chapters that introduced characters that were non-essential to the plot and never appeared again. Clearly, they fit into the theme of the novel, but a modern reader grows impatient with them.
I liked that the chapters were quite short (although the book itself was long), and Susan Ferrier is much more readable than Jane West (another female Georgian author from a couple of decades prior, whom I read last month). There was less moralizing and more story. But most of the time she doesn't approach the sharp prose of her neighbor to the south, Jane Austen.… (mer)