Novel 249: Margaret Roberts, A Younger Sister (1892)

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One daughter of a country squire in the Lake District longs to see the world; the other is content to stay at home.

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Margaret Roberts (1833-1919) wrote nearly thirty novels between 1857 and 1897; this is one of the last.  The heroine’s self-indulgent father is an especially well-done character.

Roberts “always gives us good work and always casts an unfailing charm over what she writes.” Manchester Guardian, May 10, 1892

“As a whole the sketch is worthy of the delicate hand” of the author. Academy, June 18, 1892

A contrasting view:

“Small beer.” Saturday Review, June 11, 1892

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http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000033BFA#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-887%2C-127%2C3237%2C2534

Crossword 248: Farmyard Echoes

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Short-sighted solvers might be inclined to scoff at 60 Across in this week’s puzzle.  But so did short-sighted critics scoff at Picasso’s cubes, at Rothko’s daubs, at Pollock’s drips—and who had the last laugh?  When crosswords cease to make any sense at all, solvers will look back at 60 Across, and its relative nearness to sense, with a kind of bitter nostalgia, while future cultural historians will hail its ground-breaking, boundary-smashing departure from the dull routine of sense-making that had previously held puzzledom in its thrall.  But go ahead and scoff—if you don’t mind the prospect of posterity’s scoffing at you.

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248-Farmyard-Echoes.puz

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248 Farmyard Echoes

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A crossword of mine will appear August 24 in the Los Angeles Times.

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Novel 248: Sir Edward Bruce Hamley, Lady Lee’s Widowhood (1853)

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A virtuous young widow is left at the mercy of her late husband’s unscrupulous uncle.

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Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley (1824-1893), the younger brother of last week’s novelist, likewise supplemented a military career with literary efforts.  This, his only novel (serialized in 1850, issued in book form in 1853-54), features, in addition to some sentimental ladies and gentleman officers, an amusingly bad alcoholic gambler.

“‘Lady Lee’s Widowhood’ is unquestionably one of the wittiest and pleasantest things that the press of our day has given to the public. . . .  It furnishes the largest return of enjoyment for twenty-five cents that can be found in any bookstore in the country.” Southern Literary Messenger, December 1853

A (somewhat) contrasting view:

“This is a pleasant book. . . .  The characters (with the exception of Colonel Bagot Lee) are not very complex specimens of human nature, but they are brightly coloured, and drawn with spirit.  The character of Colonel Lee is of a higher class, and well worked out. . . .   The story . . . drags somewhat at times, but it is withal a bright, healthy book, with a dash of hearty humour in it.” Athenaeum, February 18, 1854

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/ladyleeswidowho01hamlgoog

v.2 https://archive.org/details/ladyleeswidowho00hamlgoog

Crossword 247: Plus Sighs

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This is a sort of sequel to Puzzle 188, but even more likely to produce in the solver not only sighs, but rolls of the eyes, shrugs of the shoulders, and other activities that increase blood flow, oxygen absorption, and synaptic transmission. Studies have claimed to disprove the theory that regular crossword-solving can delay the onset of dementia, but those studies did not employ the crosswords available here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender.

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247-Plus-Sighs.puz

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247 Plus Sighs

Novel 247: William George Hamley, The House of Lys (1879)

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A gentleman grows interested in a poor girl, then fights in the Crimea.

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Major-General William George Hamley (1815-1893), having retired from the army in 1872, wrote three novels between 1878 and 1882, of which this is the second.  Its conflicted, morally developing hero and the less glorious side of Victorian army life are both well represented.

The “real interest of the book” consists in “the style and thought, sometimes almost too elaborately allusive, in the well-drawn sketches of military life in the Crimea and elsewhere” and in “the very best exemplification of the undesirable type of elderly military man we have ever met with—at least in fiction.” Examiner, May 24, 1879

“What with fun, love, and adventure, there is no flagging in the book from first to last, and General Hamley is to be congratulated on having written an extremely entertaining novel.” Saturday Review, June 14, 1879

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/houseoflysoneboo01haml

v.2 https://archive.org/details/houseoflysoneboo02haml

Crossword 246: That’s Just Preverted!

George Hayter, The Town Clerk of Brecon and His Family

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Don’t let the title worry you—you can solve this puzzle, as you can all my puzzles, with the whole family gathered admiringly around you—unless, that is, you want to protect your progeny, during their impressionable years, from witnessing serious violations of linguistic norms.

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246-That’s-Just-Preverted!.puz

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246: That’s Just Preverted!

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A crossword of mine appears today in the Wall Street Journal.

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Novel 246: Anne Marsh-Caldwell, Lettice Arnold (1850)

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Two genteel sisters, one virtuous, one beautiful, are left in poverty, to make a living as seamstresses.

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For Marsh-Caldwell, see Novels 069, 187.  Despite the obvious didactic purpose of the contrast between the novel’s sisters, its characters are lifelike and its plot involving.

“We like the tale for its delicate shading of individual characters chosen from the most every-day life.” Literary World, August 3, 1850

The author “has depicted, with her usual vigorous and truthful colouring” the wretched lives of seamstresses. Critic, November 15, 1850

A (somewhat) contrasting view:

“‘Lettice Arnold’ is the work of a woman—a woman who has great facility of composition, and considerable imagination, but little judgment.  It is literally ‘stuffed full’ of prejudices, especially against light literature as it is produced in France”; but it “is well written; and . . . it is one of the few novels which can be perused with pleasure and resumed without pain.” Observer, November 4, 1850

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/letticearnoldtal01mars

v.2 https://archive.org/details/letticearnoldtal02mars

Crossword 245: Change of Pace

John Callcott Horsley, Critics on Costume, Fashions Change

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After five weeks of unrelenting cruciverbal depression, it’s time for a change of pace; and that’s exactly what this week’s puzzle provides. Of course, you’ll nonetheless find in it all the usual qualities of puzzles on this site:  norm-shattering formal innovation, the latest in culture, and a daring willingness to speak truth to power.  (Also some wordplay.)

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245 Change of Pace

Novel 245: Alexander James Beresford-Hope, Strictly Tied Up (1880)

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Finding herself a social failure, an aging countess courts popularity by adopting her niece.

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Alexander James Beresford-Hope (1820-1887), a well-known politician and patron of architecture, took up novel writing late in life, producing this and its sequel (The Brandreths) a couple of years later. His spirited delineation of his hapless characters is entertaining, if a little ruthless.

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“The author . . . loves to look on the lively side of things, and his novel may be described as a comedy of life and character.  All his personages are more or less conspicuous by some eccentricity, foible, or amiable weakness; his incidents and complications are generally humorous, and the drollery is brought to a climax in the dénouement.” Saturday Review, October 16, 1880

“Thoroughly and in every sense a novel, conceived in a light and happy vein, and scarcely even demanding a serious thought from beginning to end.” Athenaeum, October 23, 1880

A contrasting view:

It is “lively enough as regards some passages” but “there is not a single character capable of creating a genuine interest in the mind of the reader. . . . It seemed somewhat coarse all through, and left a nasty taste in the mouth.” Academy, November 20, 1880

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https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph013992560 (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 244: Down in the Mine

John William Godward, The Jewel Casket

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We at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender aren’t satisfied with the gems of wordplay that can be purchased in the public marketplace.  We prefer to dig our own out of the bowels of the earth, braving darkness and damp, noxious vapors and the ever-present threat of semantic collapse—all so that you, the solver, can adorn your mental domicile at our expense, little suspecting the cost.  But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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244-Down-in-the-Mine.puz

244-Down-in-the-Mine.pdf

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244 Down in the Mine

Novel 244: Edward Everett Hale, Ups and Downs (1873)

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After the sudden collapse of his uncle’s business, a young man works to establish himself in Detroit; meanwhile, a young German immigrant girl finds work as a governess in Milwaukee.

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Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), a Unitarian minister and prominent American social reformer, also wrote several novels.  This one,  though sometimes marred by its author’s enthusiasms, has some lively characters and several interesting settings.

A “quiet story of domestic life in America . . . , a life as homely and picturesque as any that Mrs. Gaskell or George Eliot has described.” Saturday Review, October 25, 1873

“A very characteristic story of American life . . . written with humour and pathos.” Spectator, November 29, 1873

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https://archive.org/details/upsanddownsanev00halegoog

Crossword 243: Downplay

Edward Robert Hughes, Dream Idyll (A Valkyrie)

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I give you fair warning:  the Downs in this puzzle (at least the themed ones) are all Across.  Now that’s just the kind of startling, long-overdue innovation you’ve come to expect of my puzzles; but, like most wonderful things, it comes at some risk:  if you’re subject to vertigo, you might want to solve the puzzle while lying on your side.

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243-Downplay.puz

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243 Downplay

Novel 243: John Cordy Jeaffreson, Live it Down (1863)

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In an old-fashioned Suffolk town, c.1820, as social and religious habits change, an aristocratic family is troubled by a dark secret.

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John Cordy Jeaffreson (1831-1901) wrote, in addition to much nonfiction, fourteen novels between 1854 and 1890.  An over-attention to historical and regional setting and a surplus of morality and sentiment are redeemed here by some well-defined characters and a good plot.

“The story is interesting throughout; the characters stand well on their feet, and are real human beings marked with individual character.” Athenaeum, March 28, 1863

It is “a good, sound novel.  It may not be vividly interesting; but it is clever, truthful, and observant.” Literary Times, April 28, 1863

A (somewhat) contrasting view:

Though “told in a manner which . . . it would be easy to criticize, . . . still it succeeds . . . in exciting the interest . . . and some of the characters are drawn with no little delicacy and discrimination.  Still the book is, in its general effect, a provoking one, for it might so easily have been made much better than it is.  The simple process of leaving out altogether about two-thirds of the first volume would have wrought wonderful improvement in the novel.   Not only is the first part of the story drawn out to an extent which is at once extremely wearisome and entirely useless, but Mr. Jeaffreson appears, in the earlier portion of the work, to have not unfrequently forgotten that he was telling a story at all.” Spectator, May 23, 1863

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/liveitdownastor02jeafgoog

v.2 https://archive.org/details/liveitdownastor00jeafgoog

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000048444#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=321&xywh=97%2C211%2C1937%2C1195

Crossword 242: What a Downer!

Frederick Daniel Hardy, Sorrowful News 

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I meant this website to be a cheerful place, filled with smiles and sunshine, and look what’s happened!  Why, I wonder?  Maybe it’s the crossword genre itself, which necessarily makes us cross and takes us down.  As I’ve said before, I think the time is overdue for a radical reconceptualization of the form, one that ceases to valorize traditional numerical hierarchies (why should 2 always be greater than 1?), one that shatters the old boundaries imposed by binary grids of black squares and white squares, one that replaces the cross with the happy, the down with the up.  I’m working on it.  

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242-What-a-Downer.puz

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242 What a Downer

Novel 242: Emma Newby, Trodden Down (1866)

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A virtuous young lady is intended by her parents for one man but loves another.

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Emma Newby (1825-1899) wrote 13 novels between 1854 and 1879.  This one is chiefly notable for the chillingly calculated behavior of the heroine’s parents.

“The consciousness and confidence of power are visible in Mrs. Newby’s latest work, in which the reader will find a very romantic story very cleverly told.” Manchester Guardian, August 28, 1866

“The plot is sufficiently improbable, and its principal incident has been already made familiar to us by more than one novelist; but Mrs. Newby tells her tale with simplicity and feeling, and thus renders it touching and attractive.” London Review, September 8, 1866

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/troddendownanov00newbgoog

v.2 https://archive.org/details/troddendownanov01newbgoog

v.3 https://archive.org/details/troddendownanov02newbgoog

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Crossword 241: Downspout

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Last week’s puzzle was called “Tossing It Down.” This week’s is called “Downspout.” The alert solver will suspect a pattern. In fact this puzzle is the second of this year’s summer series on David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender, the fifth in a series of such serieses. It’s all about downness, explored from various points of view. Are you “down with that,” as the hipsters would say? Then it’s time to “get down,” as the hipsters would say.

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241-Downspout.puz

241-Downspout.pdf

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241 Downspout

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A crossword of mine appears Tuesday, July 5, in Universal Crossword; another appears Thursday, July 7, in the Wall Street Journal.

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Novel 241: Hope Stanford, Down the Way (1884)

James Sant,The Walker Sisters 

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A young intellectual becomes interested in a plain young lady neglected by her family.

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Nothing seems to be known of Hope Stanford.  This, the first of her two novels, though quite good, in my opinion—its heroine especially is refreshingly unusual in her plainness and ill-temper—was not very well received.

“There is a good deal that is thin and common-place in this novel, but also decided tokens of originality and dramatic instinct. . . . One or two of the characters on which the author has spent most pains are exceedingly well done.” Contemporary Review, July, 1884

“This is a pleasant, simply written story with which there is little fault to find.  We think the writer has aimed somewhat too high, and that her characters are hardly sufficiently worked up. . . . Still the interest is well kept up. . . .  Finally the writer possesses one merit dear to the heart of all critics.  She knows what she wishes to say, and says it in clear simple language, pleasantly free from mannerisms and strainings after effect.” Scottish Review, October 1884

A contrasting view:

“There is practically no plot, and the incidents are neither happy nor well contrived.  The situation selected for study is tolerably good” but “the three volumes demand more compression and conciseness.” Athenaeum, May 10, 1884

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004C950#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-1%2C-140%2C2576%2C2176

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004C956#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-1%2C-90%2C2438%2C2060

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004C95C#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-743%2C-125%2C2941%2C2485

Crossword 240: Tossing It Down

John Melhuish Strudwick, Oh Swallow, Swallow

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When we at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender indulge in an occasional flagon of mead or snifter of usquebaugh, we like to savor it slowly, meanwhile discussing the issues of the day in an incisive but nuanced manner.  However, we have no interest in confining ourselves to making only crosswords that “look like us.”  We hope to cater to all tastes and types.  So if you are one of those people whose approach to liquor, or to life, is to “toss it down,” here’s one that looks like you.

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240-Tossing-It-Down.puz

240-Tossing-It-Down.pdf

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240 Tossing It Down

Novel 240: Archibald Boyd, The Delameres of Delamere Court (1852)

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A needy aristocrat falls in love with a proud cotton-manufacturer’s daughter.

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Archibald Boyd (1801-1864), born in Scotland, emigrated to Australia in 1838, and in the 1840s worked to represent the interests of the Australian squatters in the British Parliament.  In 1849 he returned to England and took up novel writing; this is the second of the four novels he wrote between 1850 and 1856.

The obviousness of its plot “does not prevent ‘The Delameres’ from being a fairly good novel of its kind.—Too much time is spent at its commencement among the small people of the small town where the tale begins . . .; but from the moment that the curtain falls upon their twaddle and tea-drinking, the action and passion move rapidly enough:—and we read on, with as much eagerness as though we had been unable to foresee for a page’s length what was going to befall the lessoned hero and the lesson-giving heroine!” Athenaeum, January 24, 1852

“The most remarkable quality of this novel is style, or the power of presenting the writer’s images and ideas neatly, tersely, and with a quiet but sustained animation. . . .  The author has studied the externals of life and nature; he has a certain knowledge of present society from observation or hearsay, and of the past from books or tradition; he is clever in the mere contrivances of the fictionist to extricate his story from entanglements, or to carry it on. . . .  But . . . he is better in narrative than in dramatic development. . . .  When the author has to plunge his dramatis personae into difficulties in order to clear them up . . . he breaks down, from the want of knowledge of the events of life.” Spectator, May 22, 1852

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003C2A0#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1496%2C-129%2C4405%2C2567 

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003EA90#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-555%2C0%2C3405%2C1984

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003D686#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-461%2C0%2C3386%2C1973

Crossword 239: The Cutting Edge

James Charles, The Knifegrinder

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Here’s another puzzle on the very cutting edge of cruciverbal development.  Unfortunately for me, I’m so far in advance of current trends, so near the horizon of word-crossing possibility, that few of my contemporaries enjoy sufficient keenness of vision to discern either the cutting edge itself or my presence there.  But never mind; as I’ve said before, I create not for the current generation of fools, but for posterity.

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239-The-Cutting-Edge.puz

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239 The Cutting Edge