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

Download this week’s novel:

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

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

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

Crossword 114: Making the Worst of Things

 
John William Waterhouse, Pandora

John William Waterhouse, Pandora

 

Two weeks ago I pushed this web site in a daring new direction, challenging aesthetic norms in order to engage with the gritty underside of the human condition.  The critical plaudits I expected, however, have not arrived, at least not yet; so it’s time to double down, to go all in, to—what’s another tough-sounding idiom like that?  I don’t know.  Anyway, if you’re a complacent member of the bourgeoisie, prepare to be shocked!

Download this week’s crossword:

114-Making-the-Worst-of-Things.puz

114-Making-the-Worst-of-Things.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

114 Making the Worst of Things

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A crossword of mine will appear Wednesday, January 29, in the Wall Street Journal.

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

Download this week’s novel:

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

Download this week’s novel:

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

Download this week’s novel:

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

Download this week’s novel

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

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

Novel 108: Frances Eleanor Trollope, That Unfortunate Marriage (1888)

 
Philip Calderon, Preparing for a Walk

Philip Calderon, Preparing for a Walk

 

A lively but virtuous young lady, raised by her unfashionable grandmother, is introduced into society by a fashionable aunt.

Frances Eleanor Trollope (née Ternan) (see Novel 033) here provides another collection of deftly handled comic characters caught in Victorian contradictions of class and wealth.

The novel “deals with ordinary people and characters in a fresh and graceful way.  Nothing could be more hackneyed than the basis of the plot; but there are some delightfully natural characters, and the current of interest is calm and pure throughout.” Athenaeum, December 15, 1888

“That Unfortunate Marriage . . . yields to none of this lady’s previous works in point of faithful and observant portraiture, with all the quiet humour which accompanies thoroughly natural description of life and manners. . . .  One rises from the book with the feeling that one hardly remembers or cares what it has been about, in the delight of having formed a new and interesting circle of acquaintance, whose counterparts we know to exist in the world around us, and whose thoughts and ways have become so familiar that we could tell to a nicety what any of them would say or do in any given circumstances.” Academy, January 5, 1889

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/thatunfortunatem01troluoft

v.2 https://archive.org/details/thatunfortunatem02troluoft

v.3 https://archive.org/details/thatunfortunatem03troluoft

Crossword 107: Inner Lemons

 
Jessica Hayllar - The Lemonade Drink

Jessica Hayllar - The Lemonade Drink

 

People often ask me, “Why are you so wonderful?  What's your secret?”  Well, I'll tell you what it is: it’s my attitude! I always look on the bright side!  When life gives me lemons, I make a crossword puzzle!

Download this week’s crossword:

107-Inner-Lemons.puz

107-Inner-Lemons.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

107 Inner Lemons

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A crossword of mine will appear Sunday, December 8, in Universal Crossword, and another Wednesday, December 11, in the Wall Street Journal.

Novel 107: Margaret Oliphant, Whiteladies (1875)

 
Sir Luke Fildes, Naomi

Sir Luke Fildes, Naomi

 

An old woman is troubled about the succession of her ancestral estate.

Here is another novel by Margaret Oliphant (see Novels 007, 008, 056): the elderly, morally conflicted protagonist and the playful young woman who torments her are both outstanding creations.

“Mrs. Oliphant . . . avails herself of a most unpleasant plot to make a remarkably fine study of character.” Bradford Observer, December 4, 1875

“The characters are generally well-drawn and diverting. . . .  As a study of ordinary people, the book evinces a skill almost wonderful.” Scribner’s, May, 1876

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/whiteladies01olip

v.2 https://archive.org/details/whiteladies02olip

v.3 https://archive.org/details/whiteladies03olip