The Making of a Marchioness

By: Frances Hodgson-Burnett

Narrated by: Lucy Scott

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Frances Hodgson Burnett published The Making of a Marchioness in 1901. She had written Little Lord Fauntleroy 15 years before and would write The Secret Garden in 10 years' time; it is these two books for which she is best known. Yet Marchioness was one of Nancy Mitford's favourite books, was considered 'the best novel Mrs Hodgson Burnett wrote' by Marghanita Laski, and is taught on a university course in America together with novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Daisy Miller.

Public Domain (P)2011 Persephone

Adult Gem by well known children's author

While Frances Hodgson-Burnett is best known for her children's books, such as A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, she also wrote books for adult readers. What a pleasure that Lucy Scott and the folks from Persephone Publishers have brought this book to life for modern readers/listeners. Lucy Scott's reading is a perfect compliment for this, perhaps the best of the "adult" novels by Burnett.

Fluffy Stuff

This book certainly had its charms, and I can understand why it might have been a popular women's novel in its day (it was originally published in 1901). It tells the story of a refined but impoverished woman in her thirties, Miss Emily Fox-Seton, who scratches out a living by assisting her betters to shop wisely and plan parties while remaining obligingly in the background. Just as disaster seems about to befall (her kindly landlady and her daughter plan to give up the house where Emily rooms), wonder of wonders, she receives an unexpected marriage proposal that catapults her into the upper echelon of society. Lord Waldehurst has been won over by Emily's good taste and unprepossessing nature--undoubtedly the dream of many an aging spinster in 1901.

But, alas, it is at this point that the novel falls a bit short for the 21st-century reader. Emily's kindness and naiveté seem to know no bounds. She tries to befriend Alec Osbourne (who has been Lord Waldehurst's sole heir for the past 30 years or so) and his pregnant half-Indian wife, even coaxing her husband--who is about to leave for business in India--to allow her to furnish a house on the estate grounds for their use. It never enters her head that the Osbournes might see her as a potential threat to the property, money, and title that they hope to inherit, and she is hurt and confused by their often surly manners and Hortense's frequent angry outbursts. (When her trusty maid tells Emily that she fears that Amira, Hortense's ayah, is up to no good, Emily encourages her to read Uncle Tom's Cabin to improve her view of "the blacks.") Following several near-misses--accidents that would have been fatal--plus a confession from Hortense that she sometimes hates the now-pregnant Emily and that Alec wants to kill her, Emily feels that the best solution to her dilemma is to take Hortense's advice to "go away" to stay safe until her child is born. Emily's goodness is just too unbelievable; I started to agree with Alec's estimation that she was just "a big fool," and I wanted to smack her back into reality. And the Osbournes and Amira fall into caricatures of villains so evil that I expected even Hortense and Amira to be twirling long black moustachios.

I'm giving the book three stars as a period piece and an example of early 20th century women's novels, and perhaps with some bonus points for Persephone's quite lovely cover. Read it when you are in the mood for pure fluff.

Captivating.

Totally satisfying. Stayed up all night both racing toward the finish and dreading it. I'll be searching for another similar.

charming

This little gem is a charming listen. The narration is excellent. Pure, disinterested good vs abject evil. Cinderella with a twist

Says a lot about its super icky time

Well and clearly, if a bit primly, read. Features a Perfect Paragon of Victorian womanly virtue, brave and humble and pure, living for Home, loving her friends, and adoring her restrained, model repressed husband after he sees her value and rescues her from a grim future of absolute Victorian little match girl poverty.

In "Methods," Emily's patience and nauseatingly persistent devotion, innocence, simplicity and virtue (the word cannot be repeated enough) brings her poor little womanly helplessness a ton of help as (literally) dark (skinned) forces exert sinister, jealous pressures and occult foreign-tainted terrors. The cast of characters and their various fates make this combination of circa 1901 publications a great tool if you want to understand a little more about the deeply weird Victorians.

If you want good stories and writing, though, just take it as yuck, don't bother. In "Making," Hodgson-Burnett wrote a few chapters with progressive sympathy about the fate of a Good (white, upper class) Woman without properly protective family, and even suggests that Some Sinners Are Just Born That Way, but her social conscience dies there, right in the sexist, racist, eugenical, colonial swamp.

The plots are cheesy, characters cardboard, and resolutions totally predictable. But I can't help feeling that these books represent some important underpinnings of modern attitudes and should be paid attention to by more serious readers than I am.

Just for God's sake don't get lulled into liking what the author had to say. This is NOT romantic comedy: for every insightful lampooning of high society ambition there's a reminder about the reason for debs' desperation to marry well, a boor with a badly shaped skull betraying his tainted criminal soul, a "cottage story" of uppish serving maids reaping inevitable punishment, or an inferior brown person in the grip of primitive temperament horrifying the stiff-upper-lip crowd.

Absolutely beautiful

This is a sublimely beautiful story and often overlooked. For those who love romance, it’s fun and satisfying… For those who love suspense, it offers much… For those with deeper Understanding, well, it does not disappoint. The heroine in the story is one of the best in literature. How could the story have gone unnoticed for so long?

Not the novel of manners I expected

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

While it can't be considered a waste of time, Emily Fox-Seton left much to be desired. She is one-dimensional and soppy, harking back to the silly weeping heroines of novels by Mrs. Ellen Wood and Mrs. Radcliffe without the panache and flavor that Hodgson-Burnett should have picked up from Austen and Thackeray. She is too sweet to garner sympathy, too foolish and simple to see anything coming, and too weak and reliant on others to react in any human way. Poor Lady Walderhurst is the image of the Angel in the Household, her suppressed and incapable female soul utterly overwhelmed by the forces of society and humanity around her and as it were only existent thanks to the all-consuming love of her husband, a prosaic selfish peer who picked her for marriage like a man buying a horse. Where Virginia Woolf would have turned introspection into a multidimensional exploration of femininity and women's powerlessness in Victorian society, Hodgson-Burnett tells us a fairy tale where Bluebeard's wife gets exactly what she wants and a cup of tea to boot. Where Edith Wharton might have masterfully joshed us into loving her and then thrown us under the omnibus with a twist of character, Frances gives us only a vague sense of being left untouched. A very disappointing work overall.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Dracula, by Bram Stoker, fully cast with Alan Cumming and Tim Curry as readers.

What does Lucy Scott bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Lucy Scott has a charming array of accents and voices, though I could do without her gruff reaches for men's voices. She is expressive and reads at a gentle but not deliriously slow pace with just the right amount of aplomb. Scott masterfully treats her women characters with depth and precision, humor and delight, but leaves her men a bit one-sided and false.

Was The Making of a Marchioness worth the listening time?

If only for Lucy Scott's performance, yes. If only for the literary qualities of the work, no.

Any additional comments?

Anyone expecting some depth to the characters or at least a novel of Victorian gentry worthy of P.G. Wodehouse or Evelyn Waugh will be sorely disappointed. The listener looking for a casual experience with little to no attention invested will be just fine.

Lucy Scott is wonderful!

The most enjoyable thing about this book is the narrator. I will look for more books read by her.

One of Hodgson-Burnett’s best

Story: 5 stars

Written in 1901 and there are a couple of references to a servant from India called “a black”, so be forewarned, but also bear in mind the historical age in which it was written.

A well-crafted story; originally two stories, I believe. The first is a love story, the second a dark thriller.

The author crafts her characters in such a way that you understand, even if you can’t sympathize, with even the bad ones. And you adore Emily Fox-Seton and her faithful servants.

The two books are rather like day vs. night in their feel.

I’ve read this book numerous times, but this was the first time I listened to it. The narrator did a fabulous job of bringing it to life.

Narration: 5 stars

So well acted! Ms. Scott was able to bring in multiple accents and differentiate individual characters’ voices to the point that I knew who was talking without being told who it was. I’ll be looking her up to find other books that she has narrated. I believe she will become one of my favorite voice actresses.

*poor, **ok, ***good, ****very good, *****something special

What a disapointment

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I loved the Secret Garden! I loved Little Princess! I loved Little Lord Faunteroy! I really dislike this book. What a waste!

What does Lucy Scott bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Lucy Scott is an excellent reader! I love her voice! She did an excellent job.