Saturday, October 26, 2013
FERRIER, SUSAN EDMONSTONE (1782-1854)- scottish novelist. james F F's aunt. father james ferrier, at 1 time one of the clerks of court in session w/ sir walter-scott. her mother a miss cotts, beauty of a farmer's daughter. her 1st novel, 'marriage' begun w/ a friend, miss claviring, grand-daughter of the duke of argyll, but she gave it up. pub 1818 when f 35-36. then 'the inheritance'. last 'destiny' dedicated to sir walter-scott. all anonymous. clever portraiture of contemporary scottish life + manners + caricatures blah blah. in 1826 sir walter's diary " the woman do this better. edgeworth, ferrier, austin, have all given portraits of real society far superior to anything man, vain man has produced of the like nature." blah. all miss f's works are written on a clear, brisk english-w/ an inexhaustible fund of humor they portray the eccentricities, the follies, + the foibles of her society, caricaturing w/ terrible exactness. its hypocrisy, boastfulness, greed, affectation, + indue subservience to public opinion. yet miss f, wrote less to reform than amuse. w/ an honest aversion to these things herself, she wished not to lecture her readers, but to laugh w/ them. in this she is less like miss edgeworth than miss austin. miss E more a moralist; her art is not so involuntary, her characters not always good natured. but miss a + miss f were genuine humorists, + w/ miss f especially a keen sense, of the ludicrous. she also could be serious, she could be pathetic, she could even touch some of the finest chords in human nature, but she never interfered w/ the depths of human nature + misery she liked best to laugh + turned to the humorous + her funny characters best. blah blah. lockharts description of f's visit to scott. 5, 1831. she was asked there to help amuse the dying master of abbotsford,who when not writing count robert of paris, would talk as brilliantly as ever. only sometimes, before he had reached the point in a narrative "it would seem as if some internal spring had given way. she would pause, + gaze blankly + anxiously round him. "i noticed" says lockhart, "the delicacy of miss f on such occasions. her sight was bad + she took care not to use her glasses when he was speaking; + she affected to be also troubled w/ deafness + would say, "well, am getting as dull as a post; i have not heard a word since you + so + so"- being sure to mention a circumstance behind that at which he had really halted. he then took up the tread w/ his habitual smile of courtesy- as if forgetting his case entirely in the consideration of the lady's infirmity. she died 1/5/1854 in edinbourgh. she left an unpublished article about visits to ashestiel + abbotsford, about sir walter.
