Susannah Gunning

Susannah Gunning, née Minifie (c. 1740 – 28 August 1800) was a British writer and novelist. She and her family were the centre of a society scandal in 1791 which revolved around a suitor for her daughter, Elizabeth Gunning.

Biography Susannah Gunning was one of at least two daughters of Reverend Dr. James Minifie. Her sister was Margaret Minifie. Not much is known about her life prior to the publication of her first novel in 1763. By this point, she lived in Fairwater, Somerset. On 8 August 1768, she married Captain John Gunning of the 65th Regiment of Foot, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Susannah and John Gunning had a daughter, novelist Elizabeth Gunning, born in 1769. The "Gunninghiad" prompted many satires from onlookers, one of which can be found in Nichols's Illustrations. An anonymous friend who wrote the foreword of her last novel, The Heir Apparent (1802), wrote that Gunning's "name [is] ever attended by the recollection of her virtues'", and "er life, from her cradle to her grave, was a life of holiness". An obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine was more frank, claiming Gunning was "a lady well known, if not highly celebrated, in the republik of letters" whose works were "among the middling class of novels".

In 1796, Gunning's novel did not portray her own life like previous works. Delves (1796) is a quixotic adventure of a young boy. Gunning's final novels, Love at First Sight (1797) and Fashionable Involvements (1800) are novels of manners which rely on plot and stylised characters. Garland Pub., 1975, ; Lightning Source Inc, 2006, The Cottage: A Novel, H. Saunders, J. Potts, W. Sleater, 1775 Susannah Gunning, M. Minifie (Miss.) The Count of Poland, J. and R. Byrn for Messieurs Price, Whitestone, 1780

Anecdotes of the Delborough Family: A Novel, 2nd ed; London: Lane, 1792 Volume I, volume II, volume III, volume IV, and volume V. Fashionable Involvements: A Novel, 3rd ed; London: Longman and Rees, 1800 The Heir Apparent: a Novel , London: Ridgeway & Symonds, 1794; Love at First Sight: A Novel, London: Lowndes, 1797