The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Making of a Marchioness
by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Publisher: e-artnow (2013)

215 pages, eBook (Purchased Myself for $0.99)

Book Rating: 4 Stars

Content Ratings:

Violence: Mild-Moderate-Brutal

Swearing: Clean-Light-Filthy

Sexual Content: White-Pink-Red

Summary:

Emily Fox-Seton is a single young woman, fast approaching the age of spinsterhood, and cheerfully making her own way by doing little odd jobs and running errands for women of means, when by the stroke of fate, she draws the attention of Lord Walderhurst and finds her circumstances changed beyond her wildest dreams, only to have the heir apparent worry her with sinister motives while the Lord is away.

My Thoughts:

This story is presented in two parts: The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst (the second part being nearly three times the length of the first). This story is part Cinderella story, part Gothic Romance. The sinister motives of Captain Osborn haunt the heroine, nearly from the moment of her marriage, and when Lord Walderhurst leaves for India, Emily is left on her own in the large country mansion to deal with it all. The love story between Emily and Lord Walderhurst is so sedate and simple, that I couldn’t help but love it. They both went into the marriage with such realistic expectations and visions of duty, that it was a surprise to see anything else come of it. The threat of the Osborns turned out to be a little anti-climatic, I thought, but the ending was a little dark, and that made up for it, in my opinion. I so loved Emily! She is so genuine and tirelessly looking to do everyone else a good turn, that I don’t know how you couldn’t love her, but some more modern, feminist-minded people could potentially find her an annoyance, perhaps. Enjoyable read!

Edition Notes:

This e-artnow Unabridged Edition was an omnibus edition that included The Making of a Marchioness (Parts I & II) as well as The Shuttle. It has optimum organization, readability and maneuverability for ebook. It does not include the original illustrations, but is nonetheless a great edition for the price.

Quotes:

“Don’t thank me—don’t. Just let us enjoy ourselves.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“He felt the scent and the golden glow of the sunset light as intensely as he felt the dead silence which reigned between himself and Hester almost with the effect of a physical presence.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“The Lime Avenue was a dim, if lovely, place at twilight. When the sun was setting, broad lances of gold slanted through the branches and glorified the green spaces with mellow depths of light. But later, when the night was drawing in, the lines of grey tree-trunks, shadowed and canopied by boughs, suggested to the mind the pillars of some ruined cathedral, desolate and ghostly.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“—she wanted to feel herself surrounded by the soft blackness.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“As she sat in the darkness and felt the night breath of the flowers in the garden, she was thinking of all the murderers she had ever heard of. She was reflecting that some of them had been quite respectable people, and that all of them must have lived through a period in which they gradually changed from respectable people to persons in whose brains a thought had worked which once they would have believed impossible to them, which they might have scouted the idea of their giving room to. She was sure the change must come about slowly. At first it would seem too mad and ridiculous, a sort of angry joke. Then the angry joke would return again and again, until at last they let it stay and did not laugh at it, but thought it over.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“She was so good that she was almost silly.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“But some things were too bad.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“Most people know something of waiting for answers to letters written to foreign lands. It seems impossible to calculate correctly as to what length of time must elapse before the reply to the letter one sent by the last mail can reach one. He who waits is always premature in the calculation he makes. The mail should be due at a certain date, one is so sure. The letter could be written on such a day and posted at once. But the date calculated for arrives, passes, —the answer has not come.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“As he stood and watched her closed eyes, —nice, easily pleased eyes,—it was they themselves, closed on him and all prosaic things and pleasures, which filled him most strangely with the sense of her loneliness, weirdly enough, hers, not his. He was not thinking of himself but of her. He wanted to withdraw her from her loneliness, to bring her back.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

“And while Lady Walderhurst sat gazing at her with a paling face, she began quietly to eat the little buttered scone.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Making of a Marchioness

Movie Adaptations:

The Making of a Lady (TV Movie 2012)

Lydia Wilson, Linus Roache, James D’Arcy

TV Rating: TV-PG

My Rating: 5 Stars

Adaption: Verbatim-Tweaked-Veiled

Eye Candy: Plain-Pretty-Sultry

Though I enjoyed the book, I actually liked the movie better. This adaption went a little heavier on the gothic element then the book dared to go, and made the story a bit more of a dramatic thriller. I thought the casting was perfect, and I particularly thought Linus Roache did an excellent job as Lord Walderhurst. Great movie!