SOURCE: "The Novelist," in Caroline Norton, Constable and Company, Ltd., 1948, pp. 141-57.

Alice Acland, pseudonym of Anne Wignall, is a British novelist and biographer. In the excerpt that follows, she compares the heroines and the plots of Norton's novels to Norton's own character and experiences.

Caroline [Norton] wrote four novels altogether. Each one was influenced more by her experiences up to the year 1842 than by any other events in her life. The first of these tales, The Wife and Woman's Reward, was published a month or two before the final crash of her marriage, the others many years later; but all bear the stamp of the bitterness of her experience in the years of her young womanhood. The lineaments and characteristics of those who had wrecked her peace of mind and happiness were seared for always on her memory. The passage of time merely sharpened the edge of...