''The Separation'' is an 1830 novel by the British writer
Lady Charlotte Bury, published in three volumes. It falls into the tradition of
silver fork novels, popular at the time. It was published in New York City by
Harper
Harper may refer to:
Names
* Harper (name), a surname and given name
Places
;in Canada
* Harper Islands, Nunavut
*Harper, Prince Edward Island
;In the United States
*Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County
* Harper, Il ...
the same year in two rather than three volumes. It was published anonymously, although Bury's authorship was widely known. A reviewer attacked it for recycling the plot entirely from Bury's 1812 novel ''Self-indulgence'', although the resulting publicity seemed to help the novel's sales.
Synopsis
Lord Fitzharris, a London
dandy, falls in loves with and marries a
penniless
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse < ...
Frenchwoman Lenora while travelling on the
Continent. Realising that his marriage to a
Catholic Frenchwoman will not be appreciated by his family, whose fortunes depend on him marrying a wealthy woman, he abandons Lenora and his young son in England after a failed attempt at persuading a friend to take her on as his
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a d ...
. He then commits
bigamy by marrying the daughter of a wealthy merchant living in
Grosvenor Square
Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was developed for fashionable re ...
. His new wife proves to be a kinder and more moral person than her Fitzharris. After discovering about the now ill Lenora she tends to the Frenchwoman on her deathbed, and then adopts the son as her own. Lord Fitzharris seems to have learned little from the experience, and his repentance is shallow.
[Copeland p.187]
References
Bibliography
* Copeland, Edward. ''The Silver Fork Novel: Fashionable Fiction in the Age of Reform''. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
* Mitchell, Charles & Mitchell, Paul. ''Landmark Cases in the Law of Restitution''. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006.
1830 British novels
Novels set in France
Novels set in London
Novels by Lady Charlotte Bury
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