author
Mary Brunton
1778–1818
A Scottish novelist of the early 19th century, she won readers with stories that mix romance, moral struggle, and sharp observation. Her best-known novels, Self-Control and Discipline, were widely read in her lifetime and helped secure her place in the history of women's writing.
2 Audiobooks
Discipline
by Mary Brunton
Self-control: A Novel
by Mary Brunton
About the author
Born Mary Balfour in Orkney in 1778, she later married Alexander Brunton and became known as Mary Brunton. She published Self-Control in 1811 and Discipline in 1814, novels that brought her considerable attention in her own day.
Her fiction is often remembered for its lively plots and its interest in character, conduct, and the pressures placed on women. Readers and critics have continued to return to her work as an important example of Scottish and Romantic-era writing.
Brunton died in 1818, leaving an unfinished third novel, Emmeline. Though less famous now than some of her contemporaries, she remains a fascinating figure for anyone interested in early women novelists and the changing shape of the novel in the 19th century.