Isabella St John’s novels were published in the 1830s, in the generation after Jane Austen, and she went further than Austen in her sharply satirical picture of the English upper class. Nobody knew it more thoroughly than she did, as she had been born into an aristocratic family, who were furious at her decision to marry a man who offered her neither wealth nor status. Driven by circumstances to earn her living by writing, she produced a series of novels and stories of considerable originality and merit, deeply concerned with women’s rights and the injustice of society in her time. Her sense of humour, acute observation and boldness in writing about political issues set her apart from the run of romantic and didactic authors of her time. This is Regency society portrayed without flattery or varnish, sentimentality or pretension, just utterly authentic inside knowledge. St John travelled widely on the continent and her books depict scenes in France, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal and Nice, as well as England. She devoted her old age to charitable activities.
