The Making of a Marchioness

Before Lady Edith Crawley received her happy ending in Downton Abbey, there was Emily Fox-Seton in The Making of a Marchioness. 

The book was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and published in 1901. It tells the story of Emily’s life as a well-born, but poor woman who *spoiler alert* ends up marrying to become a marchioness.

If the author’s name sounds familiar, perhaps it is because she is best known for the classic, The Secret Garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was an English-American writer born in 1849.

“We have no hesitation in saying that there is no living writer (man or woman) who has Mrs. Burnett’s dramatic power in telling a story.” -The New York Herald

“Mrs. Burnett’s admirers are already numbered by the thousands, and every new work from her pen can only add to their number.” –The Chicago Tribune

A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, was known as a marchioness. A marquess ranks below a duke, a title that is usually reserved for the royal family, but is more powerful than a count or an earl.

Often times the land a marquess owned, called a march, bordered another country, while a count’s land, or county, usually did not. Given the geographical position of a marquess, it was his duty to protect that land and his country from neighboring enemies, thus giving him and his marchioness more power than a count and countess would necessitate.

C.D. Williams, or Charles David Williams, was a freelance illustrator for much of his career. In 1910, he became a founding member of the Society of Illustrators of New York.

This edition, which I believe to be a first edition, is a beautiful copy of a work by a wonderful turn-of-the century woman writer.

Women writers of the past inspire me to write and to continue to pursue publication. If the great women writers of the past can defy societal conventions and get published, women today shouldn’t be reluctant to have their own voices be heard.

Persephone Books shares my same appreciation for women writers from this era. According to their website, “Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid-twentieth century (mostly women) writers. All of our 117 books are intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written and are chosen to appeal to busy people wanting titles that are neither too literary nor too commercial.”

One of their titles is The Making of a Marchioness.