Novel 126: Ellen Pickering, The Quiet Husband (1840)

 
Thomas Phillips, William Blathwayt IV and His Wife, Frances Scott

Thomas Phillips, William Blathwayt IV and His Wife, Frances Scott

 

A virtuous young lady, raised in luxury but suddenly orphaned and poor, is taken in by her mother’s former lover.

Ellen Pickering (1802-1843) wrote some sixteen novels before her early death.  If you don’t allow yourself to be annoyed by the plot here (especially the tediously mysterious lovers’ misunderstanding), you’ll enjoy the various carefully developed characters placed in striking situations.

“The quick eye and clear intellect to observe, and the ready pen to convey to others in a pleasant manner the impressions received, are the gifts of which Miss Pickering makes such good use.” Literary Gazette, June 6, 1840

“While we object to the story as being rather too improbable, to the dénouement as occurring merely at the author’s arbitrary pleasure, . . . we . . . pronounce the story . . . to be one that rivets the attention; serving also as the vehicle of numberless happy sketches as well as pointed and telling truths.  The lady has an admirable knack at dove-tailing just reflections in the progress of the narrative, and perhaps still more artlessly, to appearance, in the course of close and rapid dialogue.  With what a keen eye does she mark, if not a very wide world of life, at least distinct and important segments in its circle! with what a delicate hand does she delineate character!” Monthly Review, July, 1840

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014559115

Novel 125: Theo Gift, An Innocent Maiden (1883)

 
James Charles, Study of a Girl in White

James Charles, Study of a Girl in White

 

A murder places an innocent girl in a difficult dilemma.

For Theo Gift, see Novel 015.  In this brief novel, the characters, though mostly types, are compelling, and the plot is deftly handled.

Gift’s “idea of an innocent English girl is much more complex and natural than the mere selfish, silly chit who plays the ingénue in most novels. . . . Both the men are very well drawn. . . .  There is nothing depressing in this very pretty, refined, and carefully written book.” Academy, March 1, 1884

“Theo Gift’s last heroine is a very charming little maiden indeed, whose story may be recommended for its purity of tone and unaffected style.  Nor does it want a fairly constructed plot. . . .  Theo Gift always seems in kindly sympathy with the people of whom she writes.” Morning Post, March 13, 1884.


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Novel 124: Anthony Hope, Mr. Witt's Widow (1892)

 
William Powell Frith, Mary, Queen of Scots Bidding Farewell to France

William Powell Frith, Mary, Queen of Scots Bidding Farewell to France

 

A man suspects that his cousin’s fiancée, a rich young widow, might once have been a thief.

Anthony Hope (Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, 1863-1933), best remembered for The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), wrote thirty-some other novels, beginning in 1890; this is a delightful social comedy, well paced and smartly phrased.

“All the characters are neatly sketched, and Mr. Hope’s dialogue is crisp and pointed.  Altogether, this lively and piquant story is good reading.” Saturday Review, May 7, 1892

“The story is good both in conception and in execution.  The style is just suited to the subject.” Spectator, June 11, 1892

“The development and denouement afford rich material for a first-class society comedy, and at the same time the story is clever and exceedingly enjoyable.” San Francisco Chronicle, October 30, 1892

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https://archive.org/details/mrwittswidowfriv00hopeuoft

Novel 123: Isabella Neil Harwood, Raymond's Heroine (1867)

 
George Hayter, The Honourable Mrs. William Ashley

George Hayter, The Honourable Mrs. William Ashley

 

After her father is ruined by an absconding financier, a girl is adopted by her rich aunt.

Isabella Neil Harwood (1837-1888) wrote five novels in six years (1864-1870) before turning to drama.  This, her third novel, has a good plot with surprising turns and some complex characters.

“Domestic life has its depths, as well as its shallows; and the dreadful significance and mystery of life is that none of us know how noble or how vile we may be. To detect this secret strength of mere humanity is a great merit, and one possessed in a high degree by the book now before us.” Saturday Review, April 13, 1867

A “substantially good novel. Home and the world are its theme, but they are treated in no threadbare sentimental fashion. . . . The story . . . is original and well-constructed. . . . The development of character . . . is natural although artistic. . . . The dialogue is natural, and its narrative always well written.” Examiner, April 13, 1867

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v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044C4C#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2023%2C-125%2C5479%2C2481

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044C52#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2047%2C-126%2C5523%2C2501



Novel 122: Richard Pryce, The Quiet Mrs. Fleming (1890)

 
James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Seaside

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Seaside

 

A beautiful and mysterious woman takes winter lodgings in a seaside resort town.

Richard Pryce (1864-1942) wrote 21 novels between 1887 and 1911; this one is a quiet mystery story with carefully developed characters and setting.

The story is “ingeniously told from the outside.  The reader is led round about the centre of interest, but never holds any intercourse with the principal actors.” Manchester Guardian, February 17, 1891

“The story is not too long to be read at a sitting, and it is too interesting to be laid down by any one who gets beyond the first page.” Academy, March 28, 1891

“Mr. Richard Pryce’s story is told with much quiet humour, and with admirable self-restraint”; unlike the plot, the characters are “far from commonplace” and there is “not one line of padding or a dull page in the book.” Murray’s Magazine, May, 1891

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https://archive.org/details/183709227.2465.emory.edu

Novel 121: L.B. Walford, Troublesome Daughters (1880)

 
George Dunlop Leslie, The Daughters of Eve

George Dunlop Leslie, The Daughters of Eve

 

A man falls in love with a mysterious girl on a Scottish farm.

Here is another fine novel by Walford (see Novels 018 and 066):  the particularly amusing characters counterbalance the particularly implausible plot (based on an impossible psycho-medical catastrophe and an outrageously idiotic lovers’ misunderstanding).

“If the story of ‘Troublesome Daughters’ were at all equal in merit to the author’s delineation of character, the book would be one of the best as well as one of the most charming published of late.” Athenaeum, July 24, 1880

“A fresher, prettier, more unpretentious little story than ‘Troublesome Daughters’ is not to be found, and Mrs. Walford deserves cordial recognition of the growing strength of her hand.” New York Tribune, August 1, 1880

“There is plenty of incident and bright conversation in Troublesome Daughters, and the story is interesting enough to bear reading aloud, which in itself is no slight praise.” Literary World, August 28, 1880

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/troublesomedaugh01walf/

v.2 https://archive.org/details/troublesomedaugh02walf/

v.3 https://archive.org/details/troublesomedaugh03walf/

Novel 118: Catherine Gore, Preferment (1839)

 
George Frederick Watts, Reverend A. Wellsted

George Frederick Watts, Reverend A. Wellsted

 

The ambitious younger son of an earl’s younger son struggles to make his way in the world.

Here is another novel by Gore (see Novels 012, 072), in which that great writer deploys her witty style to develop another well constructed plot and another set of memorably vivid characters.

“Mrs. Gore is an expert and long practised delineator of aristocratic and courtly life. . . .  aristocratic manners, political intrigues, roués, cold-hearted, eccentric, vain, and silly personages of title, are sure to engage her pencil, which is often keen and satirical.” Monthly Review, December, 1839

“We might point to at least a dozen entire scenes of this novel which are equal in the terseness of their satiric wit, the rich play of their humour, and the characteristic truth of their personal delineations, to those of . . . the best modern comedies.” New Monthly Magazine, December, 1839

“We could bet against odds that Mrs. Gore could not write a dull book if she got the Bank of England for her trouble. . . .  Wit, satire which tickles rather than wounds, and a charming facility in depicting a foible, a peculiarity, or an individualizing quality, by a single trait—one stroke of the pen, one happy epithet.” Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, January, 1840

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/prefermentormyun01gore
v.2 https://archive.org/details/prefermentormyun02gore
v.3 https://archive.org/details/prefermentormyun03gore

Novel 117: James Maclaren Cobban, The Golden Tooth (1901)

 
Edward Robert Hughes - A First Visit to the Dentist

Edward Robert Hughes - A First Visit to the Dentist

 

A young farmer is wrongly accused of murdering the local squire; a mysterious man steps in to help.

James Maclaren Cobban (1849-1903) wrote some 25 novels in various genres, beginning in 1879.  This is one of at least three murder mysteries featuring a mustachioed amateur sleuth named Townshend.  The plot is excellent, the style good, the characters vivid if simple.

Cobban’s “qualities of literary art and insight into human nature give a relieving touch to the ordinary mechanism of this class of novel.” Manchester Guardian, February 27, 1901

“An excellent and ingeniously constructed tale” treated with “briskness, humour, and unconventionality.” Spectator, April 27, 1901

A “detective story with all the usual impossible incidents, hairbreadth escapes, and wonderful dovetailings.” New York Times, August 19, 1901

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Cobban, The Golden Tooth (1901)

Novel 115: M.E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd (1863)

 
George Frederick Watts, Ellen Terry

George Frederick Watts, Ellen Terry

 

A passionate woman with a dubious past marries a rough, honest squire.

Here’s another by the great Braddon (see Novels 004, 061).  Like most of her novels it is engrossingly plotted and cleverly phrased—and was dismissively reviewed.

“As good a specimen of the marketable ladies’ novel as could be found.  Further than that it does not go.  There is no genius, or poetry, or high feeling, or delicate painting, or subtle observation in it.  But for a professional work, as a piece of composition, to be sold by a woman for a certain sum of money, it is masterly; and we invite all that great army of female stragglers in the battle of life who wish to carry the literary flag triumphantly, to read the book carefully, and observe how much a woman must bring with her to the ball if she wants to write like Miss Braddon.  In the first place, the English . . . is wonderfully good. . . .  The make of the sentences and the choice of words, the easiness with which the sense is conveyed which the author wishes to convey, and the absence of all that is awkward and ponderous, are sufficient to satisfy the exigencies of the most rigid criticism.  Then the plot . . . of the book is most exciting.  We are kept at the topmost pitch for as long as possible. . . .  Then Miss Braddon . . . knows all about men and their ways. . . . The book . . . impresses us, before we have finished it, not only with a sense of the great powers of the authoress . . . but also with a conviction that she has a vein of feeling higher than the world of . . . tobacco, and brandy-and-water and that this feeling is perfectly genuine and unaffected.” Saturday Review, January 31, 1863

“There are touches of humour and pathos which we look for in vain in Miss Braddon’s former work, and often an elevation of thought which would have accorded better with a loftier subject”; “If we have failed to convey a very favourable impression of her last effort, it is not because we deny Miss Braddon’s talent as a writer, but because we regret to see it employed on so unlovely a theme,” one which may have “an insidious effect” on the minds of readers. London Review, February 14, 1863

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/aurorafloyd01brad/

v.2 https://archive.org/details/aurorafloyd02brad/

v.3 https://archive.org/details/aurorafloyd03brad/

Novel 114: Rosa Nouchette Carey, Sir Godfrey's Grand-daughters (1892)

 
Henry Tanworth Wells, Emma and Federica Bankes of Soughton Hall

Henry Tanworth Wells, Emma and Federica Bankes of Soughton Hall

 

A young lady resists her grandfather’s plan for her to marry her cousin.

Rosa Nouchette Carey (1840-1909) wrote over 40 novels featuring virtuous women in domestic settings.  This one is certainly vulnerable to such dismissals as the Athenaeum's:  "nice and pretty young women . . . go through some pretty and romantic adventures with some exceptionally handsome and enterprising young men.” But despite its slow pace and its characteristic avoidance of the strange or surprising, it holds the attention: the style is free of sentimentality, and several characters are well and plausibly delineated.

“A quaint, simple tale of an English community. . . . Throughout the story is natural and entertaining, the style sympathetic, and the study of character clear and good.” Critic, November 5, 1892

It is “pre-eminently soothing"; a “quiet story of the life of rural gentlepeople . . . and the substance of the novel is well matched by the cultivated refinement of Miss Carey’s literary style”; it has “interest given by delicately truthful characterization rather than by exciting sequence of events. . . . One of the pleasantest of recent contributions to domestic fiction; it is not lacking in humour, and there are passages of true and unstrained pathos.” Academy, December 4, 1892

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/sirgodfreysgrand01care

v.2 https://archive.org/details/sirgodfreysgrand02care

v.3 https://archive.org/details/sirgodfreysgrand03care



Novel 112: Catherine Anne Hubback, The Rival Suitors (1857)

 
James Clarke Hook, Wreckage from the Fruiter

James Clarke Hook, Wreckage from the Fruiter

 

A virtuous young lady is courted by both an honest young coast-guard captain and a middle-aged landowner with a past.

Catherine Anne Hubback (1820?-1880?) was Jane Austen’s niece (the daughter of her brother Sir Francis—possibly more a drawback than an advantage in her career, since it led critics into invidious comparisons).  She wrote ten novels between 1850 and 1862.  This one begins well, though it eventually comes to grief amid melodramatic crimes implausibly concealed and even more implausibly revealed.  The second volume, where well-delineated characters are shown at amusing cross purposes, is the best.

“It is well written, carefully worked out, and very interesting; the morality is healthy, and, though highly wrought, is neither fantastic nor overstrained. . . .  The incidents of the discovery are too much forced, and the repetition of disasters at sea shows a want of invention . . . surprising in so clever a writer.” Athenaeum, May 23, 1857

It is, “though not free from defects . . . the best of all Mrs. Hubback’s works, and one which proves her to be nearly allied by genius, as she is by blood, to the first of English female novelists”; she “shows considerable ingenuity in the construction of the plot, and no small power of telling a story.  Then some of the characters are very powerfully sketched, and presented in a manner which displays great knowledge of human nature.” Saturday Review, August 8, 1857

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v.1 https://books.google.com/books?id=z5k9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

v.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=8pk9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

v.3 https://books.google.com/books?id=DZo9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

Novel 110: Anne Manning, Poplar House Academy (1859)

 
Sir Luke Fildes, A Schoolgirl

Sir Luke Fildes, A Schoolgirl

 

Abandoned by their father, three sisters open a school.

For Anne Manning see Novel 052

“Until now, we have never seen a work of fiction which seemed to deserve the title a Tale of Real Life, but we must thank the authoress . . . for having justified, in her present work, our belief that such a tale might be so told as to find many and grateful listeners.  About the vraisemblance, simplicity, and reality of the story there can be no question.  Its construction—it cannot be said to have a plot—is that of many and many an unwritten biography, and among its readers there will be not a few who will recognise it as little more than a sober and truthful portrait of their own existence. . . .  To those who read it on a quiet evening after a good day’s work—to those who read with a sober taste rather than with omnivorous mental appetite—it is likely to prove an agreeable and welcome variety, after the laboured piquancy of more pretentious works.  Those who know  . . . how wearisome a task novel reading may become, will probably agree with us in wishing that more of the novel-writers of our day were capable of imitating the good taste, simple style, and modest coloring which are the crowning merits of the pictures of English home life contained in these two little volumes.” Saturday Review, April 9, 1859

“In the course of the tale this practised and agreeable writer inculcates many just and sound views as to the importance and dignity of the tuitional vocation when rightly apprehended.” Critic, April 30, 1859

“There is a good sound English style, a kindly human sympathy, and a genial, warm and Christian spirit in the writings of this lady that make them deservedly popular, and this, her most recent work, is decidedly one of the most pleasant.” Eclectic Review, May, 1859

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/poplarhouseacade01mann

v.2 https://archive.org/details/poplarhouseacade02mann

Novel 109: Elizabeth Missing Sewell, Ursula (1858)

 
William Mulready, Young Girl with a Basket of Eggs

William Mulready, Young Girl with a Basket of Eggs

 

A farmer's daughter grows up admiring her brother and striving to be virtuous.

Elizabeth Missing Sewell (1815-1906) wrote some 13 novels, many, like this one, first-person narratives of a girl’s entry into adulthood.  The reader must endure some pious tedium, but in exchange gets a set of living, original characters and a fine-grained representation of life on a tenant farm—a refreshing change from the usual aristocratic setting.

“To those who have leisure and patience, Ursula may be recommended as a careful and able depiction of country scenery, of a peculiar kind of country life, and a painstaking delineation of various characters, but time and patience are indispensable to its relish.” Spectator, April 17, 1858

“The characters are drawn with truth to nature, and they give a colour and turn to the circumstances and incidents of the story rather than the circumstances to them, which is as it should be, for in real life the same incidents played by different characters would lead to widely different results.  Of course, the aim . . . is didactic; but . . . the book is genial and kindly, and the impression left on the mind is pleasant.” Athenaeum, April 24, 1858

Sewell’s purpose is “to delineate character—to analyze the mixed motives of human conduct—to trace the effects of moral errors in the unhappiness and disappointment which spring from them, and of self-denying virtue in its consequent happiness and contentment.” Literary Gazette, May 8, 1858

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/ursulataleofcoun01sewel

v.2 https://archive.org/details/ursulataleofcoun02sewel