Elizabeth Gunning

Elizabeth Gunning (1769–1823) was a French into English translator and a novelist.

Gunning was the daughter of John Gunning and writer Susannah Gunning. Miss Gunning married Major James Plunkett of Kinnaird, Co. Roscommon, Ireland in 1803, and they had a son James "Gunning" Plunkett. She died after a long illness on 20 July 1823, at Long Melford, Suffolk. Their other children included George Argyle Plunkett, who became a physician in Brooklyn, New York.

Works

She published several translations from the French, including:

• Memoirs of Madame de Barneveldt, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1795. Prefixed to the second edition, in 1796, is a charming portrait of Miss Gunning by the younger Saunders, engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi, R.A.
• The Wife with two Husbands: a tragi-comedy, in three acts [and in prose]. Translated from the French (of Pixèrecourt), 8vo, London, 1803. She had unsuccessfully offered this, with an opera based upon it, to Covent Garden and Drury Lane.
• Fontenelles' Plurality of Worlds, 12mo, London, 1808.
• Malvina, by Madame C—— (i.e. Cottin), second edition, 4 vols. 12mo, London, 1810.

Novels

• The Packet, 4 vols. 12mo, London, 1794.
• Lord Fitzhenry, 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1794.
• The Foresters, altered from the French, 4 vols. 12mo, London, 1796.
• The Orphans of Snowdon, 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1797.
• The Gipsey Countess, 5 vols. 12mo, London, 1799.
• The Village Library, 18mo, London, 1802.
• The Farmer's Boy, 4 vols. 12mo, London, 1802.
• Family Stories; or Evenings at my Grandmother's, &c., 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1802.
• A Sequel to Family Stories, &c., 12mo, London, 1802.
• The Exile of Erin, 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1808.
• The Man of Fashion: a Tale of Modern Times, 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1815.