Self-Control (novel)

Last updated

Self-Control is a novel by the Scottish novelist Mary Brunton, published in 1811. The novel, which had some success in its own time, tells a rocambolesque tale, which inspired Jane Austen when she wrote her Plan of a Novel . [1] Part of the author's intention in writing the work was to show "the power of the religious principle in bestowing self-command", while rebutting the idea that a reformed rake makes the best husband. [2]

Contents

Plot

The heroine, the devout Laura Montreville, is pursued by the lecherous rake Colonel Hargrave. Realising that he has offended her, the Colonel gives Laura a more honourable proposal of marriage, but she refuses him gently on grounds of moral incompatibility, despite this meaning that she would miss out on the Colonel's title and fortune. Captain Montreville, Laura's father, finds out that Laura's annuity is not assured, and so takes Laura to London to fix the matter. Without the knowledge of her father, Laura consents to marry the Colonel eventually, if he can reform himself within two years.

When Laura is left without any money in London, she decides to support her ailing father by selling sketches. During her time in London, a man named Montague De Courcy begins to fall in love with her. De Courcy buys Laura's sketches in secret. Hargrave meanwhile follows Laura to London and becomes involved in an affair with a married woman. He meets Laura in the shop where she sells her sketches and paintings, and accompanies her home and harasses her. Hargrave's affair is discovered by the husband of his lover and the two men fight a duel. Hargrave wounds the husband, and then goes to Laura, urging her to marry him, before she has found out about his affair. Because Hargrave threatens to kill himself, Laura faints, and is found by her father, who then realises that Hargrave has been threatening his daughter, and she has been encouraging Hargrave. This causes Captain Montreville such grief that he dies the next morning.

After the death of Captain Montreville, Laura goes to live with Lady Pelham, her maternal aunt, who helps her to receive her annuity, but she is not religious and colludes with Colonel Hargrave. Laura learns of Hargrave's duel, and resolves to refuse him. Hargrave attempts to persuade her to marry him by more drastic measures – having her arrested under false pretenses and tricking her into joining a gambling party. When Lady Pelham dies, Hargrave kidnaps Laura and takes her to the wilderness of America. He plans to rape and then force Laura into marriage. She then fakes her own death by escaping down the rapids in a canoe, to which she ties herself. Hargrave commits suicide and Laura returns to her home country, where she marries Montague De Courcy and has five children with him.

Publication

Mary Brunton, from the second edition of Emmeline (1820). MaryBrunton.jpg
Mary Brunton, from the second edition of Emmeline (1820).

The first edition was published in February 1811 in two volumes, with a run of 750 copies, for the price of 21 shillings, of which 500 had been sold out by the end of the month. The novel was dedicated to the poet Joanna Baillie, who read the novel and offered some criticisms to Brunton. A second, revised edition was published in May 1811. [3] A pirated edition was published in the United States in 1811, at a time when there was no copyright agreement between the two countries. [3] [4] Self-Control went through three editions in its first six months of availability, accounting for a total of around 3000 copies.

Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra in 1811, "We have tried to get Self-control, but in vain. I should like to know what her estimate is, but am always half afraid of finding a clever novel too clever, and of finding my own story and my own people all forestalled." [5] Kathryn Sutherland explains Jane Austen's comments on Self-Control as Austen being worried by Brunton's success, as Self-Control was selling wildly during the time Austen was preparing Sense and Sensibility for publication. [6]

A French translation was published in 1829. [7] Twenty years after its initial publication, Self-Control was included in the Standard Novels series. [3] [8]

Reception

Despite the success of Self-Control at the time, Anthony Mandal noted that scholars had been dismissive of Brunton. [3] In The Eclectic Review , the sequence of events was described as improbable. The reviewer also found it hard to believe that Laura would regret having to turn down Hargrave initially, as "we only have the word of the author" that this was the case. [9]

The British Critic noted that this was a polarising work. It regarded the moral of the story as being excellent, and the improbable situations in the novel not beyond the realms of possibility. It noted that some situations had been softened in the second edition. It considered Hargrave to be a hero of the story. [10] The Scots Magazine criticised the "strained and improbable incidents" throughout the book, characterising them as the desperation of a romance novelist to impress her audience. Even so, it praised the "lively portraits of character" in the novel and the emotional expressions, finding an emotional realism in the novel despite its improbable situations. [11] The Times Literary Supplement wrote that Self-Control seemed to draw on Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and Frances Burney's Cecilia . [12]

In October 1813, Jane Austen wrote "I am looking over Self Control again, and my opinion is confirmed of its being an excellently-meant, elegantly-written work, without anything of nature or probability in it. I declare I do not know whether Laura's passage down the American river is not the most natural, possible, everyday thing she ever does." [13] When writing her Plan of a Novel , Austen wrote to her niece: "I will redeem my credit... by writing a close imitation of 'Self Control' as soon as I can. I will improve upon it. My heroine shall not only be wafted down an American river in a boat by herself. She shall cross the Atlantic in the same way, and never stop till she reaches Gravesend." [1]

In 1999, Kate Fullagar wrote that Self-Control "is clearly concerned with the difficulty of a woman earning her own living and with the importance of female financial independence." [14]

Adaptations

A radio drama adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011. [15]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Austen</span> English novelist (1775–1817)

Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

<i>Pride and Prejudice</i> 1813 novel by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice is the second novel by English author Jane Austen, published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.

<i>Sense and Sensibility</i> 1811 novel by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility is the first novel by the English author Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; By A Lady appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne as they come of age. They have an older half-brother, John, and a younger sister, Margaret.

<i>Northanger Abbey</i> 1818 novel by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by the English author Jane Austen. Although the title page is dated 1818 and was published posthumously in 1817 with Persuasion, Northanger Abbey was completed in 1803, making it the first of Austen's novels to be completed in full. From a fondness of Gothic novels and an active imagination distorting her worldview, the story follows Catherine Morland, the naïve young protagonist, as she develops to better understand herself and the world around her.

<i>Emma</i> (novel) 1816 novel by Jane Austen

Emma is a novel written by English author Jane Austen. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. The novel was first published in December 1815, although the title page is dated 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England. Emma is a comedy of manners.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1811.

<i>Lady Susan</i> Novel by Jane Austen

Lady Susan is an epistolary novella by Jane Austen, possibly written in 1794 but not published until 1871. This early complete work, which the author never submitted for publication, describes the schemes of the title character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Brunton</span> Scottish novelist (1778–1818)

Mary Brunton was a Scottish novelist, whose work has been seen as redefining femininity. Fay Weldon praised Brunton's writings as "rich in invention, ripe with incident, shrewd in comment, and erotic in intention and fact."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane West (novelist)</span> English writer (1758–1852)

Jane West (1758–1852), was an English novelist who published as Prudentia Homespun and Mrs. West. She also wrote conduct literature, poetry and educational tracts.

<i>Mansfield Park</i> 1814 novel by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park is the third published novel by the English author Jane Austen, first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton. A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray, still within Austen's lifetime. The novel did not receive any public reviews until 1821.

Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an autodidact intellectual who published essays, poetry, novels and several works on famous women. She is remembered for her early feminism, and her close relations to dissenting and radical thinkers of her time including Robert Robinson, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin and William Frend. She was born in 1759, into a family of Protestant dissenters who rejected the practices of the Church of England. Hays was described by those who disliked her as 'the baldest disciple of [Mary] Wollstonecraft' by The Anti Jacobin Magazine, attacked as an 'unsex'd female' by clergyman Robert Polwhele, and provoked controversy through her long life with her rebellious writings. When Hays's fiancé John Eccles died on the eve of their marriage, Hays expected to die of grief herself. But this apparent tragedy meant that she escaped an ordinary future as wife and mother, remaining unmarried. She seized the chance to make a career for herself in the larger world as a writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reception history of Jane Austen</span> History of reviews and reputation of works by the English author

The reception history of Jane Austen follows a path from modest fame to wild popularity. Jane Austen (1775–1817), the author of such works as Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1815), has become one of the best-known and most widely read novelists in the English language. Her novels are the subject of intense scholarly study and the centre of a diverse fan culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Jane Austen</span>

Jane Austen lived her entire life as part of a family located socially and economically on the lower fringes of the English gentry. The Rev. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh, Jane Austen's parents, lived in Steventon, Hampshire, where Rev. Austen was the rector of the Anglican parish from 1765 until 1801. Jane Austen's immediate family was large and close-knit. She had six brothers—James, George, Charles, Francis, Henry, and Edward—and a beloved older sister, Cassandra. Austen's brother Edward was adopted by Thomas and Elizabeth Knight and eventually inherited their estates at Godmersham, Kent, and Chawton, Hampshire. In 1801, Rev. Austen retired from the ministry and moved his family to Bath, Somerset. He died in 1805 and for the next four years, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother lived first in rented quarters and then in Southampton where they shared a house with Frank Austen's family. During these unsettled years, they spent much time visiting various branches of the family. In 1809, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother moved permanently into a large "cottage" in Chawton village that was part of Edward's nearby estate. Austen lived at Chawton until she moved to Winchester for medical treatment shortly before her death in 1817.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chawton House</span> Country house in Chawton, Hampshire, England

Chawton House is a Grade II* listed manor house in Hampshire on the South side of Chawton village, and the present building was started in 1580.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marianne Dashwood</span> Fictional character in Jane Austens 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility

Marianne Dashwood is a fictional character in Jane Austen's 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility. The 16-year-old second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood, she mostly embodies the "sensibility" of the title, as opposed to her elder sister Elinor's "sense".

<i>A Memoir of Jane Austen</i> 1869 biography of the novelist Jane Austen

A Memoir of Jane Austen is a biography of the novelist Jane Austen (1775–1817) published in 1869 by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. A second edition was published in 1871 which included previously unpublished Jane Austen writings. A family project, the biography was written by James Edward Austen-Leigh but owed much to the recollections of Jane Austen's many relatives. However, it was the decisions of her sister, Cassandra Austen, to destroy many of Jane's letters after her death that shaped the material available for the biography.

Jane Austen's (1775–1817) distinctive literary style relies on a combination of parody, burlesque, irony, free indirect speech and a degree of realism. She uses parody and burlesque for comic effect and to critique the portrayal of women in 18th-century sentimental and Gothic novels. Austen extends her critique by highlighting social hypocrisy through irony; she often creates an ironic tone through free indirect speech in which the thoughts and words of the characters mix with the voice of the narrator. The degree to which critics believe Austen's characters have psychological depth informs their views regarding her realism. While some scholars argue that Austen falls into a tradition of realism because of her finely executed portrayal of individual characters and her emphasis on "the everyday", others contend that her characters lack a depth of feeling compared with earlier works, and that this, combined with Austen's polemical tone, places her outside the realist tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliza de Feuillide</span> 18th and 19th-century English sister-in-law of Jane Austen

Eliza Capot, Comtesse de Feuillide was the cousin, and later sister-in-law, of novelist Jane Austen. She is believed to have been the inspiration for a number of Austen's works, such as Love and Freindship, Henry and Eliza, and Lady Susan. She may have also been the model from whom the character of Mary Crawford from the novel Mansfield Park is derived.

Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters is a short satirical work by Jane Austen, probably written in May 1816. It was published in complete form for the first time by R. W. Chapman in 1926, extracts having appeared in 1871. It has been said that "in the Plan and the correspondence from which it arose, we have the most important account of what Jane Austen understood to be her aims and capacities as a novelist".

<i>Love & Friendship</i> 2016 period film directed by Whit Stillman

Love & Friendship is a 2016 period romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman. Based on Jane Austen's epistolary novel Lady Susan, written c. 1794, the film stars Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, and Emma Greenwell. The film follows recently widowed Lady Susan in her intrepid and calculating exploits to secure suitably wealthy husbands for her daughter and herself. Although adapted from Lady Susan, the film was produced under the borrowed title of Austen's juvenile story Love and Freindship.

References

  1. 1 2 Austen, Jane (2011). Le Faye, Deirdre (ed.). Jane Austen's letters (4th ed.). Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press. p. 295. ISBN   9780199576074.
  2. ↑ "Mary Brunton". National Library of Scotland . Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Mandal, Anthony (2013). "Mary Brunton - Self-Control, A Novel" . Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "Self-control : a novel : Brunton, Mary, 1778-1818 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "Jane Austen -- Letters -- Brabourne Edition -- Letters to Cassandra, 1811" . Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  6. ↑ Keymer, ed. by Thomas; Mee, Jon (2005). The Cambridge companion to English literature : 1740-1830 (Transferred to digital print. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press. pp.  256–257. ISBN   9780521007573.{{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  7. ↑ Axon, William E.A. "Brunton, Mary"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 07. p. 148.
  8. ↑ "Self-control : a novel : Brunton, Mary, 1778-1818 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  9. ↑ The Eclectic Review , June 1812. Review of Self-Control by Ann Gilbert (née Taylor)
  10. ↑ British Critic 38 (September 1811) 213.
  11. ↑ The Scots Magazine , 1811 pp.202-213
  12. ↑ "Jane Austen's rival". The Times Literary Supplement. 5 April 2006. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  13. ↑ Austen, Jane (18 June 1998). Catharine and Other Writings. ISBN   9780191611131 . Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  14. ↑ Fullagar, Kate (1999). McCalman, Iain; Mee, Jon (eds.). An Oxford companion to the Romantic Age . Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780191726996 . Retrieved 16 May 2015– via Oxford Reference Online.
  15. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 Extra - Mary Brunton - Self Control". BBC. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.