| This blog explores social attitudes in Jane Austen's time, discusses her novels, reviews forgotten 18th century novels, and throws some occasional shade at the modern academy. The introductory post is here. My "six simple questions for academics" post is here. |
CMP# 194 Ellinor, or the World As It Is (1798), by Mary Ann Hanway
Apart from a brief note at the beginning of Northanger Abbey, and unlike other novelists of her era, Austen did not write prefaces for her novels. Author Mary Ann Hanway came out swinging against the gothic novel in her preface to Ellinor, “having been long convinced that the most baneful consequences must result to the rising generation, from reading the monstrous productions that for some years past have issued from the press [involving} 'valorous knights,' 'goblins dire,' 'charnel-houses.'" She promised that her novel would reflect “nature as it is," that is, she advocated for a more probable and realistic novel plots. Let's see how she succeeds!
Ellinor is a “picture of perfection” heroine but not an obnoxious one. She faces malicious slanders but holds on to her dignity and always hopes for better days. Janeites might spot some interesting similarities in the synopsis…
Ellinor opens with our heroine sitting in a carriage, on the final leg of her journey back from a convent in Paris. She has no idea who her parents are. Every now and then a forbiddingly cold woman visits her, and on this occasion, since Ellinor has refused to convert from Catholicism and take the veil, the mysterious woman sends her to be a companion to a young lady in the home of the gentlemanly Sir James Lavington.
Sitting in the carriage with Elinor is Mr. Howard, an older man—we’re talking an Emma/Mr. Knightley age gap here. She tells him her backstory. He is absolutely smitten and can’t stop thinking about her, but he is not rich, and his gouty old uncle will never let him marry a portionless girl of unknown background.
Ellinor is a “picture of perfection” heroine but not an obnoxious one. She faces malicious slanders but holds on to her dignity and always hopes for better days. Janeites might spot some interesting similarities in the synopsis…
Ellinor opens with our heroine sitting in a carriage, on the final leg of her journey back from a convent in Paris. She has no idea who her parents are. Every now and then a forbiddingly cold woman visits her, and on this occasion, since Ellinor has refused to convert from Catholicism and take the veil, the mysterious woman sends her to be a companion to a young lady in the home of the gentlemanly Sir James Lavington.
Sitting in the carriage with Elinor is Mr. Howard, an older man—we’re talking an Emma/Mr. Knightley age gap here. She tells him her backstory. He is absolutely smitten and can’t stop thinking about her, but he is not rich, and his gouty old uncle will never let him marry a portionless girl of unknown background.
Bing AI image A lamb amongst society's wolves
Ellinor is placed in Sir James Lavington's family, and for a while—surprise! Everything goes well. Ellinor improves the sulky Augusta’s character, and “by perseverance, and her judicious choice of them, had induced her first to listen to, and then by an easy and almost imperceptible transition, to become fond of reading, as an amusement.”
Ellinor’s beauty is her curse. Because she has no male relatives and is unprotected, Ellinor is terribly liable to being insulted, ie, men want to make her their mistress. She fends off the very determined dishonourable advances of Colonel Campley. More trouble comes in the person of Lady Fanny Flutter, who spreads gossip and trouble.
Between the insinuations that she was encouraging Campley's attentions and her vague background, Ellinor is gossiped right out of the neighbourhood: Perhaps she is the “product of an illicit intercourse between a parson and his housekeeper, or some stale virgin and her favourite footman.”
Meanwhile Mr. Howard is stuck overseas in a healthful climate with his gouty old uncle, so he’s unable to play a part in the novel but even if he were there, propriety would prevent him from giving Ellinor any shelter or financial assistance. She comes darn close to having to find a job to support herself, but she is taken in by a kindly noblewoman who doesn’t give two figs what the rest of the gossiping world says. More on Lady Dareall coming up in a blog post about early feminists.
Ellinor is placed in Sir James Lavington's family, and for a while—surprise! Everything goes well. Ellinor improves the sulky Augusta’s character, and “by perseverance, and her judicious choice of them, had induced her first to listen to, and then by an easy and almost imperceptible transition, to become fond of reading, as an amusement.”
Ellinor’s beauty is her curse. Because she has no male relatives and is unprotected, Ellinor is terribly liable to being insulted, ie, men want to make her their mistress. She fends off the very determined dishonourable advances of Colonel Campley. More trouble comes in the person of Lady Fanny Flutter, who spreads gossip and trouble.
Between the insinuations that she was encouraging Campley's attentions and her vague background, Ellinor is gossiped right out of the neighbourhood: Perhaps she is the “product of an illicit intercourse between a parson and his housekeeper, or some stale virgin and her favourite footman.”
Meanwhile Mr. Howard is stuck overseas in a healthful climate with his gouty old uncle, so he’s unable to play a part in the novel but even if he were there, propriety would prevent him from giving Ellinor any shelter or financial assistance. She comes darn close to having to find a job to support herself, but she is taken in by a kindly noblewoman who doesn’t give two figs what the rest of the gossiping world says. More on Lady Dareall coming up in a blog post about early feminists.
“to esteem the person we don’t love, and to love the person we cannot esteem."
Ellinor finally learns who her parents are, thanks to a guilty conscience, a manuscript and a coincidental reunion. I'm not going to give a complete synopsis but if you want more detail, you can read this contemporary review. She is illegitimate, the fruit of a single night of passion between two lovers who were parted by tyrannical parents. And she has already met her dad and fortunately (whew!) there was no incest tease. Not to speak of, anyway. And now she has an inheritance from her mother. And Mr. Howard is back from Italy with his uncle’s inheritance.
Ellinor chooses Mr. Howard even though she does not feel passion for him, turning down Lady Dareall's son, a handsome, rich, nobleman. When she was a poor nobody, he asked her to be his mistress--and that insult ruined his chances with her forever.
Ellinor finally learns who her parents are, thanks to a guilty conscience, a manuscript and a coincidental reunion. I'm not going to give a complete synopsis but if you want more detail, you can read this contemporary review. She is illegitimate, the fruit of a single night of passion between two lovers who were parted by tyrannical parents. And she has already met her dad and fortunately (whew!) there was no incest tease. Not to speak of, anyway. And now she has an inheritance from her mother. And Mr. Howard is back from Italy with his uncle’s inheritance.
Ellinor chooses Mr. Howard even though she does not feel passion for him, turning down Lady Dareall's son, a handsome, rich, nobleman. When she was a poor nobody, he asked her to be his mistress--and that insult ruined his chances with her forever.
 | Features of interest for Janeites
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Harriet Byron's rescue in Sir Charles Grandison Meta-narration and putting down novels
While they travel by carriage to London, the narrator remarks: “We grieve that the misadventures which are so constantly occurring to the heroines of contemporary novelists, did not happen to ours, that we might have been enabled to oblige our young readers with a chapter of the marvelous.”
Yet, during a different carriage ride, the heroine is nearly abducted by the persistent Sir Charles Campley!
More novel-slagging: Lady Fanny's maid, Miss Homely, “had read every novel that had been produced in the last ten years, good, bad, and indifferent; those, assisted by her propensities, had made her a perfect adept in intrigue.”
About the author/reviews
Mary Ann Hanway was a friend of Jane Porter, one of the two forgotten female authors whom Devoney Looser has brought back into the spotlight. Hanway lived in Blackheath, London but appears to have some Scottish connections. Her other novels are Falconbridge Abbey, Christabelle, The Maid of Rouen. According to the invaluable The Feminist Companion to Literature in English, Hanway favoured the emancipation of blacks and better civil rights for Catholics.
Ellinor got a good review from the Anti-Jacobin Review, a publication pushing back against those dangerous French Revolutionary ideas, so the conservative anti-Jacobins were not too bothered by the pro-peasant and feminist views. The review includes, as they often did in those days, a complete summary with spoilers.
While they travel by carriage to London, the narrator remarks: “We grieve that the misadventures which are so constantly occurring to the heroines of contemporary novelists, did not happen to ours, that we might have been enabled to oblige our young readers with a chapter of the marvelous.”
Yet, during a different carriage ride, the heroine is nearly abducted by the persistent Sir Charles Campley!
More novel-slagging: Lady Fanny's maid, Miss Homely, “had read every novel that had been produced in the last ten years, good, bad, and indifferent; those, assisted by her propensities, had made her a perfect adept in intrigue.”
About the author/reviews
Mary Ann Hanway was a friend of Jane Porter, one of the two forgotten female authors whom Devoney Looser has brought back into the spotlight. Hanway lived in Blackheath, London but appears to have some Scottish connections. Her other novels are Falconbridge Abbey, Christabelle, The Maid of Rouen. According to the invaluable The Feminist Companion to Literature in English, Hanway favoured the emancipation of blacks and better civil rights for Catholics.
Ellinor got a good review from the Anti-Jacobin Review, a publication pushing back against those dangerous French Revolutionary ideas, so the conservative anti-Jacobins were not too bothered by the pro-peasant and feminist views. The review includes, as they often did in those days, a complete summary with spoilers.
The Analytical Review mixed praise ("a lively manner") with snark: "A beautiful and accomplished female foundling, thrown upon the world... with heaven taught excellencies and qualities, exciting the envy and malice of one sex, and the passions and admiration of the other, led through various vicissitudes to the discovery of rich and honourable parents, ultimately triumphing over her enemies—is in the beaten track of novelists." The reviewer notices that Hanway followed the novelistic convention that Ellinor's "beauty, elegance, and virtue" stamps her as being of noble rank, yet Hanway included many populist comments that "bespeak the writer… an advocate on the side of democracy." The reviewer liked Lady John Dareall, an intrepid champion for female rights (who will be excerpted in a future post).
"The purpose, which the author professes to have in view… is 'to convince the patient sufferers of undeserved persecution, that truth, honour, rectitude and virtue, will decidedly triumph... However well intended... a few steps into the world must teach the most careless observer, that the deductions are evidently false."
The Critical Review allowed: “It would be well if the circulating libraries contained no worse books than Ellinor.”
Previous post: Ellen and Julia, a tale of two sisters Next post: Feminism when feminism wasn't cool
"The purpose, which the author professes to have in view… is 'to convince the patient sufferers of undeserved persecution, that truth, honour, rectitude and virtue, will decidedly triumph... However well intended... a few steps into the world must teach the most careless observer, that the deductions are evidently false."
The Critical Review allowed: “It would be well if the circulating libraries contained no worse books than Ellinor.”
Previous post: Ellen and Julia, a tale of two sisters Next post: Feminism when feminism wasn't cool
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