Novel 010: Anonymous, Eva Desmond; or, Mutation (1858)
A virtuous but poor young lady falls in love with a man whose family wants him to marry money.
Nothing is known about the author of this novel which, with a large cast of lively characters and much circumstantial detail, tells a story of what might be called Providential revenge.
“There is a certain air of actual life, marks of observation, traces of personal experience and investigation, and a power of pourtraying things and people . . . which would have been graphic were it not for the dream-like air of unreality." Athenaeum, September 18, 1858
The novel has a “felicitous closeness of observation, and a fluency as well as vigour of style.” Spectator, September 25, 1858
“A work of uncommon merit. Its construction is admirable; for, although the story is intricate” and each of its “vast crowd of personages is made to preserve...a distinct...personality,” still “the reader is never suffered to lose sight of . . . the central object of the plot, the heroine of the story.” Critic, September 25, 1858
"Among recent fictions we know of none having a stronger claim on our commendation . . . for a freshness and sweetness that breathe of the heather of the Irish mountains. We know not that we have ever made acquaintance in the realms of fiction with a more truly fascinating person” than Eva Desmond. Eclectic Review, November, 1858
Download this week’s novel here:
v.1 https://archive.org/details/evadesmondormut00desmgoog