Catherine Gore

[anon.]. The Letter de Cachet:  a Tale; and The Reign of Terror:  a Tale

London:  J. Andrews, 1827.

 

Biographical Sketch of Catherine Gore

Catherine Grace Frances Gore (1799-1861) was a British novelist and dramatist, born in East Retford. It wasn't till after her marriage to Captain Charles Gore in February of 1823 that she began to devote her energy to publication of her works primarily as a means of providing income. It has been suggested that her husband's connections with the publishers of his travel writings enabled her to publish as well as she did. She published her first novel, Theresa Marchment, orThe Maid of Honour, in 1824. Pin Money, published in 1831, was to be her first major was success. 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 clever novels. She is considered an author of the 'silver fork' genre dealing with the propriety and high society, which she varied with travel writing and historical romances. Between 1824 and 1862 she produced about 70 works, the most successful of which were novels of fashionable English life. She and her husband moved to Paris in 1832. Only two of her ten children survived her; her daughter Cecilia is said to have lived a life which emulated many of the romantic tales described in Gore's novels. Catherine Gore wrote until she went completely blind in 1859, and died in Linwood, Hampshire in 1861. Gore's obituary in The Times concluded that Gore was "the best novel writer of her class and the wittiest woman of her age."

Like Jane Austen and other 18th and 19th Century, female authors, Gore wrote to give a voice to the all-but-ignored women who fulfilled a lesser role in the eyes of British society. However, where Austen criticized the elite classes, Gore's novels suggest a pride in being of a fashionable status-a characteristic particularly noticeable in The Reign of Terror. Gore's works earned her a sizable income and allowed her the lifestyle of the fashionable characters she described in her novels. It seems as though she believes to have something to offer her female readers as she provides commentary on standards of propriety and etiquette.

Sources:

http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/corvey/corinne/1Gore/BioGore.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/catherine-gore
http://www.answers.com/topic/lettre-de-cachet


-- Prepared by Levi Drake, University of Nebraska, April 2006.
© Levi Drake, 2006.