David Alfred Bywaters's Crossword Cavalcade & Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender. Every Saturday! Either a new language-torturing puzzle or an old novel by an unjustly neglected Victorian author. Why waste time on other amusements?

Novel 076: Hamilton Aïdé, Introduced to Society (1884)

Solomon Joseph Solomon, A Conversation Piece
Solomon Joseph Solomon, A Conversation Piece

An Australian heiress pays a baronet for introduction into English society.

Charles Hamilton Aïdé (1826-1906) wrote some 17 novels between 1858 and 1901, most of them, like this one, social comedies in genteel settings.

“A bright, readable tale, written in excellent English, and containing plenty of clever dialogue.”  Athenaeum, March 15, 1884

“In all Mr. Hamilton Aïdé’s novels, good-taste and moderation are as conspicuous as knowledge of the world, and a certain subdued romance which is a pleasant corrective of the pessimism that ‘Society’ novels must reveal unless they are utterly vulgar. . . .  Some scenes in this too brief story have genuine beauty, others are humorous and caustic, and the whole story is good.”  Spectator, April 5, 1884

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