Marriage

Marriage, by Susan Edmonstone
Ferrier

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marriage, by Susan Edmonstone
Ferrier This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Marriage
Author: Susan Edmonstone Ferrier
Release Date: June 19, 2004 [EBook #12669]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
MARRIAGE ***

Produced by Carl W. Goss

MARRIAGE
A Novel by Susan Ferrier
"Life consists not of a series of illustrious actions; the greater part of

our time passes in compliance with necessities--in the performance of
daily duties--in the removal of small inconveniences--in the
procurement of petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, as the
main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is ruffled by small and
frequent interruption." -JOHNSON.

Edinburgh Edition
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I.
LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY & SON
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1881
Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh.

PREFATORY NOTE.
MISS FERRIER'S Novels have, since their first appearance, suffered
curtailment in all subsequent Editions. The present Edition is the first
reprint from the original Editions, and contains the whole of the
omissions in other reprints. It is, therefore, the only perfect Edition of
these Novels.
Works which have received the praise of Sir Walter Scott and Sir
James Mackintosh, and been thought worthy of discussion in the
Noctes Ambrosianae, require no further introduction to the reader. The
almost exceptional position which they occupy as satirizing the foibles
rather than the more serious faults of human nature, and the caustic
character of that satire, mingled with such bright wit and genial humour,

give Miss Ferrier a place to herself in English fiction; and it is felt that
a time has come to recognize this by producing her works in a form
which fits them for the library, and in a type which enables them to be
read with enjoyment.
G.B.
NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
December 1881.

MISS FERRIER'S NOVELS. [1]
In November 1854 there died in Edinburgh one who might, with truth,
be called almost the last, if not the last, of that literary galaxy that
adorned Edinburgh society in the days of Scott, Jeffrey, Wilson, and
others. Distinguished by the friendship and confidence of Sir Walter
Scott, the name of Susan Edmonstone Ferrier is one that has become
famous from her three clever, satirical, and most amusing novels of
Marriage, The Inheritance, and Destiny. They exhibit, besides, a keen
sense of the ludicrous almost unequalled. She may be said to have done
for Scotland what Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth have respectively
done for England and Ireland--left portraits, painted in undying colours,
of men and women that will live for ever in the hearts and minds of her
readers. In the present redundant age of novel writers and novel-readers,
and when one would suppose the supply must far exceed the demand
from the amount of puerile and often at the same time prurient
literature in the department of fiction that daily flows from the press, it
is refreshing to turn to the vigorous and, above all, healthy moral tone
of this lady's works. To the present generation they are as if they had
never been, and to the question, "Did you ever read Marriage?" it is not
uncommon in these times to get such an answer as, "No, never. Who
wrote it?" "Miss Ferrier." "I never heard of her or her novels." It is with
the view, therefore, of enlightening such benighted ones that I pen the
following pages.

[1] Reprinted from the Temple Bar Magazine for November 1878, Vol
I.
Miss Ferrier was the fourth and youngest daughter of James Ferrier,
Writer to the Signet, and was born at Edinburgh, 7th of September
1782. Her father was bred to that profession in the office of a distant
relative, Mr. Archibald Campbell of Succoth (great grandfather of the
present Archbishop of Canterbury).To his valuable and extensive
business, which included the management of all the Argyll estates, he
ultimately succeeded. He was admitted as a member of the Society of
Writers to the Signet in the year 1770. He was also appointed a
Principal Clerk of Session through the influence (most strenuously
exerted) of his friend and, patron, John, fifth Duke of Argyll, [1] and
was a colleague in that office with Scott. He also numbered among his
friends Henry Mackenzie, the "Man of Feeling," Dr. Hugh Blair, and
last, though not least, Burns the poet. His father, John Ferrier, had been
in the same office till his marriage with Grizzel, only daughter and
heiress of Sir Walter Sandilands Hamilton,