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“Love is a passion that has been much talked of,
often described, and little understood.”

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Read Chapter 1

Faced with the prospect of marriage to an elderly, red-haired, squinting Duke, the passionate Lady Juliana 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 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.

Dorothy McMillan is an Honorary Research Fellow (English Literature) in the University of Glasgow.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements 
Abbreviations 
Chronology 
Introduction 
Bibliographical Information 
Notes on the Text 
Frontispiece 

MARRIAGE: a novel in three volumes 

Explanatory Notes 
Glossary 
Appendix A: The 1841 Edition 
Appendix B: Susan Ferrier’s Autograph Album

Cover image: Cut paper silhouette of Susan Ferrier, c. 1830, by Augustin Edouart (1789–1861) 
Cover design: Mark Blackadder.