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

Download this week’s novel:

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

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044C46#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2046%2C-126%2C5523%2C2501

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

Download this week’s novel:

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

Download this week’s novel:

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

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

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

Crossword 120: Whirled Piece

 
James Jacques Joseph Tissot, At the Rifle Range

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, At the Rifle Range

 

I’ve got a thirty-eight special, and a Colt forty-five, and a thirty-two-twenty, and a Winchester seventy-three, and a hard-shooting pistol just as long as my right arm, but, I don’t know, somehow I just don’t feel safe. . . .

Actually——that’s a joke!  I’ve never used  a gun.  All right, I admit it, I’ve used STEN and UZI once or twice in a puzzle, and I used NRA (as Will Nediger points out) just last week. But if any of you solvers out there have purchased a submachine gun, or joined the NRA, because you found these things mentioned in my puzzles, please, for your own sake as well as mine, return the gun, cancel the membership, and—why not?—donate the refund, or your next round of dues, to this website!

Guns bother me.  They’re useful neither for self-protection (since the proverbial “bad guy with a gun” always enjoys the crucial advantage of surprise) nor for restraining undue government power (the US military has us all outgunned).  So, as part of my world-improvement program (and a sort of sequel to Crossword 116) I’ve here turned them (or anyway the letters that compose their names) to more benign uses.

Download this week’s crossword:

120-Whirled-Piece.puz

120-Whirled-Piece.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

120 Whirled Piece

Crossword 118: Conjunction Conversion

 
Thomas Anshutz, A Rose

Thomas Anshutz, A Rose

 

Here's a riddle:  What Pakistani president's first name is a catchphrase used by Alicia Silverstone's character in the 1995 film Clueless?  The answer is in this week’s puzzle's revealer!

Download this week’s crossword:

118-Conjunction-Conversion.puz

118-Conjunction-Conversion.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

118 Conjunction Conversion

N.B. Curious about my shockingly unorthodox views on crossword substitution themes? See my FAQs, or the introductions to Crossword 031 and Crossword 59.

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A crossword of mine will appear in papers that carry Universal Crossword on Friday, February 28.


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

Download this week’s novel:

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

Crossword 117: A Miss is as Good as a Mile

 
Hubert von Herkomer, Miss May Miles

Hubert von Herkomer, Miss May Miles

 

“A miss is as good as a mile”—what an odd expression!  “Miss” and “mile” are grammatically but not conceptually parallel.  “Good” actually means “bad.”  It’s a triumph of sound over sense, and therefore well suited to this web site.

Download this week’s crossword:

117-A-Miss-is-as-Good-as-a-Mile.puz

117-A-Miss-is-as-Good-as-a-Mile.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

117 A Miss Is as Good as a Mile

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

Download this week’s novel:

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

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.