Novel 055: Annie Keary, Janet's Home (1863)
The lives of a scholar, his disinherited Welsh wife, and their four children.
Annie Keary (1825-1879) wrote some ten novels between 1856 and her death. The early chapters of this one, recounting the narrator’s emergence from childhood, are especially effective.
“Lovers of incident may find it tedious; but it is a book of much earnest and deep thought. . . . Each portrait is complete.” Reader, Nov. 14, 1863
It has “a simple, realistic power that enlists our sympathies at once.” The story “is slight in itself, but receives weight and dignity from the subtle insight into character exhibited by the authoress.” London Review, Dec. 19, 1863
“Not only is the narrative carried on with the utmost simplicity, but it is not indebted for a single particle of the effect to anything beyond the legitimate action and probable complications of simple and natural causes.” Saturday Review, January 9, 1864
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