Novel 284: C.H.D. Stocker, Between the Acts (1884)
An artist’s wife and eleven children try to make ends meet in a country cottage.
I can discover nothing about C.H.D. Stocker; this is her only novel (I choose a feminine pronoun only because the protagonist is a woman). And that is a pity, for her witty, incisive style and scenes of comic household disorder are just brilliant.
“Miss Stocker’s novel is very good indeed.” The plot is “by no means original. . . . But the really good work which makes itself conspicuous and delightful throughout Miss Stocker’s three volumes is the lifelike portraiture. . . . English children of the ‘happy family’ order have rarely been drawn with more geniality and truth.” Athenaeum, December 6, 1884
“A capital piece of work. . . There are some happy descriptions both of the country and of London . . . and Miss Stocker’s style is spontaneous and unusually correct. . . . On the whole . . . Miss Stocker has used an old situation . . . with effect.” Academy, December 13, 1884
“This novel, utterly without pretension, and belonging for the most part to the domestic order of fiction, is bright and amusing . . . , really pleasant reading.” Morning Post, December 28, 1884
Stocker “can imagine striking situations and use them with a certain dexterity. But, above all, he has a very genuine sense of humour.” Saturday Review, February 7, 1885
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v.1 https://archive.org/details/betweenactsnovel01stoc