Yesterday I was able to finish The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett mostly in one day (started with a few pages on Monday). It was not entirely the book I was expecting, but nevertheless, delightful to make reading top priority for a day and to engage with a whole book all at once. At one point my husband and I went to a coffee shop just to get out of our apartment (we both had the day off) and then sat there at one table, two books up to our faces, two people silently reading together.
As to the story. It’s billed as a type of realistic romance, which it is, but there ends up being more than just that. I really love the cover of the Persephone Classics edition, pictured here. The painting is a perfect portrayal of ‘poor Emily Fox-Seton’ who ends up becoming very rich indeed. She is very sweet and simple, not quite a Forest Gump character, but definitely on her way in that direction. Despite the fact that you can’t help liking her (especially because Hodgson Burnett often refers to her as being a larger woman with big feet and still beautiful), I did wonder, is she being portrayed as the ‘angel in the house’ Victorian stereotype, that women are supposed to remain childlike and completely innocent and naive and unselfish and oh so cheerful and constantly working for others their whole lives??? At first it did seem that way. Her Marquis of a husband states that he chose her over much prettier younger girls because he’s selfish and she’s completely unselfish and won’t interfere with him. Maybe this is realistic for the time (and even for the present day?), but it’s certainly not doing women any favours to be seemingly encouraged to be idealized child-wives.
The book was originally written in two parts and published in magazines separately. The first half, Emily’s Cinderella story, is more often than not, the only part referred to when the ‘realistic romance’ is mentioned. The second part continues the story with Emily’s wedding and early married days. At first it seems to remain just a normal sweet little English story, but gradually it ventures into some very unexpected ground, that seems much more like a Victorian sensation novel! It reminded me of a cross between The Moonstone (nefarious meddling Indians out to steal something rightly British!) and The Turn of the Screw (Emily can’t believe anyone would try to harm her, but why do all these near-accidents keep happening? Can it really be true?) For a while it becomes almost eerie, Emily seems trapped in this beautiful English country house, pregnant, with her husband gone off on a business jaunt to India, while the people who would have inherited her husband’s estate if he hadn’t gotten married or if she hadn’t gotten pregnant, come back from India and scheme to get the inheritance anyhow…
Hodgson Burnett wanted to write the second half about undramatic people being involved in melodramatic situations, just as the first half had been about unromantic people in a romance, but past all the strange ‘scary people from India come to steal the inheritance’ plot, the drama and danger of the second half of the book provide Emily and her husband a chance to grow and mature and ultimately understand each other better. The ending brings balance to their relationship and some needed realism and depth to the character of Emily, as she begins to grow up and realize that not everyone is kind and good. The people who know her also see that they can’t endlessly take advantage of her kindness and simplicity. That was a better resolution for me, there are still people today who are what a self-help book would call ‘people pleasers’ like Emily who will happily do a lot for people, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have needs of their own, including the need to be seen as a more complete individual, not just a perfect servant of a little wife and mother. In this way, the story does have its own feminist overtones. Emily’s innocence is not ideal in the end, but simply the way she’s made the best of the society and time she lived in. She is flawed but still likable.
A few quotes:
She had not lived in a world where marriage was a thing of romance, and, for that matter, neither had Agatha… Even novels and plays were no longer fairy stories of entrancing young men and captivating young women who fell in love with each other in the first chapter and after increasingly picturesque incidents were married in the last one in the absolute surety of being blissfully happy for evermore. Neither Lady Agatha nor Emily had been brought up on this order of literature, nor in an atmosphere in which it was accepted without reservation.
Though she was not aware of the fact, her fears, her simplicity, and her timorous adoration of her husband had not allowed her to reason normally in the past. She had been too anxious and too much afraid.
There are a lot of nice descriptions in the book, of clothes and gardens and cozy rooms like this: “She was so thankful for the softness of her lavender-fragrant bed, and so delighted with the lovely freshness of her chintz-hung room.” To me it’s not quite the personal favourite The Secret Garden is, but it was nice to read another (less sentimental) book by the same author.
Now on to Mariana by Monica Dickens as Persephone Reading Week continues!
I’ve read the first part of The Making of a Marchioness (in another edition) and was charmed but in no way was I as immersed as I had been reading The Shuttle or my beloved Hodgson Burnett children’s books. Perhaps I need to read the second part! I am a huge fan of The Moonstone.
Hmm, well it’s not as well written as The Moonstone or even all that similar in plot, except, as I say, on the racism front, but the turn of events in the second half was so surprisingly melodramatic! I really didn’t expect it. What’s The Shuttle about? (I guess I could just read about it in the Persephone catalogue…)
An American woman who marries an English man, who is an abusive tyrant; her younger sister sails over from the States to save her, in a nutshell. It is a very addictive, engrossing story and I was captivated over Christmas a couple of years ago.
There’s an abusive husband in The Making of a Marchioness too, I read FHB had one of those herself for a while. I’m not sure I’m ready to jump into another story like that just yet, but who knows, I may eventually.
[...] of A Few of My Favourite Books reviewed The Making of a Marchioness, which she likens (in its second part) to both The Moonstone and The [...]
Feminist AND Victorian sensation overtones? I want it! Loved your review.
Well, it’s a strange book. I’m sort of debating about how feminist it really is, especially after seeing a more negative review of that side of it, but it does have hints of it, I think. And Frances Hodgson Burnett was herself quite a strong independent woman, supporting her family with her writing. I’d be interested to see what you make of it! (Actually now that I think of it, I’m wondering if Victorian sensation novels aren’t rather a feminist genre, for the time period… Lady Audley’s Secret, about a strong and unconventional woman. Woman in White, about women’s lack of power in a marriage and of course featuring Marian Halcombe. Sort of a way for writers to express critiques of their society? Just a thought!)
This is a really interesting review. I laughed when I read about you and your husband in the coffee shop!
My husband was reading the latest Chuck Palahniuk novel, about a 100 years more recent than good old Frances Hodgson Burnett, but at least he loves to read just about as much as I do!
I don’t think I’ve read anything by Frances Hodgson Burnett since Little Lord Fauntleroy (which was one of my favourite books as a child), but this books sounds very interesting (and menacing…) It seems to have a bit of everything. Nice review!
Thanks for coming by! I always thought Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess seemed a bit too sentimental for me, but I like The Secret Garden and she’s definitely an interesting author.
Sounds great, I´m glad you enjoyed it. I just looted this one from the library (their first and so far only Persephone) and am really looking forward to it.
Oh good, I’m glad you can find at least one Persephone! Sometimes libraries have them in non-Persephone editions, so it may take more looking title by title, but you never know.
Great review! I’ve added this to my to-reads list. I had no idea that Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote adult novels as well, and I’m interested to see how it plays out.
Thanks for pointing me to it
I just discovered your blog (which I love) through Persephone Reading Week. I think it is pretty telling about this book that I also compared the second half of it to Wilkie Collins.
Why thank you! I did see your review of it a few days ago and felt a little shock of surprise that you had written the same thing. Right now I’m waffling on how much I like it. I think the fact that Emily is so good and the scheming would-be-heir is so bad is partly what bugs me about it, although if I do reread it at some point, I’ll at least know what to expect!
[...] list. Thanks, Matt! The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This was reviewed by Carolyn at A Few of My Favorite Books. She says: “At first it seems to remain just a [...]