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 318: Lady Florence Bell, The Arbiter (1901)

Walter Langley, Silent Sorrow
Walter Langley, Silent Sorrow

A man is forced to sacrifice either his career or his wife’s happiness.

Lady Florence Bell (1851-1930) wrote only a few novels late in the Victorian period; this one features an interesting dilemma and vivid characters.

“In spite . . .  of a flavour of improbability, the story is brightly written and full of that sort of incident which goes home to the English novel-reader. . . .  The characters are all clearly drawn society people of a typical sort.”  Manchester Guardian, November 13, 1901

“Mrs. Hugh Bell combines an original plot with a very clever study of some of those cross-relations and duties of family life to which she has given so much critical attention.  Her story has also the charm of the unexpected. . . .  There is a quiet, but very pleasant, readableness about the whole of this novel.” Spectator, December 7, 1901

Download this fortnight’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/thearbiteranovel24794gut
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