The Making of a Marchioness

The Making of a Marchioness
Author Frances Hodgson Burnett
Language English
Published 1901

The Making of a Marchioness is a 1901 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was followed by a sequel, The Methods of Lady Walderhurst, but both have been subsequently published together, either under the original name The Making of a Marchioness[1] or as Emily Fox-Seton.[2] The collected version was republished by Persephone Books.[3] It was made into a BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial in 2007.

Plot summary

Emily Fox-Seton is a poor woman of good birth who works as a companion and assistant for various members of the upper class. Her chief employer is Lady Maria Bayne, who is both very selfish and very funny, although she does come to care for Emily. In a "Cinderella-like"[4] ending, Emily eventually comes to marry a Marquis, Walderhurst, who is considerably older than her. The second portion, originally The Methods of Lady Walderhurst, continues on to show Emily having Walderhurst's child and his former heir, Alec Osborn, attempting to regain what he sees as his birthright.[5]

Major themes

The Persephone Forum compares Emily Fox-Seton with Miss Pettigrew in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Both are well-born women with little money in era when such women had few job opportunities.[6]

The book also reflects the casual racism of its day. The Persephone Forum comments: "The language of 1900 may offend now, but that was how it was and Mrs Cupp’s ill-judged present of a little brown Testament to Hester Osborn’s Indian maid, is firmly mocked."[7]

Publication history

The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst were originally published in 1901, while Burnett was also working on a longer and more complicated book, The Shuttle. Both books were republished in 2007 as The Making of a Marchioness by Persephone Books.[8]

Adaptations

In 2007, The Making of a Marchioness was made into a BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, dramatised by Michelene Wandor, directed by Chris Wallis, and featuring Charles Dance as Lord Walderhurst, Miriam Margolyes as Lady Walderhurst, Lucy Briers as Emily, Joanna David as the narrator, Anjali Jay as Hester, and Amara Karan as Lady Agatha.[9][10][11] The Radio Times called the radio adaptation a "delightful and occasionally dark romance."[12]

In 2012, a television film called The Making of a Lady was created based on the book. The film premiered in 2012 on ITV in Britain and was subsequently broadcast on PBS in the United States in 2014. Its screenplay adaptation was by Kate Brooke, it was directed by Richard Curson Smith, and it stars Lydia Wilson as Emily, Linus Roache as Lord James Walderhurst, Joanna Lumley as Lady Maria Byrne, and James D’Arcy as Captain Alec Osborn.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Persephone Books page for The Shuttle". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Goodreads: Emily Fox-Seton".
  3. ↑ "Persephone Books summary page". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Persephone Forum review of The Making of a Marchioness". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  5. ↑ Burnett, Frances Hodgson (1901). The Making of a Marchioness.
  6. ↑ "Persephone Forum review of The Making of a Marchioness". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Persephone Forum review of The Making of a Marchioness". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Persephone Books description of The Shuttle". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  9. ↑ "BBC Radio 4: The Making of a Marchioness". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Bookmoot: Just for fun". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Pride and Prejudice cast: Joanna David". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Persephone Books description of The Shuttle". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  13. ↑ Neil Genzlinger (February 7, 2014). "The Marriage, Pragmatic; The Relatives, Troubling: ‘The Making of a Lady’ Offers Slow Suspense, on PBS".

External links