Novel 106: Elizabeth Glaister, The Perfect Path (1884)

 
James Sant, Meditation

James Sant, Meditation

 

A gambler’s daughter wants to be good.

Elizabeth Glaister (1840-1892) wrote five novels between 1873 and 1890.  This one has a lively style and an unusual comic heroine.

“Although the title of ‘The Perfect Path’ suggests too strongly something in the nature of a religious novel—one of the most terrible forms of literature—it is in reality a very lively story, in which the author, by keeping well within her powers, has succeeded.  The heroine is very graphically presented and makes a charming figure.” Athenaeum, February 16, 1884

“There are some good character studies in this entertaining story.” Morning Post, February 27, 1884

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/perfectpathnovel01glai

v.2 https://archive.org/details/perfectpathnovel02glai

Crossword 105: End Times

 
Marcus Stone, The End Of The Story

Marcus Stone, The End Of The Story

 

Are we nearing the end?  Is the human race on the brink of collapse??  Is there nothing left for us but a period of hopeless mass suffering amid war, and disease, and famine that will end only in our species’ extinction???

Oh well—here’s a crossword puzzle.

Download this week’s crossword:

105-End-Times.puz

105-End-Times.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

105 End Times

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A crossword of mine will appear Friday, November 29, in The Los Angeles Times (and The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Chronicle, etc.)

Novel 105: Noell Radecliffe, Alice Wentworth (1854)

 
Henry Tanworth Wells, Alice

Henry Tanworth Wells, Alice

 

A well-meaning man is led into disaster by unfortunate sexual impulses.

Another tale of love and adultery, of good people at the mercy of bad ones, by the great Noell Radecliffe (see Novel 005), a writer as brilliant as she (he?) is forgotten.

“The character of the heroine . . .  is conceived with singular delicacy, and sustained with admirable consistency and spirit.  Other personages are introduced whom we recognise as portraitures of real life.  There is Horace Ferrers, whom we all know.  Arthur Darrell . . . is a man and not a conventional hero.  Lady Emily . . . is a picture drawn by a masterly hand, and made effective not by bold strokes and dashing outlines, but by a quiet completeness that gradually brings out the portrait distinct and perfect as a living thing.” Critic, January 2, 1854

“Kind, good, simple, unforced, full of energy, full of feeling.” Athenaeum, January 14, 1854 

Download this week’s novel:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000422CA#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-582%2C-116%2C2595%2C2522

Crossword 104: Another Cavalcade of Crosswordese

 
Arthur Hughes, The Property Room

Arthur Hughes, The Property Room

 

Last year’s “Cavalcade of Crosswordese” was so enormously popular that I have decided to make a sequel.

But don’t suppose I’m just blindly feeding the appetite of the masses. As I’ve said before, my purpose in making puzzles is to influence the public to share my refined tastes and correct opinions by alluding to them in my grid entries.  So I’ve got my favorite Norwegian city in here, and my favorite sandwich cookie (except for the Hydrox), and my favorite boxer, and my favorite bygone autocrat (doggone those Bolsheviks!).  Alas, I couldn’t find a place for my favorite detective-movie dog this time, or my favorite Shakespearean quotation, or any of my favorite musicians; but no matter, I think my past work has already done enough to raise the profiles of Asta, “Et tu,” Ono, Eno, and the ELO. They’re catching on!

“How can I help in this worthy endeavor?” you ask.  It’s easy.  Donate $12 (and get a 15x15 bonus crossword made entirely of words and phrases current in the Victorian era), or $13.50 (and get a 21 x 21 bonus crossword made of the usual stuff) or $15 (and get both).  Just click this button:

Donate
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A crossword of mine will appear Sunday, November 17, as the Universal Sunday Crossword (in, for example, the New York Daily News), and another Wednesday, November 20, in the Wall Street Journal.



Novel 103: Charlotte Yonge, The Trial (1864)

 
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, A Family Group

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, A Family Group

 

A young man is falsely accused of murder.

This is the sequel to The Daisy Chain, of eight years before (Novel 053).  Here Yonge moves beyond the domestic, including not only a murder but also an American episode, in which a few of her characters seek prosperity in an Indiana swamp while the Civil War rages in the distance.

“With the old Pre-Raffaelite touch Miss Yonge paints her portraits, quietly, faithfully, and as completely as she can.” Reader, June 18, 1864

Yonge “understands how to work the machinery of a large family—to show how the different members act and react on each other—in a probable and calculable manner.” Saturday Review, August 20, 1864

“In these days of exciting fiction, it is difficult to sustain public interest without doing violence to the more refined tastes of educated readers.  Much insight into human nature is needed, and no small amount of artistic power.  These desiderata are well supplied by the authoress of this story, and those who remember and admired her elegant style of writing will not be disappointed in her new book.” Manchester Guardian, September 6, 1864

“No one can deny that this lady draws the inner and outer life of a certain limited class of characters with a truth and reality almost unrivalled, or that her pictures of struggling middle-class interiors are finished with the fidelity of a Dutch painting.” Westminster Review, October, 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v.1  https://archive.org/details/trialmorelinksd03yonggoog

v.2 https://archive.org/details/trialmorelinksd01yonggoog

Novel 101: A.J. Barrowcliffe, Normanton (1862)

 
William Fraser Garden, Houghton Mill

William Fraser Garden, Houghton Mill

 

In a country village, two cousins both love the miller’s daughter.

Albert Julius Mott (?-1870) wrote three novels between 1856 and 1862 under the pseudonym A.J. Barrowcliffe.  This, the last, has an intricate plot which runs its course over five days in a small village.

“The author . . . is able to breathe life into the creatures of his imagination, so that they perform his bidding naturally, and do not require the visible presence of his guiding hand.  He has a thorough sympathy with nature. . . .  And he has a keen insight into the complex machinery of the human mind. . . .  Moreover, he possesses no small share of humour.” London Review, December 20, 1862

The author succeeds in “the production of a minutely finished and faithful picture of English country life. . . .  Mr. Barrowcliffe’s story is quite sufficiently interesting, and is developed with considerable skill; but certainly the most noticeable point in his book is the extreme polish and smoothness of his style.” Spectator, December 27, 1862

“An honest purpose, a graceful style, and a certain novelty in construction, make this a very good story.” Examiner, April 4, 1863.

Download this week’s novel:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000451B6#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-617%2C-130%2C2673%2C2592

Novel 100: Mary Louisa Molesworth, Leona (1892)

 
James Sant, A Thorn Amidst the Roses

James Sant, A Thorn Amidst the Roses

 

Two cousins grow interested in the same man.

Here, to follow last week’s Mary Molesworth, is the Victorian period’s other Mary Molesworth, Mary Louisa Molesworth (1838-1921), a prolific author mainly of children’s books, though she also wrote novels for adults, like this one—a quiet story based on plausible, entertaining misunderstandings of character and purpose.

“It is a very enjoyable book. The characters of the young men and girls who are the principal persons in the little narrative drama are, in the main, admirably delineated; . . . and the conversation, which is an important element in a tale of this kind, is specially excellent.” Academy, October 15, 1892

“The characters are well drawn, the incidents probable and well led up to, and the story interesting.  But the strong point of the work, after all, lies in the character drawing, especially in the subtle delineation of shades of diversity in disposition, amongst a family where all the members are chiefly remarkable for their amiability and worth.” Westminster Review, July 1893

Download this week’s novel:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000033A32

Novel 098: Elizabeth Stone, Mr. Dalton's Legatee, a Very Nice Woman (1850)

 
William Powell Frith, The Toilet

William Powell Frith, The Toilet

 

A disobedient daughter’s disinheritance leads to the enrichment of a socially ambitious woman.

In addition to historical works on such subjects as needlework, Elizabeth Stone (1803-1881) wrote five novels.  Here, the bad characters are excellent, especially the “very nice woman,” and the plot is amusing if you don’t mind a final pile of coincidence impressive even by contemporary standards.

“The apeing of fashion by vulgar people, the wretchedness it occasions to themselves, and the laughter it provokes in others, have ever been a favourite . . . theme with novelists . . .; but seldom have we seen it accomplished with more humour and truth than in the novel before us. . . .  Always vigorous, the writing is at times positively brilliant.  The descriptions are remarkably graphic, yet drawn without effort. . . .  The personages . . . are all . . . distinctly outlined, and most of them are manifestly sketches after nature.  Mrs. Stone has a keen observation, and a quick sense of the ludicrous.” Critic, August 1, 1850

“Although ‘Mr. Dalton’s Legatee’ properly belongs to a class of books for which we have no particular affection—the fashionable novels—yet it is one of the best of its kind. The plot is intricate and interesting, and the characters amusing and well sustained.” American Whig Review, October, 1850

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=oxfaleph014517497&context=L&vid=SOLO&search_scope=LSCOP_ALL&tab=local&lang=en_US

Crossword 097: Nondairy Substitutes

 
John Callcott Horsley, Youth and Age

John Callcott Horsley, Youth and Age

 

Okay, so it’s the same joke four times.  So what?  It’s a good joke.  And the fourth iteration (64 Across) is not just a joke, it’s also a wry comment on the human condition.

Download this week’s crossword:

097-Nondairy-Substitutes.puz

097-Nondairy-Substitutes.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

097 Nondairy Substitutes

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A crossword of mine appeared yesterday, Friday, September 27, in The Los Angeles Times (and The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Chronicle, etc.)

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A crossword of mine will appear Wednesday, October 2, in the Wall Street Journal.

Crossword 096: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap

 
Stanhope Alexander Forbes, Feeding the Pigs

Stanhope Alexander Forbes, Feeding the Pigs

 

Speaking of pork, here is one of my favorite passages from the great Jonathan Swift, explaining the popularity of satire—and by the way, much of the social media of our own time:

“There is a problem in an ancient author, why dedications, and other bundles of flattery, run all upon stale musty topics, without the smallest tincture of any thing new; . . . whereas there is very little satire, which has not something in it untouched before. The defects of the former, are usually imputed to the want of invention among those, who are dealers in that kind; but, I think, with a great deal of injustice; the solution being easy and natural; for, the materials of panegyric, being very few in number, have been long since exhausted. For, as health is but one thing, and has been always the same, whereas diseases are by thousands, beside new and daily additions; so, all the virtues that have been ever in mankind, are to be counted upon a few fingers; but their follies and vices are innumerable, and time adds hourly to the heap. Now the utmost a poor poet can do, is to get by heart a list of the cardinal virtues, and deal them with his utmost liberality to his hero, or his patron: he may ring the changes as far as it will go, and vary his phrase till he has talked round: but the reader quickly finds it is all pork, with a little variety of sauce.”

Download this week’s crossword:

096-As-Ye-Sow-So-Shall-Ye-Reap.puz

096-As-Ye-Sow-So-Shall-Ye-Reap.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

096 As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap