A rising barrister, on a country vacation, falls in love with a farmer’s daughter.
For Braddon, see Novels 004, 061, 115, 170, 222, and 223.
“It is carefully written, and even rewritten, and yet is full of all the old rough vigour and dash, the keen sense of the many pleasures and enjoyments of life, the love of green fields and blue skies, and pleasant gardens, and the quick impatience of all that is hollow and conventional.” Athenaeum, September 21, 1872
“Its plot, not ill-conceived, is well worked out, and told with appropriate humour and appropriate pathos. Several of the characters are clearly defined, and . . . there is originality and fresh vigour in its presentment.” Examiner, October 12, 1872
A contrasting view:
Braddon’s “admirers will probably run through the work with a certain vacant satisfaction, while ever and anon, like dim reminiscences of a previous stage of existence, will dawn on their misty consciousness a vague idea that they have seen all this before.” Manchester Guardian, September 25, 1872
Download this fortnight’s novel:
https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014626003 (Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)