Novel 234: Sabine Baring-Gould, Through Flood and Flame (1868)
A factory-owner’s nephew falls in love with a working girl.
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) wrote some fifty works of fiction and nearly a hundred other works in various genres, including the hymn “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” This novel consistently entertains despite its sometimes contrived damsel-in-distress plot.
“A domestic novel of some merit. . . . The narrative, simple as it is, is worked out so well, and with so true an adherence generally to nature, that . . . the author deserves considerable credit”; he has also “a fund of shrewd sense.” Athenaeum, June 27, 1868
“A highly original and vigorous novel, although the promise of the first volume is not quite sustained.” Spectator, September 12, 1868
A contrasting view:
“In incident and plot it is most deficient, and in style it is decidedly vulgar. It possesses no redeeming point.” Examiner, September 12, 1868
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