Mary Raymond

The Tale


Mary Raymond is the tale of an orphan girl of small fortune, who is sacrificed by a marriage of convenience and the desire of her relations to get her off their hands. Of deep feelings, but of a placid, retiring disposition, she attracts the notice of a middle-aged official. Her poor and undeclared lover absent—feeling herself in the way of her uncle and his family—exposed to their neglect, and half ordered by her protectors—she consents to become the wife of Mr. Merstham; whoso whole soul, if he has one, is hounded by his office, and who measures his importance to the world by his own idea of his official rank. At first every thing is smooth and right; but when the red-tapist pays a visit to the Raymonds at their country-seat, he is irritated at finding himself reduced to the level of his personal insignificance; the latent jealousy of his mean and narrow disposition is aroused, by more attention being paid to his wife than to himself, as well as by a casual hint of her former attachment; and the green-eyed monster is fully developed by the sudden return of the first lover, grown unexpectedly rich...


The Author

Catherine Grace Frances Gore (1799 – 1861) was a British novelist and dramatist, daughter of a wine merchant at Retford, where she was born. She is amongst the well-known of the silver fork writers — authors of the Victorian era depicting the gentility and etiquette of high society. There is something of Jane Austen’s influence to be traced in her novels. Catherine Gore was a very prolific worker. Between 1824 and 1862 she produced about 70 works, the most successful of which were novels of fashionable English life. Her first major was success was Pin Money, published in 1831, but her most popular and well-known novel was to be Cecil, or Adventures of a Coxcomb published in 1841. Gore also found success as a playwright, writing eleven plays that made their way to the London stage, though her plays never quite became as famous as her witty novels.


Contemporary Reviews


The Spectator, 1838 — So far as mere manners and social character go, Mary Raymond may take its place beside the best sketches of Mrs. Gore. The situation of the heroine in the family of the Raymonds, both as Mary and Mrs. Merstham, is capitally drawn, as well in the undesigned insolence as in the subsequent friendliness. The reader easily pleased, or the person jaded in mind or body, and who wishes to snatch brief amusement without being tasked with a long spell of reading, will welcome Mary Raymond.


Gentleman's magazine, and monthly American review, 1838 — Mary Raymond is a very seasonable production, and presents Mrs. Gore in a more favorable light than any of her longer novels.