Self-Control (novel)

[1] Part of the author's intention in writing the work was to show "the power of the religious principle in bestowing self-command", while rebutting the idea that a reformed rake makes the best husband.

After the death of Captain Montreville, Laura goes to live with Lady Pelham, her maternal aunt, who helps her to receive her annuity, but she is not religious and colludes with Colonel Hargrave.

Hargrave attempts to persuade her to marry him by more drastic measures – having her arrested under false pretenses and tricking her into joining a gambling party.

Hargrave commits suicide and Laura returns to her home country, where she marries Montague De Courcy and has five children with him.

The first edition was published in February 1811 in two volumes, with a run of 750 copies, for the price of 21 shillings, of which 500 had been sold out by the end of the month.

The reviewer also found it hard to believe that Laura would regret having to turn down Hargrave initially, as "we only have the word of the author" that this was the case.

[10] The Scots Magazine criticised the "strained and improbable incidents" throughout the book, characterising them as the desperation of a romance novelist to impress her audience.

[11] The Times Literary Supplement wrote that Self-Control seemed to draw on Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and Frances Burney's Cecilia.

[12] In October 1813, Jane Austen wrote "I am looking over Self Control again, and my opinion is confirmed of its being an excellently-meant, elegantly-written work, without anything of nature or probability in it.

"[1] In 1999, Kate Fullagar wrote that Self-Control "is clearly concerned with the difficulty of a woman earning her own living and with the importance of female financial independence.