Selina Davenport

Selina Davenport. An Angel's Form and a Devil's Heart: a Novel

4 vols.

London:  Minerva Press for A. K. Newman and Co, 1818.

 

Synopsis of An Angel's Form and a Devil's Heart. A Novel

The story starts out in an Inn. A young servant girl has just run away from the castle and her Mistress, the marchioness of Annedale. Alice has with her a baby boy who is not yet named. At the hotel she runs into a young man named Edward Mackenzie who is a military figure and who Alice had had encounters with and love for while she was still living in the castle. After Alice explains to him that the baby is product of a secret marriage to a man that has since died, Mr. Mackenzie asks Alice to marry him and let him adopt her three day old baby for his own. Alice is overjoyed at the offer and eagerly accepts. After the decision to marry, Mackenzie and Alice name the child after his adopted father, Edward.

A couple of years pass and Alice and Mr. Mackenzie have a baby girl. Alice is partial to her daughter, which is something that really bothers Mr. Mackenzie. Mackenzie and little Edward have a great bond, stronger than that of a true father and son even. The family lives together until Edward is four and Mr. Mackenzie is called to America to fight in the war. It is decided that Edward will go and live with Alice's mother, Margaret Grey, and little Janet will live with Alice's sister. The Mackenzie's go over seas and each of the children is sent to their respective homes for an undetermined amount of time.

As soon as Edward and Margaret meet they fall in love with each other and just adore each other. Margaret, who is the village school teacher, educates him and tries to teach him about life. While living with his grandma, Edward becomes best friends with a young neighborhood girl, Patty Smith, who comes to live with Edward and his Grandmother because of the poor state of her fathers household. The three live together and are overwhelmed with emotion over the love that they have for the one another. As Patty and Edward grow up, they pass their time studying, drawing, and anticipating letters from Mr. Mackenzie.

As time goes by, it becomes apparent that Edward is extremely gifted in the areas of drawing and painting and it is suggested by a neighbor, Mr. Lindsay, who is the advisor of Margaret, that Edward receive some formal schooling for his talents. At the same time, Mr. Mackenzie comes to visit little Edward and Margaret Grey one last time and also professes his wish for Edward to go to a good school where he can receive formal training. Margaret agrees to send Edward away to school at some point, but ensures that when the time comes for Edward to go away, her health will surely fade because of her enormous love for her grandson. Patty Smith vows to stay and keep Margaret company and take care of her as long as Margaret lives, which Margaret agrees to.

Mr. Lindsay, Margaret's advisor and true admirer of young Edward, talks to a friend, Mr. Curwin, who runs a school. With some coaxing and an agreement to first meet Edward to ensure he has the right manners and mind set to fit in with the upper class boys that attend his school, Mr. Curwin decides to give him a chance. Upon meeting Edward, Mr. Curwin agrees that he is one of the most charming, best mannered boys that he has met and readily agrees that Edward should attend his school immediately. Edward, in order to go, must promise to return to the cottage of Margaret Grey every Saturday night and return back to school on Monday morning. During his weekends in the village, Edward also must see the Lindsay family for an hour and discuss school and other matters of life.

Edward starts attending Mr. Curwin's school and instantly becomes friends with a young boy named Fredrick Manningham. Edward loves going to school and learning more about drawing and painting, but also loves to go home on the weekends and see his beloved grandmother and dear friend Patty. About a year after Edward starts school with Mr. Curwin, old Margaret Grey dies under the care of Patty Smith. Edward is devastated over the loss of his grandmother who he loved so dearly, and grieves with his friend Patty, who must now go and live with her father again.

After the death of Margaret, Edward goes to live with the Lindsay family at their estate. He is thrown into the upper-class environment, much like he was when he began school, but adjusts remarkably well. Soon after he moves in with the Lindsay family, Edwards best friend from school, Fredrick Manningham, moves into the estate next door with his family. Fredrick is sure that Edward is going to love his sister, Flora, and can't wait until he gets to meet her. Clara Lindsay, Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay's daughter is also excited to have the Manninghams moving in next door.

The Manninghams move in and fall in love with Edward as well. Edward does love Flora and promises Fredrick that he will always love her with the love of a sister. The Manninghams see Edwards art and fall in love with it. Mr. Manningham calls a friend of his to see Edwards art and to maybe take him to school in London. Mr. Rennie agrees to see Edwards work, does, and loves it. He offers to have Edward come to school in London and Edward accepts. Just before he is ready to move to London, Edward finds out that his father has died in the war in America. Edward is devastated and gets very, very ill. After a few weeks, he regains his strength to move around again and goes to see his old friend Patty Smith before he heads back to London. He moves to London and soon the Manninghams move back to their winter home in London. Clara, the spoiled child that she is, insists that they move to London for the winters as well so that she can spend time with her friends and her precious Edward. Once again, the families are all together again.

While in London, Edward is introduced to several very upper-class people. One of the people that he meets is the marchioness of Annedale who he is strangely feels a connection to. He also meets her son who tells Edward that he is afraid that he will not see his sister again, who the marchioness keeps locked away in the castle, because he is so ill. He tells Edward that his dieing wish is for her to have a lock of his hair but that his mother won't let him cut his hair. Edward agrees that if the young boy should die, Edward would take the lock of hair to his sister at the castle. The marchioness and her son leave London.

While Edward is in London, his mother moves back to the Country and moves in with his father's mother. Edward's mother talks of his sister for the first time and tells him that she lives with a sister in Ireland. Edward is anxious to meet his sister, but is unsure whether he will ever get the chance to. While in London, all of Edwards peers become the age where they must start looking for a life long companion. Everybody is searching for the person that will give them the most wealth, prosperity, best name, etc. Edward, however, is in love with Flora and wishes to be her husband, but has not professed his love to her. While attending parties and balls, Edward becomes acquainted with Lady ____ who has two daughters and a brother, Mr. Richard Colvill, who Edward bore striking resemblance to. Both the Lady _____ and Mr. Colvill are very fond of Edward for her daughters, but Edward isn't real interested.

About two years after meeting the marchioness and her son, Edward gets word that the boy has died. Edward and Fredrick make plans to go to the castle to take the lock of hair to the marchioness' daughter and to see if she is as beautiful as her mother is. While in the castle, Edward comes into contact with an old housekeeper who tells Edward a curious tale about a young man who the marchioness used to be interested in and who used to sneak into her room at night. The two had planned to get secretly married, but when he came to get her she told him she had changed her mind. A few months later the marchioness' servant girl, Alice (who happened to be Edwards mother, although the housekeeper didn't know it), whom the marchioness was very fond of, left the castle and left no excuse. All of the other servants missed her and were sad that she had left. Nobody knew why she left, but there were rumors that somebody heard a baby in her room.

Edward left the castle curious about the story he had just heard that included his mother and his potential father. Fredrick also left with much on his mind, in love with the marchioness' daughter and sure that she would leave her prison to marry him.

When Edward he returned to London, he went to his grandmother's house (the mother of his adopted father where his mother was living) and met his sister, who he hadn't seen since she was two. He was amazed at her beauty and stunning resemblance to her father and immediately loved her like there had been no separation.

Meanwhile, the marchioness was returning to London, and Edward had promised to go and see her. When he got there he promise to be her accompanier to anything that she wished. She was happy with this offer and made plans with him to go see the theater the following night. Following his visit with the marchioness, Edward was to go see Mr. Colvill, who needed to talk. Colvill needed to tell Edward his story that had been upsetting him and ruining him for nineteen years. Colvill told Edward a story about how he was going to marry the marchioness but at the last minute she rejected him and he ran off to India, where he had returned from just prior to meeting Edward. Edward was amazed at the story and how all of the information he was getting from different sources was adding up. He went home and found out that his mother was going to take his sister to the theatre the following night as well. When his mother found out that they would be at the same theatre as the marchioness she got very worried and told Edward not to tell the marchioness that Alice was his mother. Edward agreed.

The following night at the theater, the marchioness spotted Alice and requested that Edward get Alice to meet her later that night at a party so that they could talk. Alice goes and sees the marchioness where it is revealed to the marchioness that they baby that she instructed Alice to give to an orphanage nineteen years prior was actually Edward. She tells Alice to go and find Edward immediately to bring him to her, but Edward has gone to find Mr. Colvill and they end up at the Mackenzie household. While Alice is looking for Edward, the marchioness kills herself. Alice goes home and finds the two of them there. She proceeds to tell Edward and Mr. Colvill about the marchioness and Edward finds out that she was his mother and that Mr. Colvill was actually his father. Mr. Colvill finds out for the first time that Edward is his son. They are both thrilled.

Edward then claims that if he can just her the marchioness say one time that he is her son, he will be happy forever. Alice, then, informs him that she had just killed herself and Edward is saddened.

Edward is given the Colvill inheritance and gets to marry his sister, Janet, who wasn't ever his sister by blood, but who he had been in love with since he laid eyes on her.

- Prepared by Catherine Henkenius, University of Nebraska, December 2002