Novel 224: Jane Ashton, Sophia (1878)

 

Thomas Benjamin Kennington, Lady Reading by A Window

 

An ordinary middle-class girl lives with her neglectful father in a small, gossip-prone city.

About Jane Ashton nothing appears to be known.  This is her only novel.  It is odd in its abrupt ending and its jaded view of human nature, which however it convincingly represents.

“The author has copied nature with fidelity.  Her descriptions are minute and painstaking; and her manner, formed after Jane Austen, is not ill-adapted to convey a clear and distinct impression.” Athenaeum, May 11, 1878

“Sophia is a very brief tale of a very dull life in a small cathedral city.  It . . . merits commendation for the attentive study which the writer has given to certain social types discoverable in most country towns, but so handled in this story that they are persons and not lay figures.  The skill of the work lies in the fact that, although the heroine is . . . thoroughly commonplace . . . yet a certain compassionate interest in her fortunes is aroused . . . by means of . . . uncompromising realism of treatment.” Academy, July 13, 1878

A supplementary remark:

The Athenaeum review continues: “Miss Ashton will never please a large circle of readers if she devotes so much more care to the detection of the weaknesses of characters than to the illustration of their virtues.  It is an unprofitable kind of cynicism which gives us only two endurable characters out of two dozen, and which exhibits those two as impersonations of the commonplace.”

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https://archive.org/details/sophiaanovel00ashtgoog

Novel 223: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charlotte’s Inheritance (1868)

 

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Woman in an Interior

 

The further adventures of an unscrupulous dentist and the heiresses who attract his interest.

Here, as promised, is the sequel to last week’s novel.

“Miss Braddon’s enlarged experience as a writer of fiction is very discernible in this volume, which is decidedly one of her best, if not the best, she has given to the public. . . .  Charlotte’s Inheritance is well written, and contains some excellent character-drawing, unspoiled by exaggeration for mere effect.  Even the very repulsive personage, so indispensable to the authoress . . . is not, it is painful to confess, without his probabilities.” Spectator, October 25, 1868

A contrasting view:

It “seems to have been put together for the stage, and with an eye to effects.  It is an extremely disagreeable story, and it has nothing to redeem its coarse reality.” Athenaeum, March 21, 1868

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/charlottesinheri01brad

v.2 https://archive.org/details/charlottesinheri02brad

v.3 https://archive.org/details/charlottesinheri03brad

Novel 221: Mrs. Alexander, Her Dearest Foe (1876)

 

William Etty, Crochet Worker

 

A man’s widow is disinherited in favor of a kinsman.

Here is another excellent novel by the excellent Annie French, née Hector, for whom see Novels 001, 063, 113, and 168.

“The situation is striking, and is admirably described”; and the main character’s inner conflict “is given with much power.  The minor characters, too, are excellent. . . .  In fact, the whole story is as clever and readable a thing as we have lately seen.” Spectator, May 27, 1876

The author “is always good-humoured even when satirical, and she is discreet in her sympathy with her characters”; she “is always bright, amiable, and amusing”; the plot “is excellently done; there is not a touch too many, not an indication too broad, but all is painted in with the lightness and delicacy which distinguish Mrs. Alexander’s style, and which we find wonderfully refreshing after so much that is heavy . . . in modern literature.” Saturday Review, June 3, 1876

A contrasting view:

“Mrs. Alexander will not add to the reputation her earlier books earned for her by the present novel, though it is a fair enough story as times go. . . .  The two [main] characters are rather coarsely drawn.” Athenaeum, April 22, 1876

Download this week’s novel:

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014209880 (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)

Crossword 220: Abandon Ship!

 

Edward John Poynter, Cave of the Storm Nymphs

 

The inspiration for this puzzle, at 17 Across, was an actual true-life experience that really happened to me!  It’s another example of this uncanny ability I have to elevate the sordid miseries of the human condition into the realm of transcendent art.

Download this week’s crossword:

220-Abandon-Ship!.puz

220-Abandon-Ship!.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

220 Abandon Ship!

Novel 219: Edmund Hodgson Yates, Broken to Harness (1864)

 

Charles Burton Barber, An Elegantly Dressed Horsewoman Approaching a Fence, Seen from Behind

 

A fashionable girl marries a journalist; a female horse trainer has love troubles.

Edmund Hodgson Yates (1831-1894) managed to offend seriously both William Makepeace Thackeray and Anthony Trollope in his work as a gossip journalist.  He wrote some nineteen novels, of which this, his first, was perhaps the most popularly successful.  Its most distinctive feature is its representation—sometimes fascinating but sometimes tediously knowing—of contemporary society. 

“We have read it with lively interest, and we lay it aside with an agreeable sense of refreshment.” Athenaeum, November 26, 1864

“We cannot do more than state the almost unexceptionable excellence of all these volumes contain, and add our impression of the value of the many moral lessons the author has conveyed in Broken to Harness.” Manchester Guardian, January 17, 1865

A (slightly) contrasting view:

“A spirited, effective tale of to-day, full of people one understands, who do things they are likely to do . . . with incidents which excite without being improbable”; but while the “subordinate characters” are “alive . . . the higher characters are not.” Spectator, November 26, 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/brokentoharnesss01yate

v.2 https://archive.org/details/brokentoharnesss02yate

v.3 https://archive.org/details/brokentoharnesss03yate

Novel 218: S. Vere, Lady Helena (1877)

 
 

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, The Ball

A millionaire falls in love unwisely.

If anybody knows anything about S. Vere, aside from her (?) authorship of this one short novel, I have been unable to discover it.  In fact, I have found only a single review, which is excerpted below.  The novel’s characters are well delineated, even if its plot is clumsily didactic.

“The story is carefully and tastefully written, and the character of the proud, wayward, but noble-hearted Lady Helena is well drawn.” Academy, August 18, 1877

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https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph013880008

Crossword 217: Birding

 
Henry Stacey Marks, A Select Committee

Henry Stacey Marks, A Select Committee

 

I warn you frankly: this week’s puzzle contains puns.  If you don’t like puns, however, don’t despair: you can make your own pun-free bird-themed puzzle.  Here’s how!  Take words that can appear before bird—“black,” “red,” and “blue,” say—make new phrases beginning with these words, like “black hole,” “red herring,” “blue cheese,” whatever—finish with the revealer “early bird,” and voilà!  Or find phrases with bird names in the middle—“lo(w ren)t,” “Dan(te Al)ighieri,” “ge(t it) in the neck”—and finish with the revealer “birdcage.”  Or find phrases with bird names at the ends—”du(mp tru)ck,” “cr(iminally ins)ane,” “fin(ishing tou)ch,”—revealer “stuffed bird.” A good software program will take care of your grid, fill, and clues, and you’ll end up with something as pun-free, and fully as inspired, as many a puzzle you’ll find any day in the major crossword venues.

Download this week’s crossword:

217-Birding.puz

217-Birding.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

217 Birding

Novel 217: Katharine S. Macquoid, Patty (1871)

 
Henry Nelson O'Neil, Painting con Amore 

Henry Nelson O’Neil, Painting con Amore 

 

The beautiful daughter of a miserly gardener craves money and social position.

Katharine S. Macquoid (1824-1917) wrote some fifty novels between 1862 and 1898; of this one she was particularly proud:  in 1898 she was still identifying herself on her title pages as “Author of ‘Patty.’”

“A pleasant novel; not, perhaps, of the highest class, but, on the whole, well imagined, and satisfactorily worked out.” Athenaeum, December 2, 1871

“The authoress of this novel combines several very unusual excellencies.  The materials of the story and of the plot are derived from the commonplaces of fiction, and from the events of ordinary life. . . .  A group of imperfect, abnormally defective humanities, all distinguished by strong impulses, lack of ballast, and subtle selfishness are brought into contact. . . .  There are many admirably drawn portraits, there is in it a high moral tone blended with a fine appreciation of natural and artistic beauty, and a blessed absence of cant.” British Quarterly Review, January, 1872

A contrasting view:

“All the characters in it, all the interests which it involves, are small. . . .  It is impossible to care very much about the human beings in the story”; however, it “stands considerably above the level of the average novel.  The literary skill which the writer displays throughout is of no common kind, and there are fine things in the narrative.” Spectator, February 24, 1872

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://books.google.com/books?id=TLUxAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macquoid%20patty&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q=macquoid%20patty&f=false

v.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=wtRTAAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=editions%3ALVryvbxfYesC&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false

Novel 215: H. Bouverie Pigott, Grace Clifford (1865)

 
George Frederick Watts, Rachel Gurney

George Frederick Watts, Rachel Gurney

 

A stubborn squire mishandles his children and tenants.

Nothing is known of H. Bouverie Pigott except that she wrote three novels between 1862 and 1873, of which this was the second.  Its plot is a standard affair of parental ambition crossed by filial willfulness, but the characters are consistent and well defined.

“An easy, natural story made up principally of incidents of family history such as any of us may have met with. . . .  The characters, too, are for the most part, fashioned after ordinary types.” Athenaeum, April 15, 1865

“A domestic story of considerable ability and promise, without any particle of sensational or villanous intermixture of any kind or description whatever.  This is something new in modern novel writing, and yet the interest of the story never flags.  The reader’s sympathies run strongly with the hero and heroine to the very end.  The characters are naturally drawn, and are precisely such as may not unfrequently be met with in ordinary life.” Caledonian Mercury, April 29, 1865

A contrasting view:

“It is so painfully harmless that it is the kind of book suited for a good-conduct prize at a young ladies’ boarding school. . . .  Taken in judicious doses” it “will probably act as a wholesome soporific during the very hot summer we are threatened with.” Morning Post, April 15, 1865

Download this week’s novel:

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014000718
(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)