Born, at Durham, 1776. Educated at Edinburgh. Part editor (with her sister and T. F. Dibdin) of “The Quiz,” 1797. Created “Lady of Chapter of St. Joachim” by the King of Würtemberg after the success of her novel, “Thaddeus of Warsaw.” Tragedy “Switzerland” performed at Drury Lane, 5 Feb. 1819; “Owen, Prince of Powys,” Drury Lane, 28 Jan. 1822. Lived for some time with her mother and sister at Esher. Returned to London with her sister, 1831. Visit to her brother at St. Petersburg, 1842. Grant from Literary Fund, Nov. 1842. Contrib. to “Gentleman’s Mag.,” “Amulet,” and other periodicals. Died, at Bristol, 24 May 1850. Works: “Thaddeus of Warsaw,” 1803; “A Sketch of the Campaigns of Count A. Suwarrow Rymnikski” (anon.), 1804; “The Scottish Chiefs,” 1810; “The Pastor’s Fireside,” 1815; “Duke Christian of Luneburg,” 1824; “Tales Round a Winter Hearth” (with A. M. Porter), 1826; “The Field of the Forty Footsteps” (with A. M. Porter’s “Coming Out”), 1828; “Sir Edward Seaward’s Narrative of his Shipwreck,” 1831. She edited: “Young Hearts. By a Recluse,” 1834.
Personal
Her stately figure and graceful manners made an impression on me. Few ladies have been so gifted with personal attractions, and at the same time been so respectable as authors.
General
Miss Porter has no wit, she invariably bungles a picture of the conversation of ordinary persons whenever she attempts it. Why does she delight in unfolding the forward weaknesses of the female heart, and making even Mary Beaufort love first? Yet with all her deficiencies she is interesting: never failing to excite our sympathy, though she cannot rank with our Fieldings or Smolletts. She infinitely surpasses the insipid froth of
| “The mob of Gentlemen, who write with ease.” |
“Thaddeus of Warsaw” and the “Scottish Chiefs” are as widely known as any books of their class in the language. They are read by every school-boy and school-girl in the sentimental period of life, and call forth a perennial outburst of tears or enthusiasm. Neither work is distinguished for historical accuracy or profound insight into human nature. Yet the two are unique, and will be read and enjoyed by each successive generation of youth by reason of their sweet style and sentiment.
Abound in striking scenes, and are written in an animated style, but display little knowledge of life, or discrimination of character.
The first successful attempt at this kind of writing was made by Miss Jane Porter in 1810. “The Scottish Chiefs” is the story of the heroic William Wallace related with some animation and many pleasing details. But the style is artificial and declamatory, and, as a picture of Scotch manners in the fourteenth century, the work is by no means trustworthy. The many picturesque descriptions, and the interest which the story awakens regarding the fate of the hero, has made the book a favorite, especially among the younger class of romance readers, and has, despite its many faults, placed it among the classics of our language.
Jane, although writing less than her sister, and beginning her literary work later in life, is much better known and loved by us, because her works accord with the spirit of the times in which she lived.
It was “The Scottish Chiefs,” by Miss Porter, a work that was destined to create within me a new want, and to turn my thoughts to the reading and study of history…. Its influence is still with me. I read the book by stealth, concealing it under my text book during school hours, when my quiet attitude led my teacher and others to suppose I was absorbed in study.
The success of the book was immense. Kosciusko sent his portrait and a medal to the author; she was made a member of foreign societies, received gold crosses of honor; and oddly enough, even from America there came, under the guiding providence of Mr. John Harper, then I believe Mayor of the City of New York, an elegant carved armchair, trimmed with crimson plush, to testify “the admiring gratitude of the American people” to the author of “Thaddeus of Warsaw.” The book, by its amazing popularity, and by the entertaining way in which it marshals its romantic effulgencies in favor of a great cause, may very naturally suggest that other, later and larger enlistment of all the forces of good story-telling, which—fifty years thereafter—in the hands of an American lady (Mrs. Stowe) contributed to a larger cause, and with more abiding results. “The Scottish Chiefs” has less of gusto than the Polish novel—and as I took occasion to say when we were at that date of Scottish history—is full of bad anachronisms, and of historical untruths. Yet there is a good bracing air of the Highlands in parts of it, and an ebullient martial din of broadswords and of gathering clans which go far to redeem its maudlin sentiment.
“Thaddeus of Warsaw,” long cherished by our great-grandfathers, and not entirely unknown to our fathers, had some faint merit.
Jane Porter sent to school to Joseph Strutt would have been a rival to Sir Walter Scott.
