The Victims of Society

The Author

Few names were better known in the world of literature than was that of Lady Blessington. She was a native of Ireland; born in 1789. At fifteen she was induced, against her inclinations, to marry Captain Farmer, of the 47th Regiment. His violent temper and cruelty forced her to leave him in about three months.  After his death, she lived under the protection of an officer, and was also intimate with Lord Blessington, whom she married in 1818. 

At Genoa, in 1823, Lady Blessington met Lord Byron for the first time, and afterwards saw him daily for a considerable period during her residence in that city. The readers of Moore's Life of Byron will remember the many occasions which he pays tribute to her intellectual and personal gifts and graces. 

After the earl's death in 1829, she fixed her residence in London, and long held a very distinguished place in the literary society of the metropolis. Her house became the centre-point of men of talent in almost all departments; and many of the literary celebrities of London were frequently found there as visitors. Lady Blessington was no less famed for her beauty than for her literary talents. Byron well described her as the "most gorgeous Lady Blessington." The portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence gives the best likeness of her ladyship, and conveys the best idea of her voluptuous beauty. 


The Novel

The Victims of Society appeared in 1837, and both in its general scope and the artistic manner in which its subject is treated, it has been said to be not inferior to Miss Edgeworth's Leonora. It is a tale of society, written in the form of letters. The letter-writers, in the present instance, are persons of very various characters, but all belonging to what is called the world of fashion—some of them high-minded and immaculate— others belonging to a clique of exclusives—with a sufficient supply of toad-eaters, and rouée, as they separately and conjointly figure at the present day. The plot is constructed with force and skill, and the characters, principal and accessory, are well sustained.


Contemporary Review

The Literary Gazette, 1837 - The name of this novel indicates its tragic character, and the distressing evils which too widely flow from highly countenanced errors in our social system. Lady Blessington is a vivid painter, and the picture she has so strikingly wrought is as truly as it is severely moral. Even where there is no guilt, levity, imprudence, weakness, provoke their punishment; and certain it is (as is here finely shown), that our follies are often as heavily scourged as our vices.