| Synopsis: |
In the early and mid-nineteenth century, Marguerite Blessington, who had been born in Ireland but spent most of her life in London, became a famous salonniere; she was generally regarded as an important contemporary author, but as no literary executor took care of her oeuvre posthumously, she soon fell into obscurity. Her novels, partly informed by the genre of the silver-fork novel, are typical examples of Romantic Victorianism, influenced by the Romantic cult of the solitary male self, by the fascination with Italy, and by the 1840s vogue of crime fiction, while simultaneously giving space to ambivalent reflections about Blessington's own Irish background. This volume, as part of 'Chawton House Library: Women's Novels' series, presents her 1847 novel Marmaduke Herbert; or, the Fatal Error, a highly popular novel in its day being reprinted in German, French and American editions within a year of its publication.In addition, editorial apparatus give an overview of her life, put the novel in its literary and cultural context, discusses its contemporary reception and provide explanatory notes on the text regarding people, places and terminology as well as a bibliography and appendices. As such it will be of interest to readers undertaking studies across a range of disciplines - Romanticism, the Romantic novel, the Victorian novel, the Gothic novel, women writers, Irish studies, cultural studies, cultural history, and travel writing. |