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 207: Christiana Jane Davies, The Browns and the Smiths (1863)

John William Waterhouse, Juliet
John William Waterhouse, Juliet

The children of rival attorneys fall in love.

For Davies, see Novel 094.  This novel includes perhaps a few too many intrusive authorial reflections, but otherwise provides a good, straightforward plot, a well developed social setting, and entertaining characters.

“There is an air of unexaggerated truth about The Browns and the Smiths  that is sure to find a fair number of readers who will appreciate its sterling merits.”  Observer, November 9, 1863

It is “harmless in its plot and gentle in its satire. . . .  a pleasant and instructive narrative.” Examiner, April 30, 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/brownssmithsintw01davi

v.2 https://archive.org/details/brownssmithsintw02davi