Her novels, giving vivid accounts of Scottish life and presenting sharp views on women's education, remained popular throughout the 19th century.

Clavering was initially involved in the writing of Ferrier's first novel Marriage, although ultimately her contribution was limited to the section entitled "The History of Mrs Douglas".

They enjoyed each other's company and he wrote of her: "This gifted personage besides having great talents has conversation the least exigeant of any author, female at least..., simple, full of humour, and exceedingly ready at repartee, and all this without the least affectation of the blue stocking.

[1] The last of several visits to London was paid in 1830 to see an oculist, when she stayed at the villa of Lord Casilis in Isleworth, the model for a house known as Woodlands in Destiny.

In 1824 Blackwood was prepared to pay £1000 for the second novel, The Inheritance, which according to 20th-century scholars, "mixes sententious moralizing with detailed, wry, caustic observation of the 'thrice-told tale' of factors which make unions happy or unhappy.

[12] Her novels combine humour with vivid accounts of Scottish social life and sharp views on marriage and female education.

[14] According to an early 20th-century history of literature, "In the novels of Susan Edmonstone Ferrier there is something of the rough sarcasm of Smollett, mingled with a strong didactic flavour and with occasional displays of sentiment that may be due to Mackenzie.

[15] It has been argued recently that the three novels form a trilogy – an extended inquiry on the subjects of nation, history, and the evolution of female consciousness.

[5] In December 2017, the Scottish author Val McDermid commented in The Observer that she hoped to revive the memory of Ferrier as Scotland's "Jane Austen".