Elizabeth Gunning

Miss Gunning. Lord Fitzhenry: a Novel. 3 vols.

London: J. Bell, 1794.

 

Contemporary Reviews

Critical Review. Ns v12. Dec 1794. 473

Lord Fitzhenry; a Novel. By Miss Gunning. 3 vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. sewed. Bell. 1794.

Under the title of one person, who is, however, the hero of the fable, this novel contains the detail of three parties, who are separately engaged in intrigues of honourable gallantry. Through the whole narrative, Miss Gunning's vivacity appears with particular advantage; and she has conducted the story with such ingenious address, that, after a series of obstacles, the happy votaries all come forward in exulting trio, to the altar of Hymen.

British Critic, 4 (1794), 673-74

Lord Fitzhenry: A Novel, by Miss Gunning. In three Volumes. 12mo. 10s. 6d. J. Bell, Oxford Street. 1794.

This Novel arises in part out of the preceding publication by the same Lady, of which we made honourable mention in our last Num-[674] ber, p. 544. It was, indeed, as we were there told, originally intended as an Episode belonging to that History, but certainly was better calculated to subsist independently as it does at present. Miss Gunning continues to bear away the palm from most of her rivals, by unaffected, original, simplicity, and liveliness of narration. Her Characters are well imagined, and well supported. Miss G. draws high life with a correctness unattainable by those who have not known it intimately; evincing a mind fully capable of distinguishing its follies and vices, its graces and its virtues: and the vulgar character of Lady Owen makes a very entertaining contrast to the other personages. Lord Hillford is rather too atrocious, and Fitzhenry, so amiable in all other points, is too glaringly in the wrong in the affair of the duel. It should have stopped short of actual combat. Nor should Dr. Burnet have died, as his death produces no effect, before the return of his saint-like pupil

-Prepared by Margaret Case Croskery, Ohio Northern University, July 2003