7.2 /10 1 Votes
Language English | 3.6/5 Goodreads Originally published 1901 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Frances Hodgson Burnett books, Classical Studies books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 or as Emily Fox-Seton. The collected version was republished by Persephone Books. It was made into a BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial in 2007.
Contents
Plot summary
Emily Fox-Seton is a young woman of good birth but no money 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" ending, Emily eventually marries Lord James Walderhurst, a much older man, who is a marquess (the second-highest rank of British nobility), becoming a marchioness. In the sequel, originally The Methods of Lady Walderhurst, Emily has Walderhurst's child, and his former heir, Alec Osborn, attempts to regain what he sees as his birthright.
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.
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."
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.
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. The Radio Times called the radio adaptation a "delightful and occasionally dark romance."
In 2012, the television film The Making of a Lady was created based on the book. Kate Brooke wrote the screenplay adaptation, and Richard Curson Smith directed. Lydia Wilson starred as Emily, Linus Roache as Lord James Walderhurst, Joanna Lumley as Lady Maria Byrne, and James D’Arcy as Captain Alec Osborn. The film premiered in 2012 on ITV in Britain, and was subsequently broadcast on PBS in the United States in 2014.