Catherine Grace Frances Gore (Moody) (1799 – January 29, 1861) was a British novelist and dramatist, daughter of a wine merchant at Retford

Retford

Retford is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England, located 31 miles from the city of Nottingham, and 23 miles west of Lincoln, in the district of Bassetlaw. The town is situated in a valley with the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal running through the centre of the...

, where she was born. She is amongst the well-known of the silver fork writers - authors of the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 depicting the gentility and etiquette of high society.

Biography

Gore was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and raised in East Retford and London. Her first novel Theresa Marchment, or The Maid of Honour was published in 1824. 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.

She married a Captain Gore, with whom she resided mainly on Continental Europe

Continental Europe

Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....

, supporting her family by her voluminous writings. Between 1824 and 1862 she produced about 70 works, the most successful of which were novels of fashionable English life. Among these may be mentioned Manners of the Day (1830),
Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb (1841), and The Banker's Wife (1843). She also wrote for the stage, and composed music for songs.

Gore's 1861 obituary in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

concluded that Gore was "the best novel writer of her class and the wittiest woman of her age."

Novels by Catherine Gore

• The Broken Hearts (1823)
• Theresa Marchmont, or the Maid of Honour (1824)
• The Bond: A Dramatic Poem (1824)
• Richelieu, or the Broken Heart (1826)
• The Lettre de Cachet: A Tale (1827)
• The Reign of Terror: A Tale (1827)
• Hungarian Tales (1829)
• Romances of Real Life (1829)
• Women as They Are, or The Manners of The Day (1830)
• The Historical Traveller (1831)
• The School for Coquettes (1831)
• Pin Money: A Novel (1831)
• The Tuileries: A Tale (1831)
• Mothers and Daughters: A Tale of the Year 1830 (1831)
• The Opera: A Novel (1832)
• The Fair of Mayfair (1832)
• The Sketchbook of Fashion (1833)
• Polish Tales (1833)
• The Hamiltons, or the New Era (1834)
• The Maid of Crossey, King O'neil, and The Queen's Champion (1835)
• The Diary of a Desennuyee (1836)
• Mrs. Armytage, or Female Domination (1836)
• Stokeshill Place, or The Man of Business (1837)
• The Rose Fancier's Manual (1838)
• Mary Raymond and Other Tales (1838)
• The Woman of the World (1838)
• The Cabinet Minister (1839)
• The Courtier of the Days of Charles II, with other Tales (1839)
• A Good Night's Rest (1839)
• Dacre of the South, or the Olden Time: A Drama (1840)
• The Dowager, or the New School for Scandal (1840)
• Preferment, or My Uncle the Earl (1840)
• The Abbey and Other Tales (1840)
• Greville, or a Season in Paris (1841)
• Cecil, or Adventures of a Coxcomb (1841)
• Cecil, A Peer (1841)
• Paris in 1841 (1842)
• The Man of Fortune and Other Tales (1842)
• The Ambassador's Wife (1842)
• The Moneylender (1843)
• Modern Chivalry, or a New Orlando Furiso (1843)
• The Banker's Wife, or Court and City (1843)
• Agathonia: A Romance (1844)
• Marrying for Money (in Omnibus of Modern Romance (1844)
• The Birthright and Other Tales (1844)
• Quid per Quo, or the Day of The Dupes, a Comedy (1844)
• The Popular Member: The Wheel of Fortune (1844)
• Self (1845)
• The Story of a Royal Favourite (1845)
• The Snowstorm: A Christmas Story (1845)
• Peers and Parvenus: A Novel (1846)
• New Year's Day: A Winter's Tale (1846)
• Men of Capital (1846)
• The Debutante, or The London Season (1846)
• Sketches of English Character (1846)
• Castles in The Air: A Novel (1847)
• Temptation and Atonement and Other Tales (1847)
• The Inundation, or Pardon and Peace: A Christmas Story (1847)
• The Diamond and the Pearl: A Novel (1849)
• Adventures in Borneo (1849)
• The Dean's Daughter, or The Days We Live In (1853)
• The Lost Son: A Winter's Tale (1854)
• Transmutation, or The Lord and the Lost (1854)
• Progress and Prejudice (1854)
• Mammon, or The Hardships of an Heiress (1855)
• A Life's Lessons: A Novel (1856)
• The Two Aristocracies: A Novel (1857)
• Heckington: A Novel (1858)

External links