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The novel is composed of letters, the majority written by Sophia Sternheim to her friend Emilia. They have been compiled by a fictional editor, Rosina, sister of Emilia and former maid-in-waiting to Sophia, who shared some of the latter’s adventures. Rosina introduces the story with an account of the courtship and marriage of Sophia’s parents. Her father, Colonel Sternheim, was the son of a professor who at university befriended the young Baron P., joined the army with him, and through his outstanding merit was made a commanding officer and ennobled. On retiring, he acquired an estate adjoining that of the Baron, and fell in love with one of the Baron's sisters. They married and lived happily together in spite of initial difficulties arising from their class difference. Sophia was their only child. Her mother was half English and consequently of a retiring and melancholy disposition: she died young, when Sophia was aged 9. Ten years later her beloved father died, leaving her to the care of a pastor (the father of Emilia and Rosina), and her worldly, selfish aunt, Countess Löbau.
She is taken to stay with her aunt and uncle at the Court of D.. Although her taste is for a useful, tranquil life of country retirement, she observes the world of the court with interest, and is attracted to a worthy young English diplomat, Lord Seymour, who for his part falls in love with her, though without declaring himself. A plot is hatched by her aunt and uncle to win favour with the prince by making Sophia his mistress. This is perceived by another Englishman, Lord Derby, a heartless rake, who intends to gain possession of Sophia for himself, and uses her frantic resistence to the prince to trick her into a sham marriage. She and Rosina are taken away to a distant village, but when Derby rejoins them he is frustrated by her reticence, and suspecting that she loves Seymour, rapes her and then departs, sending a letter soon after to tell her that their marriage is invalid.
Crushed, she goes to live with Emilia and her clergyman husband. But she is soon encouraged to take up an active life again, under the assumed name of 'Mrs. Suffering' (the translator's version of 'Frau Leidens'), assisting a rich lady, Madam Hills, to establish a 'seminary of domestics' for poor orphan girls. She also plans an informal school for the improvement of young ladies to be run by a neighbouring widow. At a spa town where she is brought by Madam Hills to recover her health, Sophia meets Lady Summers, a benevolant elderly Englishwoman, who wishes to establish a seminary on the same model, and she agrees to accompany her back to England. There she lives happily at Summer Hall, and is soon being courted by a reclusive and scholarly neighbour, Lord Rich. This peaceful period comes to an end when Lady Summer receives a request to visit from her neice and new husband Lord N.: none other than Lord Derby, who had inherited his brother's title.
Derby receives warning of Sophia's presence from his servant John, and arranges for her to be abducted and held prisoner in a hut in a remote and desolate part of the Scottish Highlands. Yet again, Sophia manages to recover after the initial shock and distress. She befriends her keepers, poor working people, and becomes the tutor of their children and of the illegitimate daughter of Derby and another abandoned mistress, who had perished in her Scottish exile. John eventually reappears, bearing a request that she rejoin Derby, who has tired of his wife. Provoked by her outraged refusal, the servant throws her into a ruined tower, where, broken and bleeding, she passes the night unconscious. She is retrieved by her keepers, and visited by Lady Douglas from the nearby estate, who has been made aware of her plight. But she is very ill and makes plans for her burial. In London, Derby is on his deathbed and, tortured by guilt, confesses to Seymour his treatment of Sophia and his part in her murder. Seymour and Lord Rich (who it emerges is his older half-brother) travel to Scotland to recover her body. There they discover to their joy that she is alive, and under the protection of Lady Douglas. Seymour proposes and she soon agrees to marry him. Lord Rich renounces his suit, and lives contentedly on an estate nearby, becoming the godfather of their second son.
© 1998 E J Clery / Sheffield Hallam University
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