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 018: L.B. Walford, A Stiff-Necked Generation (1889)

Marcus Stone, In Love
Marcus Stone, In Love

An aristocratic young lady, resisting her bullying mother’s plans, involves herself with a handsome but dubiously genteel army officer.

Lucy Bethia Walford (1845-1915) wrote over 40 novels between 1874 and 1914.  This one cleverly represents hopeless mutual incomprehension between characters of different social backgrounds.

“It is a society novel of an excellent type:  abounding in clever delineations of human character, interesting snatches of bright conversation, and pretty descriptions of natural scenery.” Scots Observer,January 5, 1889

“There is much that is unusually clever in the story.  The author’s sense of humour is genuine”; her “characters are, without exception, lifelike, even the workings of a young girl’s mind . . . are analysed with striking fidelity.” Morning Post, January 23, 1889

“A very interesting and carefully executed piece of work. . . .  As usual, the author has wisely declined to encumber herself with a complicated plot; and though there is . . . quite enough story to keep the interest from flagging  . . .  the book is mainly attractive in virtue of its bright, lifelike conception and its capable and artistic delineation of character.” “Subtlety of handling which results in simplicity of effect is always a fine art, and the portrait of Major Gilbert seems to us very fine art indeed.”  Spectator, April 29, 1889

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/stiffneckedgener01walf

v.2 https://archive.org/details/stiffneckedgener02walf

v.3 https://archive.org/details/stiffneckedgener03walf

Crossword 017: Social Media Uploads

William Shayer and Edward Charles Williams, The Old Roadside Inn
William Shayer and Edward Charles Williams, The Old Roadside Inn

The above Victorian painting alludes to the Victorian worker of 36 Down.  The puzzle itself may seem uncharacteristically up-to-date, but don’t worry: the grasp of social media I display here is every bit as crude as the grasp of computer networking I displayed in last week’s puzzle.

Download this week’s crossword:

017-Social-Media-Uploads.puz

017-Social-Media-Uploads.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

017 Social Media Uploads

Novel 017: Mrs. W.H. Corning(?), Western Border Life; or, What Fanny Hunter Saw and Heard in Kanzas and Missouri

George Caleb Bingham, Landscape, Rural Scene
George Caleb Bingham, Landscape, Rural Scene

A Connecticut governess is hired by a Missouri family during the Missouri-Kansas border war.

The author is anonymous; but an excerpt, republished in 1895 by Louis Klopsch, editor of The Christian Herald (in a collection called A Budget of Christmas Tales and also including, e.g., Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”) is there attributed to “Mrs. W.H. Corning,” about whom I can find no information.  Though disfigured at the end by a melodramatic dénouement, and throughout by sentimentalism (especially as regards one Aunt Phebe, a sort of female counterpart of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom), the novel gives us a close view of 19th-century Missouri life, and, more generally, a chillingly plausible account of the way in which average, moderately selfish people may be led by habit and tribal belief into horrific cruelty and casual murder.

“Evidently by an unpracticed hand” but “written with great freshness of feeling, and a fine perception of character.” Putnam’s, November, 1856

“We beg to congratulate” the author on the novel’s “good spirit and general truth to nature—at any rate, to nature as seen from a feminine point of view in New England”; it includes some “artlessly successful . . . character-painting.”  Saturday Review, February 21, 1857

“The story . . . is interesting and readable, and that goes a long way towards making a good novel.  The scenes of Western border life are vivid and graphic, and have the air of being real.”  Athenaeum, March 21, 1857

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https://archive.org/details/westernborderlif00newy

Novel 016: Mary E. Mann, Moonlight (1898)

James Tissot, The Shop Girl
James Tissot, The Shop Girl

A young woman, daughter of a once-prosperous farmer, is forced by his bankruptcy to seek work in a shop, where she is courted by the local veterinarian.

Mary E. Mann (1848-1929) wrote nearly forty novels between 1883 and 1918. Here she provides (in just one volume)  memorable characters, an unusual setting, a bright style, and an engaging plot.

“Written in a brief, simple, unemphatic style, with never a note forced anywhere, this story yet produces a wonderfully strong effect. . . .  Commonplace persons, with average standards of conduct and quite unideal, even vulgar instincts . . . are neither rated nor made fun of; merely observed with a wise tolerance and with a tender sympathy for the joys, and the sorrows, and the weariness they share with the more gifted tithe of humanity.  This altogether uncritical yet observant attitude gives us a sense of novelty, and convinces us of the writer’s uncommon power.”  Bookman, January 1899

“An excellent style, a command of natural, crisp, and vivacious dialogue, a firm grasp of character, and a dramatic imagination.”  Speaker, February 25, 1899

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http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043B84#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-822%2C-133%2C3099%2C2658

Crossword 015: Family Entertainment

Frederick Daniel Hardy, The First Birthday Party
Frederick Daniel Hardy, The First Birthday Party

I have never been able to habituate myself to the simulated gore, on television and in the movies, for which the whole world seems to have such an insatiable appetite.  Severed limbs, gushing blood, exploding heads—I don’t see the appeal.  This crossword is my little act of protest.

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015-Family-Entertainment.puz

015-Family-Entertainment.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

015 Family Entertainment

Novel 015: Theo Gift, Lil Lorimer (1885)

John Bagnold Burgess,  The Church Door
John Bagnold Burgess, The Church Door

A young lady, neglectfully raised by her disreputable English father in Montevideo, finds herself in trying social circumstances.

Dorothy Boulger, née Havers (1847-1923) published some 17 works of fiction under the pen-name Theo Gift between 1874 and 1901.  She spent her late teens and early twenties (1861-70) in Uruguay, a setting carefully realized, along with some convincingly conflicted characters, in Lil Lorimer

“A charming and romantic novel. . . .  The . . . characters are invariably lifelike. . . .  The author has painted South America with a realistic fidelity.”  Morning Post, April 16, 1885

The “descriptions of Urugayan town and country life . . .have all the appearance of being reproduced from original experiences”; The plot is true “to the complex realities of life.” Graphic, May 16, 1885

“The descriptions of life in that part of South America are both instructive and entertaining. . . .  The character-drawing . . . is also good, and the plot . . . is simple and natural.  But the story depends for its interest less on dramatic episodes and startling surprises than on portrayal of character and analysis of motive.” Spectator, July 25, 1885

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000421B0#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-493%2C-1%2C3557%2C2104

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003C53A#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-396%2C0%2C3383%2C2000

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003AEA2#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-390%2C-1%2C3356%2C1985

Crossword 014: Knife, Fork, and Spoonerisms

George Goodwin Kilburne, A Meal Stop at a Coaching Inn
George Goodwin Kilburne, A Meal Stop at a Coaching Inn

The foodstuffs alluded to in this puzzle would not make for a particularly healthy or appetizing meal, but it might be better than the one in the picture above, which seems to consist of a salad, a roast with a chocolate doughnut (?) on top of it, and a giant slice of cake.  Appetizing or not, however, I like this picture—the huge fish painting at the left, the horses looking through the window, the dog statues on the hearth, and the wary reactions of the pretty woman and her guardian, seated on the right, to the blotchy-faced man who seems to be inviting himself to join them.

Download this week’s crossword:

014-Knife,-Fork,-&-Spoonerisms.puz

014-Knife,-Fork,-&-Spoonerisms.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

014 Knife, Fork, and Spoonerisms

Novel 014: Julia Rattray Waddington, Janet; or, Glances at Human Nature (1839)

Frank Stone, Friendship Endangered
Frank Stone, Friendship Endangered

An unassuming, affectionate young lady is envied by her older sister

Julia Rattray Waddington (1801-1862) wrote only four novels, all between 1838 and 1842.  This one, illustrating the passion of envy, is notable for its vivid and original characters; one of the best, a middle-aged unmarried woman living in a small town, seems possibly autobiographical

It “contains passages of feeling and sparkles of humour, subdued in tone, but still true to life.” Athenaeum, January 26, 1839

“The result of watchful observation in collecting the materials, and of much care, thought, and pains, in working them up . . . Its merits are—a nice and miniature delineation of those persons and of that life with which the mass of novel-readers are familiar; much truthfulness of dialogue; a keen but never malicious satire . . . the whole being embodied in a story which sometimes runs and never drags.” Spectator,January 26, 1839

“The story is made up of such incidents and feelings as characterize every-day life. . . . There are abundant proofs that the writer is a close observer of mankind and manners, habitually reflective, and a good natured satirist.  The dialogue is often particularly clever and effective.”Monthly Review, February, 1839

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph013983847

Novel 013: B.M. Croker, Katherine the Arrogant (1909)

James Tissot, Without a Dowry
James Tissot, Without a Dowry

A young lady, raised in aristocratic wealth but left penniless by her heedless father, persuades an aged friend to hire her as servant and companion.

Bithia Mary Croker (1848?-1921) wrote nearly 50 novels between 1882 and 1920.  This charming post-Victorian social comedy has motorcars and electric lights.

“A good story on a theme which always attracts, the woman who has to conquer the world.” Spectator, March 27, 1909

“An excellent story; crisply and vivaciously written, and thoroughly interesting from start to finish.” Bookman, April 1909

“It is written with an appearance of ease and competency of touch tending to disarm criticism.” Athenaeum, April 17, 1909

Download this week’s novel:

https://books.google.com/books?id=53IOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Novel 012: Catherine Gore, Mrs. Armytage (1836)

John Lavery, Elizabeth Welsh
John Lavery, Elizabeth Welsh

A proud, rich widow seeks to control her children.

Catherine Grace Frances Gore, née Moody (1799-1861), one of the most popular and esteemed novelists of the early Victorian period, wrote over 50 novels between 1824 and 1858.  Mrs. Armytage dates from the year before Victoria’s accession; its compelling and original main characters more than make up for some implausible plotting.

The novel provides “a capital and very agreeable picture of society in its various shades,—the trifing, scheming, laughter-and-scandal-loving exclusives; the respectable, unpretending, domestic nobility; the smaller Yorkshire squires; the family oddities which grow up in a remote provincial neighbourhood.  Most of the characters too are exceedingly well drawn,—effective yet without the exaggeration in which a more vulgar artist would have indulged.”  The style is “light, rapid, sparkling, and pointed, the combined result of natural wit, much observation of life, and considerable practice in writing.”  Spectator, July 9, 1836

Gore excels “in depth as well as nicety of observation, in the various portraiture of manners, and in the connecting with peculiar force minute traces of artifical character with strong movements of natural passion.”  Examiner, July 24, 1836

The novel shows “acute penetration into the motives by which individuals and even whole classes of society are actually though not openly impelled. . . .  The character of Mrs. Armytage is conceived with delicacy and discrimination, developed and sustained with admirable consistency and effect.” Morning Post, August 1, 1836

We “wish that Mrs. Gore could change her sex, and become M.P. for some borough . . . for she displays all the brilliant elements of one in every page. . . .  Her information is abundant, her shrewdness wonderful, her tact excellent, and her perceptions of character delicate, and happy in the extreme.”  Court Magazine and Monthly Critic, February, 1837

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/mrsarmytageorfem01gore

v.2 https://archive.org/details/mrsarmytageorfem02gore

v.3 https://archive.org/details/mrsarmytageorfem03gore

Novel 011: James Payn, Thicker Than Water

William Maw Egley, Omnibus Life in London
William Maw Egley, Omnibus Life in London

A proud but poor young lady endures the misbehavior of her various rich and eccentric patrons.

James Payn (1830-1898) wrote some 60 novels between 1857 and 1898.  This one has an intricate plot and a wide range of characters; its modernism is shown by the heroine’s resolve at one point to make her living with a typewriter.

“The writer’s thorough knowledge of the world enables him to lay bare the motives that prompt the actions of his personages, chosen in the most opposite classes of society. . . .  His characters are strikingly natural, and the individuality of each and all of them stands out in bold relief.”  Morning Post, September 10, 1883

It is set “among remarkable or original people, who meet with a variety of remarkable and more or less original incidents, as adventures come to the adventurous; while the scenes of the story are perpetually shifted, from town to country . . . and from the fashionable end of London to the extreme East.” Saturday Review, October 6, 1883

“Mr. Payn is as gay, as sprightly, as diverting as ever”; his story is “well imagined and well told enough to be interesting from beginning to end. . . .  Its personages are all of them natural and are many of them new; they are presented with a great deal of insight and vivacity; they have a flavour of reality which is refreshing in no mean degree.” Academy, October 27, 1883

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/thickerthanwater01paynj

v.2 https://archive.org/details/thickerthanwater03paynj

v.3 https://archive.org/details/thickerthanwater02payn

Novel 010: Anonymous, Eva Desmond; or, Mutation (1858)

Arthur Hughes, A Passing Cloud
Arthur Hughes, A Passing Cloud

A virtuous but poor young lady falls in love with a man whose family wants him to marry money.

Nothing is known about the author of this novel which, with a large cast of lively characters and much circumstantial detail, tells a story of what might be called Providential revenge.

“There is a certain air of actual life, marks of observation, traces of personal experience and investigation, and a power of pourtraying things and people . . . which would have been graphic were it not for the dream-like air of unreality."  Athenaeum, September 18, 1858

The novel has a “felicitous closeness of observation, and a fluency as well as vigour of style.”  Spectator, September 25, 1858

“A work of uncommon merit.  Its construction is admirable; for, although the story is intricate” and each of its “vast crowd of personages is made to preserve...a distinct...personality,” still “the reader is never suffered to lose sight of . . . the central object of the plot, the heroine of the story.”  Critic, September 25, 1858

"Among recent fictions we know of none having a stronger claim on our commendation . . . for a freshness and sweetness that breathe of the heather of the Irish mountains.  We know not that we have ever made acquaintance in the realms of fiction with a more truly fascinating person” than Eva Desmond.  Eclectic Review, November, 1858

Download this week’s novel here:

v.1     https://archive.org/details/evadesmondormut00desmgoog

v. 2    https://archive.org/details/evadesmondormut01desmgoog

v.3     https://archive.org/details/evadesmondormut02desmgoog

Novel 009: David Christie Murray, Hearts (1883)

Henry John Yeend King, Milking Time
Henry John Yeend King, Milking Time

A young gentleman seeking success in music and in love is undermined by a false friend and defended by a true one.

David Christie Murray (1847-1907) wrote some 30 novels between 1880 and 1907.  Here he sets out to disprove the claim of an “American writer of fiction”  (attacked in his preface) that “all the stories have been told” with an involved, and involving, plot.

 “The interest of the story is well sustained.” Academy, June 6, 1883

The villain’s “picture is drawn with remarkable skill”; the plot “is good throughout, and towards the end, where the action becomes more rapid, rises to a high level of merit”; the author provides “acute observation of life” that is “both vigorous and just.” Spectator, June 9, 1883

“The novel is bright and readable.” British Quarterly Review, July 1883

Download this week’s novel:

v. 1   https://archive.org/details/heartsnovel01murr

v. 2   https://archive.org/details/heartsnovel02murr

v.3   https://archive.org/details/heartsnovel03murr