Susan Ferrier allowed six years to pass between the release of her well-liked novel of manners, Marriage, and Inheritance, another anonymously published story that focused on the romantic choices of young women. She had worked on the novel at Morningside House, outside of Edinburgh, where her father spent the summer season. Her desire to conceal her activity was made difficult by the closeness of her surroundings, but her skill at characterization triumphed, causing Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine to proclaim the novel “a hundred miles above Marriage.” Marked by what critic George Douglas labeled “an interesting and admirably compact plot, and a vigorous literary style,” the novel proved just as popular, if not more, than its predecessor.

Containing references to works by Shakespeare and classical Greek writers, its emphasis on the importance of the wisdom of literature reflects Ferrier’s own beliefs. She also uses the drama format of those writers to structure her highly dramatic romance, interchanging the tragic with the farcical.

The plot premise is based on the sacrifice, in the name of love, of the Honourable Thomas St. Clair, the youngest of the Earl of Rossville’s five sons, described as a man of “weak intellects and indolent habits.” Because he married below his rank to “the humble Miss Sarah Black, a beautiful girl of obscure origin and no fortune,” he sacrifices his inheritance, which, upon his father’s death, was directed to pass to St. Clair’s children, should he have any. The eldest brother assumes the earl’s title and estate. St. Clair and his wife spend some time in France, and eventually, due to three brothers’ deaths, he stands next in line to inherit his brother’s estate and title.

Neither he nor his remaining brother have produced any children, when suddenly Mrs. St. Clair announces her pregnancy. St. Clair decides to take her to Scotland, his brother having agreed to meet with him. However, she goes into premature labor during the journey and delivers a daughter, Gertrude, which “although born in the seventh month . . . was a remarkably fine thriving baby, which Mrs. St. Clair, contrary to the common practice of mothers, ascribed entirely to the excellence of its nurse.” Those accustomed to reading romances note the signal that something is not quite right in this situation, which foreshadows later disaster. Thus, the family never returns to Scotland.

The novel’s second chapter opens with Mrs. St. Clair widowed and Gertrude having blossomed into a beautiful girl. Through the coincidence shared by romance novels of the day, they end up sharing housing with the aging and now single Lord Rossville. Members of the earl’s household recognize a strong resemblance of Gertrude to Lizzie Lundie, a beauty of low birth who once sat for a painting that hangs in the castle. Comments regarding the resemblance upset Mrs. St. Clair, who seemingly interprets them as slurs on her husband’s character. In actuality, she knows something of Gertrude’s birth that she declines to share with her daughter and is revealed as an ambitious, even violent and bitter character.

Two cousins to Gertrude pursue a romance with her. As required by romance tradition, they serve as foils. Young Colonel Delmour is handsome, elegant, and sophisticated, a traveled man of the world, while his competitor Edward Lyndsay is serious with a sensitive nature. A mysterious visitor to Mrs. St. Clair named Mr. Lewiston apparently exercises some negative power over the widow. His identity is later revealed as a husband to one of Gertrude’s childhood nurses, a man believed to be dead.

Mrs. St. Clair agrees to meet with Lewiston and bring Gertrude with her, but he attempts to molest sexually the young woman. Lyndsay rescues her, eliciting gratitude, but Delmour declares his passion, and Gertrude agrees to marry him.

In the meantime, the earl has made marriage plans of his own for his granddaughter. For political and economic reasons, he desires Gertrude to marry the colonel’s older brother, a passionless man but one powerful in political intrigues. Gertrude protests, angering the earl, who considers disinheriting Gertrude as Lyndsay intervenes to declare his love. The earl’s sudden death before any change is made to his will, however, leaves Gertrude free to follow her heart.

Gertrude again attempts to speak with Lewiston, and again must be rescued by Lyndsay. In the meantime, Delmour engages in activities causing Gertrude and others to doubt his sincerity and his character. Gertrude remains devoted to Delmour and, while she recognizes and appreciates Lyndsay’s obvious commitment to her well-being, chooses to wed Delmour; he stands to enjoy her estate that accompanies her title, Countess of Rossville.

Delmour connives to involve Gertrude in a series of financial schemes, all meant to defraud her of her money. Even so, in London she becomes the talk of the social scene and allows herself to be involved in its various pleasures, to the dismay of Lyndsay, who counsels wisdom and discretion. She ignores his pleas and falls to the temptations of fashionable life.

When she later returns to Rossville, she has another visit from the dastardly Lewiston, who was mistakenly believed to have drowned. He at last breaks the news that she is not even related to the Rossville family but instead is the daughter of Mrs. St. Clair’s nurse, thus having no true claim to her title. That nurse, named Marian La Motte, had been the daughter of Lizzie Lundie, whose portrait Gertrude had been said to resemble.

The St. Clairs met her as they traveled to Scotland, while she was pregnant, separated from her husband, Jacob Lewiston, and fearful of dying and leaving her baby an orphan. The St. Clairs agreed to adopt the child, as with the only heir, they would surely inherit the family fortune. Their plan was ruined by a letter that Marian wrote to a priest who promised, upon her death, to send the letter to Lewiston, then living in America. The priest served as a missionary in the United States years later and met up with Lewiston, who immediately traveled to Britain to claim his daughter.

During Gertrude’s dismay at the discovery of her origin, she accuses Mrs. St. Clair of treachery, and her real mother of not loving her. Attempting to placate her daughter, Mrs. St. Clair explains, “You could bring nothing but additional care and poverty to her; to me you would ensure riches and honour. Do not condemn us.”

When in trust Gertrude shares this news with Delmour, who had already expected something was amiss, he considers breaking their engagement, not out of a lack of love for her, but rather because he needs her fortune, having lost his own. Brokenhearted when she discovers his motivation, she gives up her profligate lifestyle and turns to the stalwart love of Lyndsay.

Impressed by her behavior, he tells her, “You have been the victim of imposture; but your own name is pure and spotless; it is more. To those who can appreciate virtue, it will carry a nobler sound along with it than any that heraldry could have bestowed.”

Lyndsay discovers the truth from Lewiston, that he is not actually Gertrude’s father after all, but his cousin. Lyndsay promises to give him money in exchange for the priest’s letter and for his leaving Britain forever. After Lyndsay receives a letter from Delmour, releasing Gertrude from their engagement, he marries Gertrude. She reconciles with her mother and regains not only a title but, more important, also a true inheritance of love.

As does her idol Sir Walter Scott, Ferrier includes literally dozens of characters who add interest to the plot. They include the comical Miss Pratt, a busybody type who, in one of the novel’s funniest scenes, scandalizes the old earl by arriving at his castle in a hearse, driven by Mr. McVitae, a known radical. Miss Pratt’s continual quotation of the questionably nonexistent Anthony Whyte adds extreme situational humor.

The misanthropic Indian uncle, Adam Ramsay, annoys everyone by his constant references to the lost romance of his youth, yet in actuality offers Gertrude a cautionary tale, which she ignores to her own later detriment. His kind consideration of her in the novel’s concluding scenes helps round his type character.

The ridiculous Mrs. Major Waddell, neé Bell Black, portrays the fool character so popular to tragic drama. The required poor relation, also symbolic of Gertrude’s future, Miss Becky Duguid, joins the poetess, Miss Lilly, and various representatives of the peasant class to remind readers that few members of society enjoy the fortune that the aristocratic earl’s family simply take for granted.

All the characters’ names, such as Vitae (life), Whyte (innocence and wisdom), Bell (a harbinger of caution), Black (danger), and Lilly (flower of funerals), traditionally symbolize important aspects that add pleasure to the narration, while the more unusual Duguid, whose name is phonetically “Do Good,” provides a literary symbol, its meaning peculiar to this specific novel, supporting Ferrier’s reputation as an imaginative writer, meticulous in regards to her craft.

Bibliography
Douglas, Sir George Brisbane. The Blackwood Group. Edinburgh: Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1897.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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