Novel 045: Beatrice May Butt, Alison (1883)

Thomas Francis Dicksee, Distant Thoughts

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A virtuous young lady marries a scholarly older man who needs help caring for his late sister’s children.

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Beatrice May Butt (1856-1918) published some fifteen works of fiction between 1876 and 1908; in this she offers a quiet plot, some vivid characters, and a subtle sense of personal relationships.

“A pretty story, with a happy blending of the poetical and the prosaic.” Times, November 9, 1883

“Those who like a quiet story, without sensationalism of any kind, but yet, at the same time, an admirable study of the inner life and its affections, will find undoubted pleasure in this work. . . .  The author’s style is smooth and pleasant, and occasionally rises into dignity and pathos.”  Academy, November 10, 1883

“The heroine’s pure and affectionate though passionate nature is well exhibited.”  Athenaeum, December 1, 1883.

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v. 1: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004AFFA#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-31%2C0%2C2547%2C1856

v. 2: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B7FE#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-59%2C0%2C2627%2C1915

v.3: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B000#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-95%2C-1%2C2651%2C1933

Novel 044: Eliza Lynn Linton, Patricia Kemball (1874)

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A forthright, virtuous young lady is forced by the death of the sea-captain uncle who raised her to move to the home of another uncle, a vulgar millionaire, in whose household lives also another niece, beautiful but devious.

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Eliza Lynn Linton (1822-1898), who wrote some 27 novels beginning in 1846, was well known as a journalist and social critic as well as a novelist: her  essays on “the girl of the period”—a vain, loud creature obsessed with fashion and indifferent to domestic virtue—were notorious.  Here she arranges some vividly hateful, yet believable, characters in a gripping plot.

“An acute and serious study of certain phases of English society . . . written in a very clear, lively, and interesting style, with a pleasant effervescence of satire and epigram”; it has “enough . . . of graphic portraiture and witty observation to furnish materials for half-a-dozen novels of the everyday kind.” Saturday Review, November 21, 1874

“A very clever and well-constructed story” which “climbs at the last to a very powerful and well-managed situation. . . The characters are distinct, the individuality of each man and woman being put together bit by bit with pains and care.”  Times, December 5, 1874

 “A rousing heart-stirring novel. . . .  Even those readers who do not care for social questions, will enjoy Mrs. Lynton’s excellent character-drawing.”  Morning Post, December 18, 1974

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https://archive.org/details/patriciakemballn00lind

Novel 043: Thomas Cobb, The Bishop's Gambit (1901)

Walter Crane, The Moat and Bishop’s Palace, Wells Cathedral

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A bishop’s daughter’s fiancé is accused of adultery in a divorce case.

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Thomas Cobb (1854-1932) wrote some 86 works of fiction beginning in 1887. He specialized in breezy comedies like this one.

“A book of ingenious complications and bright dialogue . . . the story is human and pure comedy.”  Academy, February 2, 1901

The author “is saving us the trouble and humiliation of always going to France for good light fiction.  There are few English authors who have the art of being light without being empty.” This novel “shows no falling off in interest and vivacity. . . . We read it on the South Eastern Railway, and forgot where we were.”  Speaker, February 16, 1901

It has “a clever, novel plot in its way” with “an air of light comedy.”  Athenaeum, February 23, 1901

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph014873955

Novel 042: Anonymous, My Lady (1858)

Richard Buckner, Emily, 1st Viscountess Hambleden, and her Daughter

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A woman and her children are left in trouble after the husband and father absconds with another woman.

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The anonymous author is known to have written two novels, of which this was the first.  Some sources (I don’t know the origin of the claim) identify her with Emma Willsher Atkinson, the author of last week’s novel; Troy Bassett finds no basis for this, and the novel seems to me by another hand entirely.  Read both and make up your own mind.  Whoever she (or he) may be, she (it seems the likelier choice) provides an involving, sophisticated analysis of the consequences of Victorian marital failure.

It is “told . . . with great strength of feeling, is well written, and has a plot that is by no means commonplace.” Examiner, September 16, 1858

It has “the freshness of inexperience.”  Though the plot “verges upon melodrama,” the characters are “distinctly drawn, and often wear an appearance of individuality.” Spectator, October 2, 1858

“The subject and structure of the story are well chosen and well planned, the conversations are natural, and the characters neither hackneyed nor untrue.”  Literary Gazette, October 23, 1858

“It is not in every novel we can light upon a style so vigorously graceful—upon an intelligence so refined without littleness, so tenderly truthful, which has sensibility rather than poetry; but which is also most subtly and searchingly powerful.”  Dublin University Magazine, April. 1859

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https://archive.org/details/10491482.1530.emory.edu

Novel 041: Emma Willsher Atkinson, Extremes (1859)

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An earnest, shy young man with Tractarian leanings takes up a curacy in a Yorkshire village.

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Emma Willsher Atkinson (1826-1900) is known to have written only one novel—this one.  Despite some sentimentalism and didacticism (especially near the end), she gives us several striking characters and sharply defined social and moral dilemmas.

The author “has performed a very difficult task creditably”; she “has not shrunk from showing that extremes with a little friendly mediation will sometimes meet.’“ Leader and Saturday Analyst, October 15, 1859

"The novel may offend readers of either extreme, being itself of none, yet it is wholesome and kindly in its tone.  It is a little touched with excess of feminine sentiment, but at the same time has feminine perceptions of character, and is not without humour” Examiner, November 26, 1859

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004AEC2#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1434%2C-131%2C4339%2C2610

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004AEC8#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1442%2C-129%2C4273%2C2570

Novel 040: Edward Dutton Cook, Paul Foster's Daughter (1861)

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A solicitor’s son, destined by his father for a legal career, prefers painting and writing.

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Edward Dutton Cook (1831-1883), himself a solicitor’s son who studied painting, wrote some eleven novels between 1861 and 1877; this, his first, represents Bohemian London in a lively style.

Cook “depicts the various phases of Bohemian life with perfect truthfulness...and considerable humour; and, at the same time, with a consistent delicacy of touch” that will protect “the most susceptible reader.”  Spectator, July 20, 1861

“It is not often that a novel so witty, wise, and healthful in spirit offers itself for perusal.... There is not much plot in the book, but great play of character. . . . The book is spirited and the style easy.” Athenaeum, August 3, 1861

“The incidents and explanations cluster cleverly at the climax, and the best teaching abounds, whilst there is not the least shadow of lecturing or preaching.”  Illustrated Times, October 21, 1865

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/paulfostersdaugh01cook

v.2 https://archive.org/details/paulfostersdaugh02cook

v.3 https://archive.org/details/paulfostersdaugh03cook

Novel 039: Margaret Hunt, Mrs. Juliet (1892)

Philip Calderon, Juliet

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A virtuous young lady, secretly married, is forced to live with her rich, vulgar, art-collecting aunt.

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Margaret Hunt, née Raines (1831-1912), who sometimes wrote as Averil Beaumont, sometimes as Mrs. Alfred Hunt (her husband was a well-known painter) produced about a dozen novels beginning in 1872, the last completed by her daughter Violet, also a novelist, and the consort of Ford Madox Ford, the best known novelist of the three.  This novel, the gripping plot of which begins in domestic comedy and ends in sensationalistic mystery, represents its varied and amusing characters in a brisk style.

Despite themes long familiar from “tri-voluminous fiction, the author . . . has managed to produce a fresh, attractive, and decidedly entertaining story.” Athenaeum, December 31, 1892

“Mrs. Alfred Hunt is a writer whose narratives go along smoothly enough, and whose persons have the breath of life.”  Saturday Review, January 21, 1893

The heroine’s troubles “are related with a vivacity which goes far to relieve their dismalness. . . . The story is a very good one, with plenty of excitement in the matter of plot, and at least one admirably drawn character.”  Spectator, March 25, 1893

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004DCAC#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1624%2C-120%2C4644%2C2389

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004DD00#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-657%2C347%2C2911%2C1498

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004DD4E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-693%2C-1%2C3791%2C1951

Novel 038: Henry Cuyler Bunner, The Midge (1886)

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Miss Dorothy Vickers

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An eccentric New York bachelor adopts an orphaned French-English waif.

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Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896) was better known for his stories and plays than his two novels.  This, the first, is a brief comedy of situation, delightful except for its odd ending.

“A slight yet charming study of life in the French quarter of New York."  Eclectic Magazine, July, 1886

The plot is “gracefully and artistically handled”;“the story is rich in sensitive passages, both humor and pathos being well portrayed.”  Advance, October 7, 1886

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https://archive.org/details/midgemidge00bunnrich

Novel 036: Emily Eden, The Semi-Detached House (1858)

James Tissot, Autumn on the Thames

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An aristocratic young lady, prevented by her pregnancy from accompanying her diplomat husband overseas, shares a “semi-detached house” with a middle-class family.

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Emily Eden (1787-1869), daughter of a baron and sister of an earl, wrote only two novels, of which this quiet, pleasant work of social comedy is the second, though the first to be published.

“A piece of real life, sketched by a spectator full of shrewd sense and a genial spirit of fun.”  Spectator, August 6, 1858

“The purpose of this book, in so far as it has a purpose, is to teach us to take life easily and frankly . . . that we should not be too much pleased at speaking to persons of superior rank, nor too anxious to avoid those who may be below us”; the story is slight, but has “sparkling dialogue . . . good subsidiary characters, and . . . cheerful and habitual good sense.”  Saturday Review, August 27, 1858

“Character painting so entirely unpretending in its manner, and so perfect of its sort, as that which gives to this novel its value as a work of art, is not often to be found.”  Examiner, August 27, 1858

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https://archive.org/details/semidetachedhous00eden

Novel 035: Mrs. E.J. Burbury, Florence Sackville; or, Self-Dependence

Thomas Sully, Fanny Kemble

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Financial vicissitudes drive a virtuous young lady to  support herself and her family by acting in a provincial theater.

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Nothing is known of Mrs. E.J. Burbury, author of only this single novel.  She appears to have tried to fit into it every noteworthy experience she ever had, whether working in theater (the miserable conditions of which, especially for women, are vividly portrayed), or driving through Oxford by moonlight.  It makes for fascinating reading, despite some mawkishness.

The author has a “clear appreciation of humour and of pathos—a firm hand in noting down the boundary lines and salient features of character, and a constancy . . . to the . . . purpose of her story.”  Athenaeum, November 11, 1851

"It is refreshing to take up a romance and to find it is not altogether an unmitigated profitless ‘love story’. . . . Mrs. Burbury’s style is vigorous and effective, and the scenes she depicts, the characters she delineates, and the conversations she supposes, bear the stamp of a truthfulness, a penetration, and a depth of feeling, which would do honour to one who had been longer before the public.  That part of the story which relates to the theatrical career Florence is with repugnance compelled to adopt . . . is handled in a fearless and masterly style.”  New Quarterly Review, January, 1852

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph014284777

Novel 034: Anthony Trollope, Cousin Henry (1879)

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A weak-spirited young man is led into trouble by his uncle’s multiple wills.

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Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) is too well known to require introduction here; in fact he ought not to be here at all, except on the theory that, though not forgotten, he is nonetheless not often given his due, as the greatest of all novelists.  Anyway I have included him so as to complete my set of literary Trollopes.  Cousin Henry exhibits in brief what makes Anthony Trollope the greatest of all novelists: his full and accurate representation of human nature.  He shows here the complicated workings of a commonplace mind bent on justifying an act of selfish injustice.

“The analysis of character is so exhaustive, and makes us so familiar with all his ins and outs, that we get to feel as if we were in some way to blame for him, or as if we ourselves might possibly have been Cousin Henry in (we hope) some very remote state of being.” Spectator, October 18, 1879

“The minute dissection of commonplace characters has long been the special feature of Mr. Trollope’s writings.  The present story excels both in minuteness and commonplace.”  Athenaeum, October 18, 1879

“His insight into the making and constitution of a poor creature is comprehensive and masterly.”  Saturday Review, October 25, 1879

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/cousinhenrynovel01trolrich

v.2 https://archive.org/details/cousinhenrynovel02trolrich

Novel 033: Frances Eleanor Trollope, A Charming Fellow (1875)

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A handsome and popular young man, raised in genteel poverty by a doting mother, hopes to better his condition.

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Frances Eleanor Trollope (1835-1913) was T.A. Trollope’s second wife, and therefore sister-in-law to Anthony Trollope and daughter-in-law to Frances Milton Trollope; she was also the sister of Ellen Ternan, Charles Dickens’s special friend.  She wrote a dozen or so novels between 1866 and 1892; here she delineates, with playful irony, a complex social environment made up of people who misunderstand themselves and each other.

“Mrs. Trollope has the family knack of investing commonplace life with dramatic interest”; “in the details of the drama, often both humorous and pathetic . . . the reader will find . . . evidence of considerable observation, expressed with unusual force.”  Athenaeum, January 1, 1876

“Of the minor characters, who are many, the assertion may be sweepingly made that they are all good.  Mrs. Trollope shows a really remarkable power of drawing character.” Academy, January 1, 1876

“There is a great deal of very nice and delicate work in this novel”; the title character is “extremely well done.”  Saturday Review, January 8, 1876

“Very much above the ordinary run of novels” with “three sketches of character that must be pronounced masterly.” The title character “is natural and consistent, a perfect specimen of the compatibility of winning manners and faultless temper with thorough badness of heart.”  Graphic, February 12, 1876

Download this week’s novel here:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/acharmingfellow01trolgoog

v.2 https://archive.org/details/acharmingfellow02trolgoog

v.3 https://archive.org/details/acharmingfellow00trolgoog

Novel 032: Cecilia Frances Tilley, Chollerton: A Tale of Our Own Times (1846)

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An orphaned young lady of firm Tractarian principles, having gone to live with some distant cousins, is wooed by a baronet and admired by a clergyman

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Cecilia Frances Tilley (1816–1849), Frances Trollope’s daughter, Anthony and T.A. Trollope’s sister, Henry Milton’s niece, wrote only one novel before dying of consumption in her early thirties.  Though marred somewhat by religious lecturing, Chollerton exhibits the family facility with character, plot, and style.

A “specimen of the lesser novel”: the “story sufficiently probable; the characters natural . . . the style easy, and rather elegant.”  Spectator, August 15, 1846

Though of the objectionable class of “controversial fictions,” this is “beyond measure the best”: “the plot is well constructed, the incidents flow naturally one from another, the characters are conceived vividly and sustained with skill.” And it is less “tainted with illiberality than any similar work we have seen.” Critic, October 24, 1846

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https://archive.org/details/chollertonatale00tillgoog

Novel 031: Henry Milton, Rivalry (1840)

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Two middle-aged women vie for a bachelor; meanwhile, a virtuous young lady is besieged by scoundrels.

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Henry Milton (1784–1850), Frances Trollope’s brother, Anthony and T.A. Trollope’s uncle, wrote only two novels, of which this is the first.  It amusingly combines farce and melodrama.

He is like his sister in providing “the same literal truth in the descriptions of common life; the same tendency to caricature in the humorous, and to melodramatic exaggeration in the serious parts.”  The Spectator, May 2, 1840

“His talent is equal for the serious or the comic, the one, however, sometimes verging into the melodramatic, the other occasionally approaching the burlesque.” The Morning Post, May 9, 1840

Written in “an easy and agreeable style,” the novel shows a “lively sense and good humour, . . . excellent knowledge of ordinary life,” and “nice discrimination of character in its ludicrous as well as its quiet aspects.” The Examiner, May 31, 1840

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/rivalry01milt

v.2 https://archive.org/details/rivalry02milt

v.3 https://archive.org/details/rivalry02milt

Novel 030: Thomas Adolphus Trollope, Durnton Abbey (1871)

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A feckless bank clerk woos a farmer’s daughter and is wooed by a local aristocrat in need of funds.

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Thomas Adolphus Trollope (1810-1892) was Frances Milton Trollope’s first son and Anthony Trollope's older brother.  The plot of this novel heats up after a slow beginning; its bad characters are memorable studies in self-deception, led as they are by banal, routine desires into extravagantly evil behavior.

The characters are “natural but by virtue of their mediocrity. . . . Virtue is mediocre in [Trollope's] hands, and the contrast between it and vice is marked only by the degree in which the latter falls below the mean”; still the novel is “well written, and superior to the common run of novels in originality and interest.” Athenaeum, July 29, 1871

“A well constructed, interesting story”; “one of the chief charms . . . is the humorous portraiture with which it abounds.” Graphic, August 5, 1871

“In spite of many scenes of considerable humour and not a little pathos,” the “coarse vice” portrayed in the novel “left in our mind . . . a most unpleasant recollection.”  Saturday Review, August 26, 1871

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F87C

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F882

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F876

Novel 029: Frances Milton Trollope, The Ward of Thorpe Combe (1842)

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An eccentric old man gathers his nieces and nephews in order to choose an heir.

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Frances Milton Trollope (1779-1863), mother of Anthony Trollope, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, and Cecilia Frances Tilley, and sister of Henry Milton, and mother-in-law of Frances Eleanor Trollope, wrote over 30 novels between 1835 and 1856.  Here she provides a good comic plot and an entertaining variety of characters, especially the deliciously repulsive heroine.

“The principal portraitures of people, and sketches of manners, drawn by Mrs. Trollope, are so human and natural, that they ever come pleasingly home to the feelings of her readers.” Literary Gazette, April 2, 1842

“Mrs. Trollope never objects to peep into the pantry, to gossip with a comfortable old housekeeper, or to intrigue with an astute lady’s maid, and here she is particularly strong in life below stairs.” Her plot “will excite a strong interest.”  Athenaeum, April 9, 1842

“Excellent as Mrs. Trollope has always proved herself in pourtraying human character, its varieties and eccentricities, she has been more than usually successful in her delineation of the Ward of Thorpe-Combe. . . .  The attention of the reader is never allowed to flag, or to become weary.”  Gentleman’s Magazine, July. 1842

Download this week’s novel here:

https://books.google.com/books?vid=BL:A0017528094 (1-volume Paris ed.)

Novel 028: Lucas Malet, Colonel Enderby's Wife (1885)

Hubert von Herkomer, Clematis

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A quiet middle-aged man falls in love with a beautiful but strangely childlike young woman.

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Mary St. Leger Harrison (1852-1931) was the daughter of novelist and reformer Charles Kingsley.  Under the pseudonym Lucas Malet, she wrote some 16 novels beginning in 1882; this one, amid more commentary on the human condition than might seem altogether necessary, presents vivid characters in helpless conflict.

“In these days of hurried workmanship it is a welcome contrast to encounter a story which combines imagination, observation and finish in such a high degree.  This is no sketch, but a whole gallery of portraits which have not suffered from the author’s elaborate method, but only gained in lifelikeness”; even if “the author, especially in her moralizing moods, is too uniformly, and perhaps consciously, clever.” Athenaeum, June 6, 1885

The novel’s style has “a quiet self-confidence and reserved power”; the author is “vivid and effective in her descriptions, and telling in her portraitures”; but “there is a morbid strain running through it; one is tempted to ask whether the imagination which conceived and executed this book has not a touch of inflammation.” Literary World, July 11, 1885

“It is poignant, grievously pathetic, a fateful, disheartening book, but it is unquestionably clever. . . . Everything in ‘Colonel Enderby’s Wife’ is clever--the talk, the author’s pessimistic reflections, the arrangement of incident . . . and above all the delineation of character.”  Westminster Review, October, 1885

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http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph014443744

Novel 026: Elizabeth Darby Eiloart, The Love that Lived (1874)

James Sant, The Bride

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In a small town, a radical clerk is rescued from drowning by a rich young gentleman whom he resents; as it happens, the two men are connected by their parents’ secret past.

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Elizabeth Darby Eiloart (1827-1898) wrote some 18 novels for adults (and several more for children) between 1865 and 1883; she specialized in middle-class characters and concerns, which emerge sharply in this novel, despite a charmingly silly plot.

“All Mrs. Eiloart’s books are honest books, spiced with independence of thought, and sweetened with a pleasant humour.”  This novel “breathes the fresh air of the country”; “its characters are true to life.”  Academy, July 18, 1874

Eiloart's “books are original and fascinating; they contain good plots, plenty of incident, and well described and distinctive characters.”  This is “one of the best and most interesting novels of the season.”  Morning Post, August 25, 1874

“Apart from the plot . . . Mrs. Eiloart’s novel is refreshingly and unaffectedly real.  There is nothing high-flown, nothing morbid in its tone.”  It “is not only a love-story.  It is a political story.  Conservatives and Radicals, rich and poor, the old school and the new, are all faithfully represented. . . . This is one of the most pleasing and interesting novels of the season.”  Examiner, August 29 1874

Download this week’s novel:

vol. 1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000047580#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-460%2C-181%2C3652%2C2238

vol. 2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000046A6A#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-410%2C0%2C3265%2C200

vol. 3: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000046A5E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-379%2C-1%2C3329%2C204

Novel 025: Margaret Paul, Martha Brown, the Heiress (1861)

Richard Buckner, Margaret Laetitia, Lady Western, née Bushby

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An heiress loves a poor but proud young surgeon.

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Margaret Agnes Paul, née Colvile (1829–1905) wrote a dozen novels between 1856 and 1886, of which this was the fifth.  Just one volume, like many of her works, this has a good plot drawn from ordinary life, and a few vivid characters.

“A very pleasant evening’s reading—clever, sensible, brief, lively, and refined. . . .  It is sometimes a relief to read a novel which is good enough to admire, and not powerful enough for even a pretence to immortality.” Spectator, November 9, 1861

“interesting and original . . . related in a sharp, concise manner, which renders it very pleasant reading.” Athenaeum, November 9, 1861

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http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/600071637.pdf

Novel 024: Mary Cholmondeley, Red Pottage (1899)

James Jebusa Shannon, Lady Marjorie Manners

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A young novelist lives with her clerical brother, while her friend grows to love a man with a dubious past and a secret problem.

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Mary Cholmondeley (1859-1925) wrote ten novels between 1887 and 1913; according to some reviewers, this one outsold all the other novels of 1899.  Its self-satisfied clergyman is a unique creation, not to be missed.

The plot is “ingenious, original, and abounding in strong dramatic situations”; Cholmondeley “understands the art of making her characters not merely thrill us at crises, but interest us in the normal intervening spaces of their lives”; despite some blemishes, “criticism is disarmed by the freshness, the strength, and the pathos of this brilliant and exhilarating novel, by far the most exciting and original of the present season.”  Spectator, October 28, 1899

“A clever, well-told story.  The emotional feeling is not of a common sort, and the outlook on modern life and manners is touched with vivacity, with something of subtlety even.” Cholmondeley provides “close and, at times, humorous observation of character . . . produced with a light touch and an admirable absence of the descriptive manner.”  “Never aggressively witty nor epigrammatic, she yet often says a good thing in a way that makes one wonder why it has not been said before, or not in the same fresh or whimsical fashion.”  Athenaeum, November 11, 1899

The “central incident” is “improbable,” “but the insight into character, the vivid interpretation of a woman’s mind, and the happy gift of satire displayed by Miss Cholmondeley raise her book at once to a very high level.  She has a marvelous knack of portraying an unconscious fool, male or female, and one or two of her characters will live in her readers’ memories.  She has an admirable sense of style, and she knows the world of which she writes.”  Saturday Review, November 11, 1899

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https://archive.org/details/ra556450500choluoft