Good storyline - don't read the reviews below if you want to be surprised
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 that is. Melodrama and the gothic are both well-represented but the book is a good example of its type - the romantic novel.
Good but not outstanding - that's why it's a 4-star not a 5-star book.
There are better but it is worth a read. I'm sure I've come across the scene where the heroine walks over the moors to pick up some shopping before - just can't remember where....
Genteel spinster's fairytale ....
I was really looking forward to reading this and saved it up for a long afternoon on the sofa with a cup of tea. But somehow, I was a teeny bit disappointed. I loved The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, but hadn't read any of the prolific Frances HB's work for adults as so much of it is out of print.
The book is very oddly-structured. The first part is a very charming fairytale, as well as a caustic comment on the plight of unmarried women in Victorian society. Emily is bowled over by gratitude and relief when she receives a proposal from a stodgy marquis who doesn't love her, because he has rescued her from a terrifying descent into middle-age as a distressed gentlewoman. But the second part, which is high Victorian melodrama, seems to have been tagged on as something of an afterthought. (The author admitted that she hadn't thought it through as a whole.) Though I suppose it is also a caustic comment on the plight of heirs presumptive whose great expectations (and those of their wives) can so cruelly be blighted!
I'm sure Frances HB had great fun writing it but it reads as though she knocked it off in something of a hurry!
Sharp-edged romance
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
An unlikely couple
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.
Splendid story
One can only say "Aaaahhh" when this book is over. It is a gloriously readable book with well-rounded characters but very little story. There is no "darker side" in the first third, up until the Marchioness in question gets her proposal.
The major part of the book has a dark side which is easily dealt with (by packing them off to India) and true love wins out in the end!
Of course, as one would expect from the author, the novel is sentimental and (occasionally) over-simplified, but if you let all of the trials of the 20th (and 21st) century glide off you, you have a rather pretty tale from an idealised 19th and it is rather fun.
Worth reading for its 'Cinderella' start and its 'Snow White' ending.
