Lifespan: 1799- 1861
Nationality: English
Genres: Fashionable Novels
Types of Work: Novels, Plays, Poetry
Contemporaries: Jane Austen, Susan Ferrier
Other names: Albany Poyntz
Style: One of the most well known of the "silver fork writers"-- writers who represented the gentility and etiquette of high society. Characterized by wit. Novels usually have European settings and are often historical. Her novels serve to expose the struggles of those moving outside the highly fashionable "top" circles of European society.
Bio: Born in 1799, in London, England, Catherine Moody was the daughter of a wine merchant. Her first novel, Theresa Marchment was published in 1824, but was not a huge success. In 1841, her most popular work, Cecil, or Adventures of a Coxcomb was published.
Catherine married Captain Charles Gore in 1823, and the couple resided mainly on Continental Europe. Her nearly 70 works helped to support the family.
Catherine moved to Paris in 1832, and remained there for 9 years. In 1855, she fell victim to a bank scandal, prompting her to reissue her novel, The Banker's Wife-- a story about a corrupt banker-- which was originally published in 1843.The move served as a testament to her never-ending pursuit to expose hypocrisy-- a cause which often brought her censure during her career.
Catherine died January 29, 1861 at Linwood, Hampshire. Her obituary in The Times stated that Gore was "the best novel writer of her class and the wittiest woman of her age".
Novels:
Theresa Marchmont
The Lettre de Cachet; and, The Reign of Terror
Women as They Are
Pin-Money
Mothers and Daughters
The Tuileries
The Hamiltons; or, Official Life in 1830
The Sketch Book of Fashion
The Hamiltons; or, The New Era
Mrs. Armytage; or, Female Domination
The Diary of a Désennuyée
Stokeshill Place; or, The Man of Business
Memoirs of a Peeress
The Woman of the World
The Dowager
Greville
Cecil
Two More about Money
The Story of a Royal Favourite
Sketches of English Character
Peers and Parvenus
The Queen of Denmark
The Two Aristocracies
Heckington: A Novel
Self, or, The Narrow, Narrow World
The Banker's Wife, or, Court and City
Castles in the Air
The Diamond and the Pearl
Mammon, or, The Hardships of an Heiress
The Birthright
The Young Husband
Abednego the Money Lender