The Inheritance. By the Author of Marriage

Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T. Cadell, 1824. FIRST EDITION. 3 volumes. 189 x 111 mms., pp. [ii], 387 [388 blank]; [ii], 415 [416 blank]; [ii], 35 9 [360 blank], contemporary half calf, marbled boards, early reback with new end-papers, title block in gilt on spine; some general wear to binding, but a good to very good set. Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (1782–1854) has often been called (too often in my view) "The Scottish Jane Austen," perhaps not too surprisingly given that the first sentence in this work is somewhat familiar: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is no passion so deeply rooted in human nature as that of pride." No one will need reminding that Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. ODNB notes that she wrote her first novel "n East Morningside House that she wrote much of The Inheritance, published by Blackwood in 1824.... The Inheritance, her second novel, was enthusiastically received; Scott, Henry Mackenzie and his daughters, Francis Jeffrey, Basil Hall, and the Argyll family all expressed their delight. Her friends were able to recognize James Ferrier in the character of Uncle Adam Ramsay, and others who read the novel enjoyed speculating on the identity of the characters. 'Everybody knows who the characters are, but no two people can agree about them. I have heard of five or six Lord Rossvilles and as many Miss Pratts' (Ferrier, Memoir, 180). Appreciation of the work was not confined to Scotland; an American edition and a French translation both appeared in 1824 and a Swedish translation in 1836."