Novel 143: Francis E. Paget, Lucretia; or, The Heroine of the Nineteenth Century (1868)

John Henry Henshall, Thoughts

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A young lady tries to live like the heroine of a novel.

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Francis Edward Paget (1806-1882), rector of Elford, wrote half a dozen novels promoting his High Church views, beginning in 1833.  This, a satire on the novels of M.E. Braddon and her kind (though it alludes also to Scott and Bronte), features an intriguing narrator, foolishly credulous and at the same time cleverly self-aware.

“This satire is quite just, because it exactly hits the great artistic fault of the sensational novel, the use of illegitimate means to produce an effect upon the reader.” Spectator, August 8, 1868

“A happier thought than the combination of a ludicrously sensational plot with a ludicrously sentimental heroine . . . could not have been devised.” Athenaeum, October 17, 1868

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Novel 142: Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick, The Inner Shrine (1900)

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A poor young lady, dislocated from her quiet home, is taken up by some distant (and dubious) relations with a taste for travel.

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Here is another fine novel by Sidgwick (see Novel 082):  it features a virtuous heroine at the mercy of an amusingly selfish and self-deluded couple.

“A novel from the pen of Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick is always welcome, for while she steers a middle course between the rose-coloured optimism of the mid-Victorian novelists and the devotion to the doleful of their successors, the excellence of her matter is always enhanced by the alertness and vivacity of her style.” Spectator, November 17, 1900

“As usual, Mrs. Sidgwick has written a good book.  She possesses, above the ordinary run of writers, the power to treat a comparatively slight plot in such a manner that it becomes absorbing, engrossing, a thing of paramount interest, till the last line is read; the power, too, to draw, with certain touch, a weak, or a false character, without a hint of cruelty or exaggeration.” Bookman, December 1900

“Many poorer novelists seem more discussed than Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick . . . yet she has staunch admirers, and in the memories of discriminating readers lingers as a writer of pleasant and wholesome, yet not common, stories.  ‘The Inner Shrine’ is worthy to rank with these by virtue of an agreeable manner and good matter, a quiet thoughtfulness and a restful sense of humour.  The people in it are interesting, because the author has found a way of making them reveal themselves; they and the situations in which they are placed are at times arresting and even poignant, though the verge of caricature or sensationalism is never approached.” Athenaeum, January 12, 1901

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Novel 141: E.S. Maine, Among Strangers (1870)

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A young Scotswoman, living with her rector uncle in a Welsh village, is wooed by various men.

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Eliza Sophia Maine (1838-1891) wrote five novels in the 1870s, of which this is the first.  Its ironically self-aware narrator and deftly-handled plot ought to have made its author better known than apparently she became.

A “pleasant little novel” that “deals with domestic life and never ventures beyond the natural limits of feminine knowledge.” Saturday Review, September 24, 1870

“The story is simple and unpretentious, but is told in so fresh and graceful a manner as to render it most acceptable.” Athenaeum, October 8, 1870

“Life and character in the remote Welsh valley are well drawn, and the narrator tells her story with vivacity in a natural, unaffected tone.” Spectator, January 28, 1871

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Novel 140: Elizabeth Anna Hart, A Very Young Couple (1873)

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Newlyweds struggle to get by on an inadequate income.

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Here is another novel by Hart (see Novel 006).  It begins as a touchingly comic domestic story and ends in exciting sensationalism.  Its heroine is well delineated in both parts.

“Though the story is slender, it has some capital sketching, and abounds in the characteristic humour and observation of life which distinguish the writings of this author. . . .  We may recommend the story as delightful reading, and also the binding, paper, and printing of the book as most creditable to its popular and enterprising publisher.” Illustrated Review, January, 1874

“A very lively and pleasant little tale, vivid in its interest, and the harrowing part of it not too prolonged for endurance.” Spectator, January 31, 1874

“We confess to having been much amused.” Scribner’s, March 1874

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Novel 139: Eleanor Eden, Dumbleton Common (1867)

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A naive middle class girl marries a fashionable young man.

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Eleanor Eden (1826-1879), niece to Emily Eden (see Novel 036), wrote several children’s novels in addition to this one for adults. Its troubled-marriage plot is supplemented with a pleasant description of life in a village outside London.

“‘Dumbleton Common’ is a charmingly pleasant book; it is full of genial kindheartedness, and there is a thoroughly well-bred tone throughout.  The story is as slight as can hold together; but every individual in it has a distinctive character, and is made of flesh and blood, with a reasonable soul to match. . . .  There is much skill and lightness of hand evinced in the many characters that pass before the reader; for though the incidents are slightly drawn, the personages are numerous.” Athenaeum, March 9, 1867

“The Hon. Eleanor Eden, like the Hon. Emily Eden, has a perfect command of that light, graceful, easy style which is the nearest literary approach to the pleasant chat and gentle raillery of the best English society. . . .  Dumbleton Common, like The Semi-Detached House, is a most graceful and lively picture of a little society. . . .  There is no sketch that is not lively, and not a false stroke of either sentiment or tone from the beginning to the end of the little story.” Spectator, March 16, 1867

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Novel 137: Beatrice May Butt, Delicia (1879)

Evelyn de Morgan, The Soul's Prison House

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A quiet young woman introduces her best friends to one another, with unexpected consequences.

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Here is another novel by Butt (see Novel 045).  It has several vivid characters, and three plots, of which the most prominent is also the best. 

“Delicia is one of those womanly portraits that can be drawn only by a high-minded writer. . . .  On the whole, the story will repay the reader’s trouble.” Athenaeum, July 5, 1879

“That ‘Delicia’ is a good novel nobody who has read it can have the slightest doubt.” It is good because of “the strength, the delicacy, and the freshness of the character-drawing, and . . . the interest of the story. . . .  The Stevens family . . . is really a triumph in its way.  It has all the truth to English domestic life. . . . We have not read so good a novel as ‘Delicia’ this year.” Examiner, July 19, 1879

“Without aspiring to the highest place, it is none the less one of the few books where there is nothing we could wish added or taken away.  This calm sufficiency and graceful tact in proportioning ambition to resources, if not exactly genius, is near akin to it.” Academy, August 30, 1879

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Novel 136: Margaret Agnes Paul, De Cressy (1856)

Evelyn de Morgan, Cadmus and Harmonia

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An impoverished but virtuous young lady attracts the love of a lord.

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Here is another novel by Paul (see Novel 025):  ambivalent characters find themselves entangled in a subtle and apparently intractable conflict—until the author, out of time, or patience, or paper, suddenly resolves it by sending two characters to heaven and a third to South America.

“The persons have much consistency and reality about them; spirit is equable and well sustained throughout.” Spectator, June 28, 1856

It is “written in an unpretending, pleasing style.” Saturday Review, July 26, 1856

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Novel 135: William Gilbert, De Profundis (1864)

Evelyn De Morgan, Hope in the Prison of Despair

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An honest couple do the best they can amid the squalor and vice of the slums.

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William Gilbert (1804-1890), father of W.S. Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan), wrote some twelve novels, many, like this one, about the London poor, whose miseries are narrated in a breezy, unsentimental tone, with much wry humor.

“In this story Mr. Gilbert never introduces ‘high life,’ nor people of the better class.  He reveals the mysteries of ‘London labour and the London poor’ in a low metropolitan neighbourhood, and all through the book we get no distinct peeps at any higher social condition.  To interest the general reader in such revelations requires great skill, pathos, and power.  Mr. Gilbert commands them all, and combines with them, in his writing, a deep, true knowledge of human motive and action. . . .  That Mr. Gilbert is a true artist we cannot but admit, for out of the simplest details of low life he produces characters whose very vividness enchains the attention.  He is amongst novelists a realist.  Neither imagination nor caricature influences his portraiture.  Men, women, and children are precisely what he sees them to be, and his vision is correct, his judgment true.” Manchester Guardian, February 28, 1865

“‘De Profundis’ is an excellently written, unvarnished narrative. . . .  The style well becomes the subject—plain, earnest, unaffected, and with an admirable quaint simplicity of language in relating the most heart-rending details, which is more effective than the most studied artificial effects, as it is perhaps more rarely attained to. . . . We have never read a story of humble life so well and unaffectedly told as this, and we recommend it as a wholesome contrast to the pictures of vulgar splendour and luxury under which our tables groan.” Westminster Review, April, 1865

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Novel 134: Eliza Lynn Linton, My Love! (1881)

Henry Nelson O’Neil, Painting con Amore

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A vain amateur artist-poet and an ill-tempered old lady oppress their young adult children.

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Here is another novel by Linton (see Novel 044), with some especially entertaining minor characters, such as the thoroughly modern girl twins Gip and Pip.

“In ‘My Love!’ Mrs. Lynn Linton has devoted herself with much success to the portraiture of some of the baser passions, such as selfishness, meanness, hypocrisy, and ill temper.”  She “is brilliantly clever from first to last, and . . . there is not a dull page in her novel, though there are many that are disagreeable.  She writes brightly, vigorously, and eloquently; she is uncommonly painstaking and earnest; her dialogue is always apt and pointed; and many of her personages . . . are of singular merit and interest.  ‘My Love!’ in fact, is an unusually able and impressive book, its unattractive purpose notwithstanding.” Athenaeum, July 9, 1881

“My Love is a readable and amusing love story. . . .  It is a tale of love, pure and simple, although the three or more love affairs which run parallel to each other are illustrated or encumbered by a multiplicity of episodes; while a great variety of characters, vigorously sketched, are brought together into active and energetic collaboration.  Mrs. Lynn Linton generally inclines to the grave; but in this novel she is often humorous, and sometimes sprightly, or even comic. . . . Altogether Mrs. Lynn Linton has written an agreeable story; and it is agreeable chiefly because . . . she has always taken some pains to show the more amiable side of her least amiable characters.” Saturday Review, August 13, 1881

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Novel 133: F.F. Montrésor, The Alien (1901)

John Atkinson Grimshaw, A Wet Road by Moonlight, Wharfedale

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A mysterious man is claimed by an old woman as the son and heir who died thirty years before.

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Frances Frederica Montrésor (1862-1934) wrote a dozen or so novels between 1895 and 1907.  This one has interestingly conflicted characters and (except for an incongruous South American episode) a good plot.

“Cleverly thought out, and full of sympathy and observance, it is a book suited to all kinds and sorts of people. The interest . . . is never allowed to flag, while the quality of its character drawing gives it a delicate atmospheric beauty by no means common.” Academy, November 9, 1901

This “adds to the sincerity, simplicity, and insight marking her other stories a larger motive and a stronger grasp. . . . There is a touch of Mrs. Oliphant in the quiet humor, in the detached view and appraisement of ‘the human,’ and in the enduring consciousness of eternal goodness.” New York Times, December 7, 1901

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Novel 132: Alice Price, A Wilful Young Woman (1886)

George Elgar Hicks, Woman’s Mission - Companion of Manhood

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The virtuous daughter of a country lawyer is scorned by her selfish, worldly mother.

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Here is another novel by Alice Price (see Novel 021), much like its predecessor in its engrossing but implausible plot and its well-defined characters.

“A very readable story. . . .  Mrs. Price has drawn her dramatis personae with some power and vigour, and nobody could possibly find this novel tedious.” Academy, November 20, 1886

“This is an excellent tale, and shows by a conspicuous example, which some of our lady-novelists might profitably note, that it is quite possible to rouse a strong interest in a love-story without even an allusion to unlawful passion. . . .  There are, we think, defects in the plot. . . .   But, on the whole, for sound sense, good feeling and taste, and a style which can be both pathetic and humorous on occasion, this is a book which cannot easily be surpassed.” Spectator, January 29, 1887

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Novel 131: Anonymous, Hanworth (1858)

Heywood Hardy, The Meeting in the Forest

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A young lady loves a nobleman, whose interest in her friend she misinterprets.

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The author of this forgotten novel is identified neither in Fraser’s Magazine, where it was serialized, nor in its separate publication as a book—a pity, because it’s a good one.

“One of the best photographs of English society as it now exists.” Illustrated Times, October 9, 1858

“It is a pleasant story of society, written with good taste and unquestionable skill.” Examiner, December 25, 1858

“Unobjectionable pleasantness is a quality which carries books, as it does human beings, quietly and happily through the world, but it does not give room for much discussion. . . .  The girls are like real girls, but there is nothing marked about them.  The nobleman, who is a high-minded love-creating coquet, is not an impossibility.  There is no clever writing, no description of scenery, no boring of any sort. . . .  From beginning to end the story goes on quietly, evenly, and agreeably, showing a considerable power of observing family life, a subdued sense of the ludicrous, and an unusual turn for writing intelligible and consecutive English.” Saturday Review, January 1, 1859

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Novel 130: Robert Buchanan, Foxglove Manor (1884)

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, The Temptation of Eve

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A charismatic clergyman loves an agnostic squire’s wife.

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Well known also as a poet, playwright, and critic, Robert Buchanan (1841-1901) published nearly 30 works of fiction, mostly in the last twenty years of the century. Despite some very silly plot twists at the end, this one provides a convincing portrait of self-deception and depravity.

“A very powerful study.  Mr. Buchanan has firmly grasped the character of a man of a sensuous and even refined imagination, but without moral fibre. . . . He has drawn the central figure with consummate skill, and told his story with great vigour, directness, and rapidity of narration.” Athenaeum, September 13, 1884

“As a study of morbid anatomy it reaches the highest level to which work of that kind can possibly attain.  From a dramatic point of view there is genius” in the handling of our reaction to the main character. Graphic, October 4, 1884

“It touches on that mysterious region in which the love of men to God is seen to have a deep and hidden connection with the mutual love of man and woman; and if we cannot pay it what would be the immense tribute of saying that it deals adequately with such a subject, we may at least declare that the attempt is marked by power and by a profound pathos, and associated with nothing unworthy.” Contemporary Review, 1884

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Novel 129: Bithia Mary Croker, A Family Likeness (1892)

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In England, a man falls in love with a girl in an old picture, then meets her likeness in an obscure Indian town.

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For Croker, see Novel 013 and Novel 073. Like the latter, this has a vivid Indian setting (“A Sketch in the Himalayas” is its subtitle).

“A cheerful temper is better than much gold, and it is far more contagious.  Such is the thought suggested by the perusal of A Family Likeness. . . .  Mrs. Croker has a style all her own, and has studied her India with map and compass.”  The plot “is as clever in its entanglements as is the prose which narrates it in breezy grace.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, December 1892

“As a chronicler of Anglo-Indian life, Mrs. Croker occupies a position by herself.  She has her limits, but within these limits rarely fails to achieve success. . . .  It is not that she seeks to extenuate the shortcomings of Anglo-Indian society, but rather that she seems to be constitutionally impelled to look on its brighter side. . . .  Furthermore, she writes most sympathetically of the natives, and with a keen sense of the glories of the Indian landscape.” Spectator, December 10, 1892

“A Family Likeness is in every way a likeable book, strong in character and incident, brisk in narrative, and not lacking in pleasant humour.” Academy, December 24, 1892

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v.3 https://books.google.com/books?id=whk3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP9#v=onepage&q&f=false

Novel 128: Jean Ingelow, Allerton and Dreux (1851)

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Two clergymen, differing in doctrine, become friends.

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Jean Ingelow (1820-1897), best known as a poet, wrote a number of short stories and some half a dozen novels.  This, her first, makes up for its rambling, impossible plot with subtle characterization and a polished style.

“Allerton and Dreux . . . has not a little surprised us by the ability manifested in the conception and in the delineation of character.  The author possesses also a considerable fund of humour, which flows from him [sic: the novel was published anonymously] without an effort.” Critic, February 2, 1852

“The story . . . is delightfully told; and, as a religious tale, we have seldom met with one which is throughout more ably written and well sustained.  The dialogue is pointed and lively, and the descriptive parts are extremely good.” English Review, July 1852

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Novel 127: David Christie Murray, Val Strange (1882)

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A man and his best friend love the same woman.

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Here is another extravagantly-plotted novel by David Christie Murray (see Novels 009, 068). In addition to the title character, his rival, and his beloved, it features a poor American seeking work in England.  An English critic finds in this character “that great and increasingly rare charm of freshness”; he “would suffice to redeem from insignificance even a book otherwise not noteworthy” (Academy, December 2, 1882).   An American critic condemns him as “the exaggerated Yankee of the stage.” (Independent, March 1, 1883).  You decide.

“A novel of rare merit, showing very considerable mastery of character, with unusual care of construction. . . . Without ever stooping to be grotesquely sensational,” the author “freely rings all the changes in the passions of love and jealousy, cupidity, despair, and revenge.” Times, February 8, 1883

“No one who reads the first hundred pages of this novel can for a moment doubt that their writer is a man of strong powers of observation and considerable grasp of character.” British Quarterly, March, 1883

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

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

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

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

James Charles, Study of a Girl in White

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A murder places an innocent girl in a difficult dilemma.

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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

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

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

George Hayter, The Honourable Mrs. William Ashley

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

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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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