Novel 349: Holme Lee, Warp and Woof (1861)
The narrator’s father’s bankruptcy and bullying sister’s ascendancy lead to various further misfortunes.
For Holme Lee, see Novel 193
“We are delighted with this novel, both because it is quite new, and also because the story is very artistically constructed, as well as extremely interesting; and the subdued and polished style in which it is told adds immensely to the pleasure with which we peruse it”; despite a “too uniform tone of melancholy” it provides “a quiet yet truthful description of one kind of English domestic life.” Westminster Review, January 1862
The characters are “well drawn”; “a work of considerable power and thought, and shows that the authoress possesses a very keen insight into the habits and feelings of her own sex.” Critic, December 14, 1861
A contrasting view:
It has “an atmosphere of gloom so deep that the most pleasurable situation is overshadowed by the misery actors and spectators alike know to exist around them.” The author’s “decided literary power” gives it an “air of truth” that only makes it worse. Spectator, December 7, 1861
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