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 180: Mrs. Thomas Erskine, Wyncote (1874)

Benjamin Leader, Parting Day
Benjamin Leader, Parting Day

To support her ailing father, a virtuous young lady becomes a paid companion on an English estate.

Nothing is known about Mrs. Thomas Erskine except that she published four novels, of which this is the second.  Its quietly interesting plot and striking characters ought to have led its author to a more prominent career.

“In the sustained fidelity with which the characters, few and simple as they are, maintain their consistency and distinctness, Mrs. Erskine shows . . .  care and minuteness of observation.”  Athenaeum, November 21, 1874

“It is admirable for observation, for humour, for pathos; it is refined without affectation, and interesting without effort.  Even the subordinate characters—the supernumeraries who only cross the stage—are carefully studied and full of life.”  Academy, December 1, 1874

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014400822
(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)