Novel 186: Florence Wilford, Nigel Bartram’s Ideal (1869)

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A gentleman inadvertently marries a novelist.

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Florence Wilford (1836-1897) wrote some sixteen novels between 1858 and 1895, many of them for children or young adults.  This one, though it does not directly attack Victorian social constraints, nonetheless vividly represents their destructive effect on talented women.

“A clever woman’s plea for clever women, made in a quiet and feminine manner, and yet ably and humorously turning the tables. . . .  It is well and gracefully done.” Saturday Review, January 9, 1869

“Admirably worked out”; the heroine’s character is “delineated in all its true nobility, with really exquisite insight”; “a fine study of character under special circumstances.” Spectator, October 8, 1892

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Novel 185: Cecil Maxwell, A Story of Three Sisters (1874)

Sir William Blake Richmond, The Sisters

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Three middle-class sisters grow up and find various fates.

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Nothing is known about Cecil Maxwell, except that she (he?) wrote this one novel—a very good one, on the whole. All through its beginning and middle it is excellent in its kind, with complex, well-defined characters placed in interesting situations.  Its end is marred by the sort of lover’s-misunderstanding plot that mars so many Victorian novels—the sort of misunderstanding occasioned by the inexplicable failure of A to ask B a simple yes/no question. But if you accept the premise that anybody might ever act that way, even the ending, though sad, isn’t bad.

“We cannot now do justice to the spirit and verve of ‘A Story of Three Sisters.’  It is full of brightness and colour.  It is a poet’s novel. . . .  The writer . . . is a very close observer of character and motives.” Westminster Review, January 1875

“This is a well-written story of common-place life, without much incident and without any exaggeration; it is carefully studied and well disseminated.” British Quarterly Review, January 1875

“The charming Story of Three Sisters owes . . . much of its attraction to a pure and graceful style. . . .  The characters . . . are drawn with tender care and feeling. . . .  It is rare to find so nearly perfect . . . a story . . . , which is one to linger over, and return to with a sort of nostalgie.”  Academy, January 30, 1874

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043BF0#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=8&xywh=-492%2C0%2C3639%2C1973

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043BF6#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-488%2C0%2C3618%2C1962

Novel 184: Anna Harriet Drury, Deep Waters (1863)

Abraham Solomon, The Bride

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A gentleman accused of fraud in a bank failure is loved by two good women.

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Here is another novel by Drury (see Novel 64), featuring, amid a great deal of virtuous suffering, an eventful plot and some well-drawn characters.

“A thoroughly readable story, well written and well worked out, if due allowance be made for the improbabilities of the plot.” Westminster Review, July, 1863

“The plot is original, and well managed throughout, the characters well conceived and sustained. . . . the style pure, simple, and unaffected, and the interest uninterrupted.” Continental Monthly, January 1864

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/deepwatersnovel01drur

v.2 https://archive.org/details/deepwatersnovel02drur

v.3 https://archive.org/details/deepwatersnovel03drur

Novel 183: Bithia Mary Croker, The Cat's-Paw (1902)

Sydney Prior Hall, The Maharani of Cooch Behar

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A virtuous young lady, orphaned and unwanted by relatives, is lured to India, where she has diverse adventures.

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Here is another novel by Croker (see Novels 013, 073, 129), with a good (if somewhat episodic) plot, sharply defined characters, and a vividly realized setting.

The novel presents “the conditions and circumstances of Anglo-Indian life . . . as well as authors who take themselves more seriously. . . . The best part of the story is the picture of a third rate boarding house.” Athenaeum, March 1, 1902

“The book is fresh and vivacious; the pictures of Indian life are vivid and convincing.” Saturday Review, March 15, 1902

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Novel 182: Richard Harding Davis, The King’s Jackal (1898)

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A dispossessed petty monarch cynically plots to extort money from his country and from an American heiress.

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Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916), an American journalist, editor, fashion leader, and crony of Teddy Roosevelt, had time for only a few short novels.  The characters in this one, though hardly complex, are entertaining, as is the action-packed plot—which features the unexpected but crucial intervention of a dashing young American journalist.

“It is a very pleasant story, and . . . it is written with not a little brightness and literary skill.  Indeed, as a mere teller of a story Mr. Davis has nowadays few superiors:  for he can always produce his effect with a few strokes of the pen.  He is never diffuse, and consequently never wearisome.” Speaker, September 3, 1898

“Mr. Harding Davis’s new story is very slight, but it has charm. . . .  It is extremely well conceived and arranged.” Academy, September 17, 1898

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https://archive.org/details/kingsjackal00daviiala

Novel 181: David Christie Murray, First Person Singular (1886)

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An Irish politician pursues an heiress, while a Polish anarchist and his Tsarist opponents plot against each other.

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Here is another novel by Murray (see Novels 009, 068, 127) with vivid characters, some of them remarkably unprincipled, and a thrilling, if implausible, plot.

“Secret societies and Polish and Irish patriots are not as a rule very promising subjects for a novel, and Mr. Murray has increased his difficulties by making his story a study of character first, and only secondarily a tale of exciting incidents.  But the chief person is . . . excellently presented, and the plotting is . . . cleverly contrived.” Athenaeum, February 6, 1886

“It is hardly needful to say that the book is thoroughly readable, and a piece of skilled workmanship.” Academy, February 13, 1886

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003AA58#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-913%2C-1%2C3229%2C2211

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003AA5E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-903%2C-1%2C3226%2C2209

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003AA64#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-898%2C-1%2C3194%2C2187

Novel 180: Mrs. Thomas Erskine, Wyncote (1874)

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To support her ailing father, a virtuous young lady becomes a paid companion on an English estate.

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Nothing is known about Mrs. Thomas Erskine except that she published four novels, of which this is the second. Its quietly interesting plot and striking characters ought to have led its author to a more prominent career.

“In the sustained fidelity with which the characters, few and simple as they are, maintain their consistency and distinctness, Mrs. Erskine shows . . .  care and minuteness of observation.” Athenaeum, November 21, 1874

“It is admirable for observation, for humour, for pathos; it is refined without affectation, and interesting without effort.  Even the subordinate characters—the supernumeraries who only cross the stage—are carefully studied and full of life.” Academy, December 1, 1874

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014400822
(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)

Novel 179: Mary Louisa Molesworth, She was Young and He was Old (1872)

Sophie Anderson, Portrait Of Young Girl

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A virtuous young lady marries a middle-aged attorney to please her dying mother.

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Here is another novel by the other Molesworth (see Novel 100), with well-defined characters placed in a carefully developed, interestingly uncomfortable situation. 

“We have read it with a pleasure which is due partly to the inherent interest of the subject, hackneyed as it is, but mainly to the quiet dignity of the style, and a certain sub-acid flavour discernible throughout.” Molesworth has “hit off many of the weak points of provincial life.” Athenaeum, January 27, 1872

“The author . . . is an exceedingly graceful writer, with a good deal of literary taste.  Her pair of sisters have evidently been a work of love, and some pride as well.  We may congratulate her on a success.”  The main character “is certainly made so life-like that we have learned to look at her with her creator’s partial eyes.” Saturday Review, June 15, 1872

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014012488

Novel 177: Ellen Georgiana Clutton-Brock, James Gordon’s Wife (1871)

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A man of towering intellect resists the power of love.

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Ellen Georgiana Clutton-Brock (1845-1894), née Eyre, wrote two novels, of which this is the first.  The first volume is good, and the second excellent, as complex characters make believable mistakes; the third, in which Providence intervenes to reward and punish them, is not so disappointing as to ruin the the whole.

“The author of ‘James Gordon’s Wife’ has succeeded by sheer cleverness of writing in making readable, and occasionally really interesting, a story which in less able hands would probably have been insufferably dull.” Athenaeum, May 27, 1871

“The story is an ordinary one enough, with the incidents too obviously arranged to suit a moral; but it is told with a force and a liveliness which altogether redeem the book from the charge of being dull.” Spectator, September 2, 1871

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/james-gordons-wife-1

v.2-3 http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014384326
(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)

Novel 176, Hamilton Aïdé, Penruddocke (1873)

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A younger son is badly treated by his mother.

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Here is another novel by Aïdé (see Novel 076),  with a good plot and some striking characters.

“‘Penruddocke’ is a novel which shows a certain amount of power”; several characters are “well enough drawn to raise a story, in other respects carefully told, above the ordinary level.” Athenaeum, July 5, 1873

“Even the most blasé of novel-readers would find in this tale a plot sufficiently interesting to arouse his jaded senses, and yet it contains, at the most, only two incidents that can fairly be reckoned ‘sensational.’  It mainly depends for its interest on the clever way in which the plot is worked out, nothwithstanding the presence of an unusual number of dramatis personae.” Examiner, July 5, 1873

“Mr. Hamilton Aïdé has given us another of his carefully written and interesting stories.  Without anything remarkable in power or new in incident, Mr. Aïdé always succeeds in engaging and holding our attention. . . .  The plot is carefully worked out. . . . And he is careful in his writing; his English is simple, correct, and elegant.” Spectator, July 19, 1873

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https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990146524130107026

Novel 175: Jane Octavia Brookfield, Influence (1871)

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An ambitious, intellectual woman seeks to arrange her friends’ lives.

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Jane Octavia Brookfield (1821-1896), in the 1840s a very special friend of William Makepeace Thackeray, wrote four novels many years later, of which this is the second.  Oddly clumsy in some ways (especially in its narrator’s intrusions), it nonetheless has some vivid, interesting characters.

“A novel of character which, if not deeply exciting, or suggestive of any new aspects of feminine human nature, is original in plan, and not ineffectively executed.” Athenaeum, January 21, 1871

“Influence at once makes itself felt as a book of character.  There is no danger of confounding it with the ordinary run of novels, there is no danger of forgetting it. . . .  The conversations are well managed, and, though there is no pretence at a plot, the story is interesting.   Altogether, Influence is a good novel.” Spectator, May 20, 1871

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F6E4#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-329%2C-123%2C2895%2C2158

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F6EA#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-316%2C-100%2C2906%2C2166

Novel 174: Lucy B. Walford, Cousins (1879)

Edwin Longsden Long, The Cousins 

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Three sisters react to the return of their wealthy and distinguished cousin from India.

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This novel provides a generous sampling of its author’s characteristically deft social comedy (see Novels 018, 066, 121), despite a sometimes annoying plot.

“There is a resemblance in the manner of handling to Miss Austen’s manner, especially in the first volume; and when it is said that Cousins does not come too discreditably out of the comparison, we need not say that a very high compliment is thereby paid to the author.” Academy, July 26, 1879

“It is, in part at least, a very good novel—one of the best that we have read for a long time.  The situation . . . upon which it turns is . . . novel and . . . has great capabilities. . . .  Its great attraction lies in the delicacy of the character drawing, in the charming domestic sketches in which it abounds, and in the natural and easy dialogue which is so rare an accomplishment with novelists.  The first volume, which is far the best, will remind many readers of Miss Austen’s work, and it would be impossible to give it higher praise.” Manchester Guardian, August 18, 1879

Its “success is, in our judgment, decided”; it is “as careful and honest as it is modest and pure.   The purpose of the story is kept in view throughout; there are no tricks of style or language, and there is no padding.” Saturday Review, August 30, 1879

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/cousins01walfo

v.2 https://archive.org/details/cousins02walf

v.3 https://archive.org/details/cousins03walf

Novel 173: Harold Frederic, March Hares (1896)

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Two unhappy young people meet by chance on Westminster bridge.

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Best known for The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896), expatriate American journalist Harold Frederic (1856-1898) wrote ten other novels before his death in middle age, one of them this brief, light-hearted love story set in London.

“We can thoroughly commend the book as an easily read piece of fancy.” Athenaeum, July 4, 1896

“Mr. Harold Frederic gives the reader of ‘March Hares’ a shock of delightful surprise. . . . he is captivating, amusing, a playful companion.” His characters “are simply human beings flung into the grotesque whirl of such a sequence of situations as only a riotous imagination could devise, but which such a keen intelligence as Mr. Frederic’s finds no difficulty making thoroughly natural. We use the word intelligence, because . . . Mr. Frederic seems to be exercising the mere gymnastical faculties of his mind, whipping along the dialogue with so much animation, so much fun, so much ingenuity, that the effect of the tale is not unlike that of the conversation of original and clever people. . . . It has art of the genuine sort, not mere silly craftsmanship and pretense, but the dignified art which means a quiet mastery of the subject in hand. There are few novelists to-day who could have taken such a gossamer theme as that of ‘March Hares’ and left it so well worked out as it has been in the present case.” New York Tribune, December 20, 1896

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Novel 172: Catherine Gore, The Banker’s Wife (1843)

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A scheming banker has little sympathy for his family.

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Here is another excellent novel by Gore (see Novels 012, 072, 118), filled as usual with shrewd social satire.

“A very clever, and what is more, a very readable novel; clear, rapid, fluent, abounding in pointed sentences.” Spectator, September 16, 1843

No living author “possesses greater power in the delineation of character.” Sunday Times, September 17, 1843

“The ‘name’ of its writer, first as that of a woman, and secondly as that of a popular ‘novelist,’ will long keep it out of the hands of those ‘grave and reverend signors,’ who are the chief dispensers of that reputation which they cannot compass for themselves, and who . . . will never be satisfied that a woman has been gifted with faculties of observing . . . nature.” Morning Post, October 1843

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/bankerswifeorcou01gore

v.2 https://archive.org/details/bankerswifeorcou02gore

v.3 https://archive.org/details/bankerswifeorcou03gore

Novel 171: Cecil Clayton, Azalea (1876)

Margaret Sarah Carpenter, Lady Harriet Hamilton 

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A girl, raised to the age of twelve in the Italian Alps by the widowed daughter of a Jewish silk-merchant, is on her mother's death adopted by her English uncle.

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About Cecil Clayton nothing is known, except that two novels appeared under this name, Effie’s Game in 1873 and this one three years later.  It has some excellent characters, a good style, and a pleasantly untroubled plot, as though the author were too soft-hearted to inflict much pain on her (or his?) creations. 

“Azalea is a story which, without having anything new either in plot or characters, is distinctly easy and pleasant to read, in consequence of its thoroughly cultured and well-bred tone.” Academy, September 9, 1876

“People whose nerves have been shaken by overwork or anxiety, people who wish to forget that there are such things as passion and suffering in the world, should read this smoothest of all smooth tales, and enjoy the society of the innocent persons.  The worst characters in Azalea are sometimes flippant or a little peevish, but their failings are never allowed to interfere with the tranquil happiness of the hero and heroine.” Saturday Review, September 16, 1876

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Novel 170: M.E. Braddon, Only a Clod (1865)

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A common soldier inherits a fortune from a miserly uncle.

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Here is yet another novel by the great Braddon (see Novels 004, 061, 115).

“Miss Braddon . . . tells her story with a brisk straightforwardness, and the working is compact and consistent.  And it is no small or common talent to be able to construct an interesting tale, and then to tell it in good language, without affectation or egotism. Several of the characters are very well sketched, but in the beautiful heroine Miss Braddon has done more than draw a mere colourless outline.  A good-humoured, simple-hearted, and spoiled young lady is easily drawn, but to change her gradually, and without melodramatic violence of nonsense, into something very different, requires more than mere smartness and ordinary skill”; her growth is “described with great ingenuity and force.” Saturday Review, May 27, 1865

“Only a Clod . . . is a fresh proof of the vigour and fertility of the mind which produced . . . ‘Aurora Floyd’ . . . and ‘The Doctor's Wife’. . . .  As a whole . . . the book will be eagerly read as a powerfully written and admirably constructed story.” Manchester Guardian, June 13, 1865

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014579096

(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the three “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)

Novel 169: Arthur Locker, Sweet Seventeen (1866)

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Visitors to London

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An orphan girl, adopted by a London doctor, has rival lovers.

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Arthur Locker (1828-1893), a journalist and editor, published five novels between 1863 and 1874.  This one begins in Australia, where the author spent some years, but is mostly set in middle-class London.

“Those writers of prose fiction who season their pages with mysterious crime and repulsive vice, should study the modes by which Mr. Locker captivates the imagination of his readers with scenes alike humorous and innocent.  Instead of making them endure his characters by rousing a morbid curiosity as to the sequel and result of a startling commencement, he leads them to enjoy his story by inspiring them with personal interest in its characters.  From first to last the book is fresh with nature and unconstrained pleasantry.  The actors are neither tame nor commonplace; the incidents bear no resemblance to the conventional arrangement of story-tellers; and yet the drama impresses us with a sense of its fidelity to human nature and society in such a manner that we seem to encounter old friends and familiar faces in every scene. . . .  The world described is that of the middle and lower grades of our great middle-class—the world of professional men and merchants, clerks, and petty tradesmen; and with never-flagging humour does Mr. Locker set forth the ways and tempers of the various persons who are made to illustrate this comparatively humble life.” Athenaeum, November 10, 1866

“The author . . . has produced one of the most agreeable, if not one of the most instructive, tales of fiction of the season.  It is graceful and unpretending.  It discloses no profound philosophy, displays no erudition, professes no high moral aim, but amuses and delights by the natural exhibition of character under varied circumstances and unexampled situations. . . .  Mr. Locker weaves his love story with gentle tissues.  There are no wild flights of passion, no desperate deeds of vengeance, nor suicides; all is natural, fluent of feeling that is subdued and rational, and issuing in results probable, pleasing, and in harmony with the means employed.  One of the charms of Mr. Locker’s novel is its realism, with sufficient sentiment and fancy to link the real with the ideal.” Morning Post, December 11, 1866

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v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000458D6#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-119%2C0%2C2848%2C2104

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000462BA#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-111%2C0%2C2842%2C2101

Novel 168: Mrs. Alexander, Which Shall it Be? (1866)

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An orphaned virtuous young lady seeks to make her way despite her relatives’ selfish unhelpfulness.

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Here is another novel by “Mrs. Alexander” (see Novels  001, 063, 113) with her usual vivid characters, dramatic situations, and gratifying if impossible plot.

“No one can read this book without being struck by the more than ordinary ability that it displays. . . .  It is . . . written with a fluency, an ease, a knowledge of literary manipulation, and a ripeness of worldly wisdom that would seem to indicate the practiced hand of a mature writer. . . .   There are many observations scattered about, too, which show that the author has had unusually rich opportunities for studying life in various phases.  There is a knowledge of the bitter ways and clever makeshifts of poverty, as well as of the parade and hollow friendships springing up like mushrooms in a night round unexpected wealth . . .; while many of the characters are careful life-studies. . . .  It deals with difficult questions with the quiet boldness of a Voltairean of the nineteenth century. . . .  The character of Madeline throughout is of great psychological power.” Saturday Review, September 22, 1866

“A novel of much interest and power. . . . The work is remarkable for the fidelity of its pictures of domestic life, both English and French, which convey to the reader an irresistible impression of probability and reality, and of being presented by an eyewitness. . . .  The story is full of incident and well-drawn character.  ‘Which Shall It Be?’ is a novel of great literary and constructive merit, and evinces penetrating observation of character as well as lively descriptive power.  As a story it excites vivid interest from the beginning, and sustains it to the end.” Examiner, October 12, 1866

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014211328

(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the three “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)

Novel 167: Elliott Graeme, A Novel with Two Heroes (1872)

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A young German music student befriends an English student at a German university.

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About Elliott Graeme, nothing appears to be known except that, in addition to this one novel, he (or she: contemporary critics use both pronouns) also wrote a biography of Beethoven.  The oddly rambling plot here suggests unfamiliarity with, or indifference to, contemporary novelistic convention, but the characters and settings are well realized.

“A decided literary success.  The story is written in a lively and agreeable style.” Athenaeum, March 16, 1872

“We doubt not many of our readers will lay aside the book with regret; for the pourtrayal of character and detail of German home-life is sufficiently vivid to make us think we are parting with old friends.  The language used is felicitous, and the author is by no means deficient in humour.” Musical Standard, June 1, 1872

“Above the average even of good novels.  It is clever and amusing, free from sensationalism, though full of interest, and of interest which touches many of the deeper chords of life.” Spectator, June 15, 1872

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004CED8#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1098%2C-1%2C3632%2C2342

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004CEDE#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1111%2C0%2C3649%2C2352

Novel 166: Edward Dutton Cook, Hobson's Choice (1866)

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A bachelor barrister goes to visit his aunt—and his heiress cousin—at a seaside town.

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Here is another lively novel by Cook (see Novels 040, 111), this one relatively brief.

“An afternoon spent on Hobson’s Choice will be spent pleasantly, and produce no small crop of apparently causeless laughs in secret places afterwards, as the better passages return suddenly to the memory.” Spectator, December 29, 1866

“A single volume of light and sparkling prose, that may be read through in a railway journey.” Athenaeum, January 26, 1867

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http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003A13A#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-547%2C-127%2C2522%2C2533