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 161: Sir Henry Stewart Cunningham, Late Laurels (1864)

Alfred Elmore, Much Ado About Nothing
Alfred Elmore, Much Ado About Nothing

A restless, flirtatious young lady makes trouble between her neighbors.

Here is another novel by Cunningham (see Novel 020).  The style is bright and the characterization subtle.  (There is also some political satire, which no doubt had more point in 1864 than it does now.)

“As pleasant a tale as readers not vowed to a predilection for sensation novels could desire.”  Athenaeum, June 4, 1864

“The style is always pure, and often brilliant, and the dialogue displays considerable mastery of . . . light repartee.”  Westminster Review, June 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043C2C#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-883%2C-126%2C3234%2C2504

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043C32#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-847%2C-123%2C3174%2C2457