| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.75
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Making of a Marchioness (Persephone Book) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.75, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
The Bookseller August 2001
'Delightful...A sparky sense of humour combined with lively social commentary make this a joy to read.'
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
Frances Hodgson Burnett published The Making of a Marchioness in 1901. She had written Little Lord Fauntleroy fifteen years before and would write The Secret Garden in ten years time; it is these two books for which she is best known. Yet Marchioness was one of Nancy Mitford's favourite books, was considered 'the best novel Mrs Hodgson Burnett wrote' by Marghanita Laski and is taught on a university course in America together with novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Daisy Miller.
The first part, the original Marchioness, is a touching love story in the tradition of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and the second, called The Methods of Lady Walderhurst, is an absorbing melodrama. Whereas most novels end 'and they lived happily ever after', Part Two of this one, showing the sometimes unhappy 'after', is such a realistic commentary on late-Victorian marriage that Marghanita Laski also called it a 'cruel revelation of the nature of Edwardian high society'. Emily Fox-Seton, the heroine, 'a sort of Cinderella, a solid, kind, unselfish creature who arrives at a good fortune almost comic because it is in a sense so incongruous' (Frances Hodgson Burnett) is contrasted with Lady Agatha Slade, who has to marry well or be exiled to Ireland; and she is surrounded by people who do not wish her well because she has become a marchioness and may give birth to an heir. Unfortunately the second part of the book, the more melodramatic part, contains references to the ayah Ameerah which, although typical of the period, now seem politically uncorrect; however, as Isabel Raphael, writer of the Persephone Preface, points out, Emily dismisses these as ill-educated prejudice. Gretchen Gerzina, who is writing a new biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett and who has previously written about the Bloomsbury painter Carrington and about the black population of Britain in the eighteenth century, also points out in her Persephone Afterword, that - for better or worse - Frances Hodgson Burnett was very much part of her era and must be read with historical perspective. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read this story many years ago in an ancient Nelsons Classics edition with a nice woodcut at the front. I have reread it so often that the old book is falling apart, so I looked for a new copy and found to my surprise that what I had thought to be a private enthusiasm was widely shared-a great pleasure.
As many have said the story is melodramatic. Burnett was a more than competent writer and a marvellous observer of people and society. She makes her heroine frankly and explicitly stupid,but keeps our sympathy for her. (Incidently, contrary to what some reviewers state Emily Fox-Seton is handsome going on beautiful, as the woodcut illustrates.)
What makes the booke for me is her observation of society and people--from a middle-aged marquis to a lower-middle-class servant to a whole rural village. These are not saccharine portraits, but sharp and witty comments on the society of late 19th century Britain. You could write a useful social history of that time from this book.
The description of the plight of poor but genteel women before employment as other than servants was available is extremely touching. The disintegration of an aging aristocratic lady as she finds herself subject to ordinary human feelings for the first time for many years is very funny--and very moving.
Definitely a keeper!
JW
As many have said the story is melodramatic. Burnett was a more than competent writer and a marvellous observer of people and society. She makes her heroine frankly and explicitly stupid,but keeps our sympathy for her. (Incidently, contrary to what some reviewers state Emily Fox-Seton is handsome going on beautiful, as the woodcut illustrates.)
What makes the booke for me is her observation of society and people--from a middle-aged marquis to a lower-middle-class servant to a whole rural village. These are not saccharine portraits, but sharp and witty comments on the society of late 19th century Britain. You could write a useful social history of that time from this book.
The description of the plight of poor but genteel women before employment as other than servants was available is extremely touching. The disintegration of an aging aristocratic lady as she finds herself subject to ordinary human feelings for the first time for many years is very funny--and very moving.
Definitely a keeper!
JW
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read this book in my teens and owned a very old out of print copy. To see that Persephone had reprinted it was a glorious surprise and I read it once more as an adult and found that my enjoyment was still the same. A more unlikely couple of lovers you could not meet - a dull, prosaic Marquis bored by being pursued by society women, and Miss Emily Fox-Seton, who cannot be described in any way as young or beautiful or even interesting. She is however a good woman, living by her own endeavours and in similar circumstances to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a day, another Persephone gem, in that she is facing a frightening future on her own. I adore all of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's stories with their happy endings and alls well that ends well - yes, this is sentimental, yes it is Victorian, but it is delightful and each time I read it I am sorry that I have come to the end. The Indian ayah portrayed in this book is, of course, politically incorrect in today's climate, but the attitudes prevelant at the time must be borne in mind when reading in the 21st century. Some of the situations are contrived, but it is a lovely book and calling it a 'good read' though not an intellectual recommendation, sums it up beautifully.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Emily Fox-Seton is a well-bred woman who makes a living as a general dogsbody for rich, upper-class people with less breeding and good taste than herself. The novel was originally published in two parts. The first part is quite short, almost a novella, and ends with Emily marrying a rather dull marquis after a country house party in which her qualities of good humour,good taste and sympathy are shown to best advantage. It reminded me of the fairytale qualities of last year's Persephone bestseller "Miss Pettigrew lives for a day". The second part, which explores Emily's life after her marriage, has a decidedly different tone-almost melodramatic. Emily's joy in her good fortune leads her to try to help her husband's cousin and heir, Alec Osborn. Osborn is the villain of the piece, and when the Marquis goes off to India for a long period, Alec begins to plot his revenge for being excluded from the succession to the estate. The plot includes mysterious accidents narrowly averted and Alec's wife's mysterious Indian ayah gliding around the estate looking sinister. The claustrophobic atmosphere of suspicion is beautifully conveyed. I enjoyed all this while thinking it was quite a contrast to the almost Edith Wharton-like observations of society life in Part 1. The ending is very moving, and thoroughly satisfying. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoyed Hodgson Burnett's fiction for children. It has the same unsentimental flavour that made the Secret Garden a classic.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
excellent-a cosy treat
Curl up in front of the fire with something nice to drink and some nibbles and relax into this little gem of a book
Published 6 months ago by MS RUTH SHAW
A NON-BOOK
Having bought this book on the recommendation of a well known author in a magazine article, I was quite astonished to find that it finished at the marriage proposal - there were... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Lulubella
Delightful
As a child I had read Little Lord Fauntleroy and loved The Secret Garden but discovered this book only recently. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Suzie
An absolute find
I read and re-read The Secret Garden as a child, without any clue that Hodgson Burnett had written anything else, particularly not novels for adults. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Clever servants, clueless and helpless gentry
One thing that must be borne in mind about the Ayah's plotting and conniving is that a major arc of the novel is that the gentry in this tale are too dumb to live, and quite... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ruellia
A good read
I picked up this book at random as something to take on a long journey, read it and then liked it so much that I've sent copies to quite a few people, who have done the same. Read more
Published 18 months ago by AD
A great read
This book is a window into a world gone by. It is a quick and easy read - the kind of book to curl up in an armchair and enjoy - but that doesn't mean it is trivial or... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lizzie Dee
Escapist heaven
Beautifully readable froth! Only takes an hour or so to read. But a truly terrible piece of book production. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Tricky fan
Simply delightful!
A real comfort book - it never fails to cheer. The first part is the story of how the simply good Emily Fox-Seton carries off a huge matrimonial prize from under the noses of... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2009 by bookelephant
Good storyline - don't read the reviews below if you want to be...
Hodgson Burnett has a good character in Emily Fox-Seton. What happens to her is inevitable once we know the kind of woman she is and HB strives hard and long to explain to us what... Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2008 by aapjebaapje
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
