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An orphaned virtuous young lady seeks to make her way despite her relatives’ selfish unhelpfulness.

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Here is another novel by “Mrs. Alexander” (see Novels001, 063, 113) with her usual vivid characters, dramatic situations, and gratifying if impossible plot.

“No one can read this book without being struck by the more than ordinary ability that it displays. . . .  It is . . . written with a fluency, an ease, a knowledge of literary manipulation, and a ripeness of worldly wisdom that would seem to indicate the practiced hand of a mature writer. . . .   There are many observations scattered about, too, which show that the author has had unusually rich opportunities for studying life in various phases.  There is a knowledge of the bitter ways and clever makeshifts of poverty, as well as of the parade and hollow friendships springing up like mushrooms in a night round unexpected wealth . . .; while many of the characters are careful life-studies. . . .  It deals with difficult questions with the quiet boldness of a Voltairean of the nineteenth century. . . .  The character of Madeline throughout is of great psychological power.”  Saturday Review, September 22, 1866

“A novel of much interest and power. . . .  The work is remarkable for the fidelity of its pictures of domestic life, both English and French, which convey to the reader an irresistible impression of probability and reality, and of being presented by an eyewitness. . . .  The story is full of incident and well-drawn character.  ‘Which Shall It Be?’ is a novel of great literary and constructive merit, and evinces penetrating observation of character as well as lively descriptive power.  As a story it excites vivid interest from the beginning, and sustains it to the end.”  Examiner, October 12, 1866

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014211328

(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the three “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)

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In this puzzle I interrogate our society’s underlying structures of power, as part of my ongoing critique of post-modern, late-capitalist cultural hegemony.

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Download this week’s crossword:

167-Power-Plugs.puz

167-Power-Plugs.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

167 Power Plugs

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A young German music student befriends an English student at a German university.

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About Elliott Graeme, nothing appears to be known except that, in addition to this one novel, he (or she: contemporary critics use both pronouns) also wrote a biography of Beethoven.  The oddly rambling plot here suggests unfamiliarity with, or indifference to, contemporary novelistic convention, but the characters and settings are well realized.

“A decided literary success.  The story is written in a lively and agreeable style.”  Athenaeum, March 16, 1872

“We doubt not many of our readers will lay aside the book with regret; for the pourtrayal of character and detail of German home-life is sufficiently vivid to make us think we are parting with old friends.  The language used is felicitous, and the author is by no means deficient in humour.”  Musical Standard, June 1, 1872

“Above the average even of good novels.  It is clever and amusing, free from sensationalism, though full of interest, and of interest which touches many of the deeper chords of life.”  Spectator, June 15, 1872

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004CED8#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1098%2C-1%2C3632%2C2342

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004CEDE#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1111%2C0%2C3649%2C2352

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I encourage you, gentle solver, to admire the painting above and its title while you recall the reports of the past week (especially of Wednesday around noon), and only then, with a calm soul and clear head, to open this week’s puzzle—which, I am pleased to report, has nothing to do with anything.

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Download this week’s crossword:

166-The-Latest-Reports.puz

166-The-Latest-Reports.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

166 The Latest Reports

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A bachelor barrister goes to visit his aunt—and his heiress cousin—at a seaside town.

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Here is another lively novel by Cook (see Novels 040, 111), this one relatively brief.

“An afternoon spent on Hobson’s Choice will be spent pleasantly, and produce no small crop of apparently causeless laughs in secret places afterwards, as the better passages return suddenly to the memory.”  Spectator, December 29, 1866

“A single volume of light and sparkling prose, that may be read through in a railway journey.”  Athenaeum, January 26, 1867

Download this week’s novel:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003A13A#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-547%2C-127%2C2522%2C2533

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Can this be the end?  Is this the last puzzle I’ll post to this website?  Have I finally turned in disgust from an ungrateful world, resolved never to cross words again?  Or is this just another punning reference to my theme?  Come back next week and find out!

(NB: The clue to 23 Across, once the weakest, now the strongest, of the puzzle’s theme clues, is in fact the inspiration of Canadian test-solver Kevin Walker.)

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Download this week’s crossword:

165 Last-in-Line.puz

165 Last-in-Line.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

165 Last in Line

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A faithless lover is secretly pursued by a vindictive father.

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Sir Arthur Hallam Elton (1818-1883), a baronet and member of Parliament, wrote only two novels, of which this is the second. The characters are interesting, the style good, and the plot involving, though it ends with odd abruptness, seeming to hint at a sequel that never came.

“We congratulate Sir Arthur Elton and the public” on his “brilliant success. . . .  Among the distinguishing merits of the novel . . . are the freshness and artistic construction of the story.  It is full of variety, yet its unity is perfectly preserved, unbroken by a single episode.  Its interest increases in intensity with an even progression from the first chapter to the last.”  Spectator, August 4, 1860

“There is a largeness and simplicity in the conception of the plot, which is worked out with facile dialogue and in a narrative that never flags.  There are no tedious descriptions, no second-hand moralities, all is action and passion well presented.”  Examiner, October 13, 1860

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/herbertchaunceym01elto

v.2 https://archive.org/details/herbertchaunceym02elton

v.3https://archive.org/details/herbertchaunceym03elton

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Carefully concealed in this puzzle’s grid of mystery are no fewer than seven (7) hiding places.  To find them, all you need to do is just work hard and believe in yourself.

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Download this week’s crossword:

164-Hiding-Places.puz

164-Hiding-Places.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

164 Hiding Places

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A spirited young lady resists her cruel baronet uncle’s plan to marry her to a wealthy pork-dealer.

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Amelia Perrier (1841-1875) wrote two novels during her sadly brief career, of which this sprightly social comedy, featuring a refreshingly assertive heroine, is the second.

“‘A Good Match’ is very brisk and vivacious, and sparkles with arch humour.  Its heroine . . . tells her own story with a keen sense of fun in its recital. . . .  The charm of the story is its freshness, vigour, and dash. . . . The two volumes bristle with little keen, sharp sayings.  But beyond the charm of manner there is a deeper and truer charm . . . which is the thorough unaffected contempt of the writer for all that is base and cruel and mean.”  Examiner, June 22, 1872

“Miss Perrier’s pen is perfectly unlaboured; she writes with ease, and apparently, out of a merry heart, in which the humour is untainted by cynicism; and it is a relief to sit down with two little volumes like these—trifling though the story is—after wearing through novels and tales innumerable, wrought, with much painstaking ability, out of their authors’ profound misconception of their own ability. . . .   It reads like what it pretends to be, the autobiography of a healthy-minded, handsome girl, too courageous to be cowed by the kicks and cuffs of unloving relatives.” Spectator, November 2, 1872

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004D724#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-889%2C-125%2C3203%2C2480

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004D72A#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-71%2C-147%2C2766%2C2142

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Now and then, in the major crossword venues, one finds a puzzle in which the theme answers consist of common two-word phrases that start with the same one or two letters.  POISONPILL PINGPONG PARCELPOST POLOPONY—voilà.  That theme took me just sixty seconds to produce.  No doubt a competent programmer with access to a phrase database could make a computer produce sixty such puzzles in sixty seconds.  And they would be just as much fun to solve as they were to make.

Why is such a theme acceptable?  Does anyone know?  I don’t get it.  Anyway, today’s puzzle represents my effort to improve on it.

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Download this week’s crossword:

163-P-P-Puns.puz

163-P-P-Puns.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

163 P-P-Puns

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A virtuous young lady moves to London, determined to live there a life of cultured independence.

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Here is another novel by McCarthy (see Novel 059), with a variety of vivid characters and  some amusing incidental satire on poetic modernism.

“These two volumes . . . contain some of the most felicitous studies of character that we have seen for a long while. . . .  We should say that intelligence—free, kindly vision—(with high conscientiousness and much goodness of heart) was Mr. McCarthy’s strong point as a novelist.  He always understands; and he makes his readers understand.  He has, also, plenty of kindly humour. . . .  He has given us a brilliant and thoughtful novel:  which may also be treated, if the reader pleases, as an essay of rare intelligence and fine humour, illustrated by social studies of great fidelity, wholly free from any taint of cynicism or high-flying sentiment.”  Contemporary Review, December 1, 1877

“Miss Misanthrope is indeed, to our thinking, a work which has some very striking merits. . . .  The characters are fresh and consistently kept up. . . .  The author displays a singular talent in dealing with mixed motives, and exhibiting without any tiresome display of analytical power his just observation of the working of ordinary as well as unusual natures. . . .  Those who care for a keen—one might almost say a brilliant—chronicle of the fashions and follies of the times, the satire of which is just enough dashed with tenderness, are certain to read Mr. McCarthy’s novel with pleasure.”  Saturday Review, January 12, 1878

“It is difficult to know where one should begin one’s praise of this brilliant and charming book. . . .  which is at once vigorous in conception, brilliant in execution, pure in sentiment, and faultless in design.”  Examiner, January 26, 1878

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/missmisanthrope00mcca

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Does any artist in any field face such ruthless editorial tinkering as the poor crossword constructor?  You shape and carve and etch and hone and polish your little gem till it shines and sparkles and glistens and glows, and (if you’re lucky enough to have it accepted) it appears in print lopped and maimed and marred and scratched and sullied.  Your reference to a favorite musician has turned into a reference to a TV actor you’ve never heard of.  Two of your answers have been tortured into a cross-referenced phrase.  The wit of a favorite theme clue has evaporated in the unwelcoming atmosphere of somebody’s dubious assumptions.  Now and then, to be sure, you find a real improvement—but that only wounds your authorial vanity all the more.

Well, here’s a puzzle where I made all the editorial changes my own self.

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Download this week’s crossword:

162-Editorial-Changes.puz

162-Editorial-Changes.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

162 Editorial Changes

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A fashionable young banker falls in love with an earnestly Christian woman.

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Edward Eggleston (1837-1902) was a Methodist minister, a magazine editor, and a historian as well as a novelist; he wrote a dozen or so works of fiction in various genres.  This one, in its vivid portrayal of 1880s New York, its nuanced delineation of complex characters, its careful, plausible plot, its apt and witty style, is a sadly forgotten masterpiece.

“As a study of American life . . . The Faith Doctor is a strikingly clever book. . . . One breathes the very air of New York while following the rapid movements of the story; and the impression which it leaves upon the mind is that of having talked with all manner of interesting people, on topics that will keep one thinking.”  Academy, January 9, 1892

“This is a really admirable novel. . . .  There are excellent social sketches, and more than one character drawn with a delicate skill which would do credit to any writer of fiction. . . .  The writing throughout is of very good quality.  The Faith-Doctor isworth reading for its style, its wit, and its humour, and not less . . . for its pathos.” Spectator, March 19, 1892

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/faithdoctorstory00egglrich

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If you think this week’s puzzle involves Christmas carols—and are in consequence either thankful (you actually know what it is that King Wenceslas does after he looks out on the feast of Stephen!) or resentful (you can’t stand the damned things coming around every year!)—you haven’t been paying attention.

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Download this week’s crossword:

161-Noels.puz

161-Noels.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

161 Noels

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A restless, flirtatious young lady makes trouble between her neighbors.

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Here is another novel by Cunningham (see Novel 020).  The style is bright and the characterization subtle.  (There is also some political satire, which no doubt had more point in 1864 than it does now.)

“As pleasant a tale as readers not vowed to a predilection for sensation novels could desire.”  Athenaeum, June 4, 1864

“The style is always pure, and often brilliant, and the dialogue displays considerable mastery of . . . light repartee.”  Westminster Review, June 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043C2C#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-883%2C-126%2C3234%2C2504

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043C32#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-847%2C-123%2C3174%2C2457

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Have no fear:  this puzzle has nothing to do with bullfighting, or soccer, or anything that requires you to watch people kill animals or run around on a rectangular surface.  I put an accent over the "e" just for the look of the thing.

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Download this week’s crossword:

160-Olé.puz

160-Olé.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

160 Olé

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A man is murdered; several characters are suspected in turn.

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Here is the sequel to last week’s novel, The Channings, featuring (in addition to a few members of its exemplary title family)  its scapegrace anti-hero, back from Africa and plunged in the midst of a murder mystery.  It includes also a virtuous novelist killed by a bad review in a journal called The Snarler.

“A murder is started, pursued, worried, treated in fact like a hunted criminal.  Anxious to find its proper home, it seeks refuge, first under a flimsy disguise of suicide, then in the arms of this or that innocent person.  The most unlikely persons are pitched upon inevitably by the reader, and the real author of the disaster is untouched by suspicion up to the very last moment.  We must, in fairness, give Mrs. Wood credit for much care and ingenuity in keeping us in the dark so long. . . .  There is something of original conception in the character of Roland Yorke.”  Athenaeum, October 16, 1869

“It says a good deal for Mrs. Wood’s powers of narration that her story should show so smoothly as it does, interwoven as it is with a tissue of extravagances  and incongruities.” Saturday Review, March 5, 1870

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/rolandyorkeseque00wood

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All the clues for this puzzle’s theme bear a sort of sideways relationship to their answers; three of the five themed clue-answer sets appear to make no mention of the theme they jointly imply.  Puns are piled upon, or wedged within, puns. When I made the puzzle I thought this was enormously clever; now I’m half-convinced it’s just annoyingly obscure.

Well, either way, the cost to you is the same.  And even if you don’t like the theme, the fill is full of fun things like animals (I count ten of them, including a fish, three birds, two insects, an amphibian, and three mammals), and foreign pronouns (only two—maybe more next time!).

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Download this week’s crossword:

159-Not-According-to-Hoyle.puz

159-Not-According-to-Hoyle.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

159 Not According to Hoyle

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An exemplary family struggles against misfortune in a cathedral town.

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Here is another novel by Mrs. Wood, with many of the same qualities, good and bad, as East Lynne (see Novel 077).  Among its minor characters is a mischievous choirboy named Bywater.

“It can never be read without profit both by parents and children. . . .  The merit . . . lies in the detail, and the extreme truthfulness and simplicity in which it is related. . . .  It is impossible not to read every word with interest; and we feel that we know every character intimately, and feel real regret at parting with them.”  Athenaeum, April 26, 1862

“It is pleasing, and readable, and well-contrived. . . .  Very few of the purveyors of fiction could write as good a book.”  Saturday Review, May 10, 1862

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/channings01wood

v.2 https://archive.org/details/channings02wood

v.3 https://archive.org/details/channings03wood

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So many of those other crossword constructors think they have all the answers!  I, in contrast, retain the questioning mind of a curious child, open to experience, hungering insatiably for new knowledge.  Someday I mean to make a puzzle filled only with open-ended answers, prompted by welcoming, non-restrictive clues like “Stuff” and “Thing.”  Meanwhile here’s another one for which I do have all the answers—78 of them.

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Download this week’s crossword:

158 Can-You-Reframe-the-Question?.puz

158 Can-You-Reframe-the-Question?.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

158 Can You Reframe the Question?