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A genteel young woman manages the social difficulties of her residence with her tradesman grandfather.

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This is the sequel to Oliphant’s Salem Chapel, recommended last week.  It’s a memorable representation of external social conflict, internal moral conflict, and the relation between them

It is “fuller than usual” of Oliphant’s “special powers,—her keen insight into a variety of feminine character—the able bourgeoise—her shrewd observation of English middle-class life, and her restrained, satirical humour.  It betrays, too, what we had scarcely expected to find, a capacity for depicting scenes of almost tragical emotion without failure, and without . . . melodrama.”  Spectator, June 17, 1876

Oliphant “finds an easy amusement in bringing together by the ears men of different religious creeds and professions, and subduing them to uniformity by their weaknesses. . . .  Even the mischief-makers and villains essential to the story are not so much worse than their neighbours as more uncomfortable to themselves and to the people about them.”  Saturday Review, July 22, 1876

Phoebe is “one of the finest and most finished portraits ever drawn by Mrs. Oliphant. . . .  There is something exceedingly subtle about this lady’s female characters.” Contemporary Review, March 1877

Download this week’s novel:

v.1    https://archive.org/details/phoebejuniorlast01olip

v.2   https://archive.org/details/phoebejuniorlast02olip

v.3   https://archive.org/details/phoebejuniorlast03olip

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A sincere, idealistic, highly educated dissenting minister is troubled by the bullying interference of his low-bred, gossiping congregation.

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Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) wrote more than 100 novels between 1849 and 1897.  This is the first of the “Chronicles of Carlingford,” five novels set in the same provincial city; it is the first of two featuring the Dissenters in that city.  Its vivid portrayal of a conflicted character is somewhat marred by a melodramatic subplot. The sequel will appear next week.

“This book will take a permanent place in English literature. . . .  The literary wealth of the book consists in the delineation of the Salem Chapel ‘connection,’ its obstructive relation to the effervescing life of the young minister, and the diplomatic depth of worldly wisdom which it develops on critical emergencies in his pious and devoted mother” whose character is “an etching of marvelous delicacy and art, with every line and shadow separately touched in.”  As to another main character, a low-bred deacon, “Through all the vulgarity of its surface there is so much genial strength and breadth, so much vulgar manliness, so much intelligence in the shopocratic shrewdess, so much true mettle behind the stratum of butter and bacon, such a liberal feeling” that he becomes “a figure of more true dignity...than the young minister itself.”  Spectator, February 14, 1863

“The humour which sketches individual characters and enters into the nice individualities and idiosyncracies; the occasional bitter and burning revolt against the ordinations of Providence in the mysteries of life; the clever delineations, especially of chapel ways and manner” are all praiseworthy.  Eclectic Review, March, 1863

The novel shows “the weakness of enthusiasm, refinement, and mere well-meaning, in contact with the vulgar realities of every-day life.” National Review, March 1863

“In the painting of really good people, and of the thoroughly wicked, she fails; but her descriptions of well-meaning men and women, not very good and not very bad, are excellent.” Examiner, November 5, 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v. 1https://archive.org/details/salemchapel00olip

v.2   https://archive.org/details/salemchapel03olip

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A close-knit family, mourning the death of its eldest hope in Australia, take in his widow, eager to excuse her odd manners and behavior.

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Elizabeth Anna Hart (1822-1886), also known as Fanny Wheeler Hart, published six novels and two narrative poems between 1869 and 1883.Wilfred’s Widow is a light-hearted social comedy with a memorable anti-heroine.

It is “one of the few original novels that have lately appeared.  The idea of the story is fresh, and the central character is drawn with considerable strength.” Morning Post, March 1, 1883

“A thoroughly amusing book, the interest of which carries the reader on through every page of a sufficiently brief story.” Spectator, March 3, 1883

It “shows a good deal of that quiet humour in which women...so often excel. . . .  The style is bright and simple throughout, without any affectation of cleverness, and the characters appear as clearly as if they had been forced to unfold themselves in whole chapters of self-analysis.”  Athenaeum, March 10, 1883

Download this week’s novel:

   v.1   http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/600067016.pdf

   v.2   http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/600067017.pdf

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A virtuous wife deals with the appalling misbehavior of her arrogant husband.

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Noell Radecliffe published eight novels between 1854 and 1870.  Nothing else is known about her (him?), and yet her (his?) works have great emotional power and psychological subtlety.  In The Secret History of a Household,  she (he?) evokes a nightmarish world where well-meaning innocence is inevitably encompassed and defeated by selfishness and cruelty.

“Every lover of the beautiful and the true in woman will sympathise with the wife.” Morning Post, February 15, 1855

“With much talent, and the power to interest and carry along the reader, it is as bad and pernicious a book as we ever read. . . .  There is a total want of all faculty to discriminate between right and wrong.” Athenaeum, March 17, 1855

“This work evinces no diminution of [Radecliffe’s] power of delineation and . . . faculty of invention. . . .  Of the general portraiture we must say that it is strong—rather strong than flattering; and of the general tone of the pictures of genteel life, that it is dark—more dark than pleasing.” Morning Chronicle, April 4, 1855

Download this week’s novel:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000433CE

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A young woman, addled by overindulgence in novels, marries a good but unimaginative doctor.

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Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) wrote over 60 novels between 1861 and 1900.  In The Doctor’s Wife she reflects wittily and ruefully on her craft and its effects.

“Miss Braddon has displayed quite unexpected power, that she can create a female character ordinary and yet bizarre, analyze her emotions with delicate skill, and display her action in incidents each of which is a surprise, yet on reflection is pronounced by the reader accurate and natural.” Spectator, October 22, 1864

“Isabel’s is an original character, and it is excellently drawn.” London Review, October 22, 1864

The heroine’s character is “wholly consistent from first to last, and artistically true to the type of human nature which the novelist has set herself to portray.” Saturday Review, November 5, 1864

Download this week’s novel:

   v.1 https://books.google.com/books?id=BkPQAAAAMAAJ

   v.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=B0TQAAAAMAAJ

  v.3 https://books.google.com/books?id=RUTQAAAAMAAJ

“Stereotyped” 1 vol. ed. (Archive.org)

https://archive.org/details/doctorswifenovel00braduoft

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A naive young girl marries into a difficult family and wins her way by her virtue.

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Charlotte Yonge (1823-1901) wrote some 60 novels between 1844 and 1900.  No novelist has ever created characters more lifelike, original, and fully individualized than Yonge’s.

“One of the loveliest, sweetest, and most attractive creations that ever sprung to life at the poet’s bidding.” Fraser’s Magazine, November, 1854

“There is ... minute etching of incident and character, and every page repays the reader, by disclosing some trait of interest essential to the development of the story.  The interest lies chiefly in the details of the daily life and daily trials of the different characters.  These are drawn with considerable vigour.... ‘Heartsease’ is the most true looking story we have read for a long time.” Athenaeum, November 18, 1854

“The characters are exceedingly well drawn and distinguished... The book, although not of the intense kind, bears evidence of very keen observation, and very true and careful thought, and as a work of art, must rank very high.” Putnam’s, February 1855

Download this week’s novel (in the 1885 ed.—other editions, but not the first, are also available at archive.org):

https://archive.org/details/heartseasebrothe00yong

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A half-Italian orphan, raised by a wealthy English widow on her country estate, misbehaves.

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W.E. Norris (1847-1925) wrote over 40 novels between 1877 and 1925. No New Thing is a  romantic comedy in a witty style, with a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a contemptible young man. The critical comparisons to Anthony Trollope are apt.

“In the Trollopian vein . . . is Mr. Norris’s patient way of letting his characters reveal themselves as the circumstances permit.  But whoever may be Mr. Norris’s masters in fiction . . . No New Thing is as thoroughly fresh and original a novel as has been published for a long time.  The plot has been constructed with great care, and the writer shows much insight into human nature, and a turn for satire.” Academy, May 19, 1883

“He has caught Trollope’s genial manner in drawing people as they are—men and women who are, on the whole, content with life as they find it, who are not always analyzing their emotions nor craving for a ‘higher synthesis.’  Mr. Norris reminds one of Trollope also in his way of discussing a situation by a series of questions in the form of the argument which would probably have been gone through by the persons whose course of action is to be considered.  In humour and gentle pathos Mr. Norris shows resemblances to Trollope. . . .  Perhaps the best character in the book is a young man who has many talents and no application, who is completely selfish and always agreeable, and who has a redeeming point in a sort of emotional affectionateness.”Athenaeum, May 26, 1883

“As a piece of style, this novel is wholly exceptional; it is careful, clear, and polished, yet always graceful and easy.  To read such writing is a pleasure.”British Quarterly Review, July 1883

Download this week’s novel:

     v.1: https://archive.org/details/nonewthing01norr

     v.2: https://archive.org/details/nonewthing02norr

     v. 3: https://archive.org/details/nonewthing0norr

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A virtuous young lady, orphaned and poor, agrees to become the salaried companion of a worldly woman traveling to Paris.

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Mrs. Alexander (1825-1902), born Annie French (her pen name was derived from the first name of her husband, Alexander Hector) wrote over 60 novels between 1854 and 1902.The Wooing O’t, despite its self-consciously traditional plot (the title comes from the mocking chorus of Robert Burns’s comic song “Duncan Gray”), represents social conflict and emotional ambivalence with rare skill.

“Marvelously successful in painting a most repulsive gallery of unmitigated vulgarians, both in the London chemist’s shop in which she launches her heroine, and in the second-rate Parisian circle, in which she accomplishes her introduction to what is called fashionable society.” Athenaeum, September 27, 1873

“The book has a pleasant vivacity and movement, and the worldly, frivolous people who flit about in it are all agreeable, like people one meets at a garden-party, and never cares to meet again, but who chat easily as they eat ices and knock croquet-balls about.”  Spectator, October 11, 1873

“The whole character of Maggie is very tenderly touched and very clearly conceived.  In so far as she is concerned, The Wooing O’t has the merit of originality.  She is flesh and blood, and stands out solidly. . . .  Not a line about her is exaggerated.”Saturday Review, November 8, 1873

“There is nothing very startling about the plot, no desperate passions or mysterious relationships, nor do any of the characters bring themselves within the range of the criminal law.  But the interest is sustained, the conversations natural, and the characters well drawn.”North American Review, April 1874

Download this week’s novel:

First Edition (1873), British Library

     v.1: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044496

     v.2: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004449C

     v. 3: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000444A2

Eighth Edition (1890), Archive.org

https://archive.org/details/wooingotnovel00alexrich