This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.

The focus here is on the fortunes of the young and innocent Gertrude St.Clair, who through the machinations of the desperate Mrs. St.Clair, leaves their home in France and arrives as heir apparent to the Scottish estate of Rossville.

First published in 1824, The Inheritance is the second novel by Susan Ferrier (1782-1854). Following the triumph of her more famous work Marriage (1818), The Inheritance picks up Ferrier's favoured theme of tried and tested morality.