Lesser Novelists . Susan Edmonstone Ferrier. In the novels of Susan Edmonstone Ferrier there is something of the rough sarcasm of Smollett, mingled with a strong didactic flavour and with occasional displays of sentiment that may be due to Mackenzie. To her personal friend Scott, she may have owed something in her studies of Scottish life, but Maria Edgeworth was her principal model. Her first novel, Marriage, was written in 1810, though it was not published till 1818, when it appeared anonymously.
Marriage is full of vigorous work.
The Inheritance, published in 1824, has more unity. Destiny, published in 1831, is chiefly remarkable for the character of McDow, the minister. 1 Coarse as her workmanship may be compared with that of Jane Austen, it is refined and delicate by the side of that of a remarkable woman, Frances, the mother of Anthony and Augustus, Trollope. The Vicar of Wrexhill is a book of virulent malignity, in which the chief character is a clergyman of evangelical beliefs. The Widow Barnaby is written in more humorous mood.