Marriage: A Novel

Faced with the prospect of marriage to an elderly, red-haired, squinting Duke, the passionate Lady Julia elopes with her penniless Scottish beau. But what happens when this high-born, high-bred society beauty's romantic notions of the Highlands of Scotland meet cold, damp reality? Susan Ferrier's 1818 novel Marriage is a witty and satirical examination of female lives in the Regency era. This edition takes the 1819 second edition of Marriage as its base text, incorporating those changes which Ferrier made when the work was fresh and sharp, but refusing the bowdlerisation and sentimental sugar of the 1841 edition, suited for Victorian tastes and moralities. Edited and introduced by Dorothy McMillan, and supported by extensive historical notes, this new edition captures the humour, sensitivity and elegance of the original bestselling novel, and gives Ferrier her proper place among Scotland's notable writers.