Novel 241: Hope Stanford, Down the Way (1884)

James Sant,The Walker Sisters 


A young intellectual becomes interested in a plain young lady neglected by her family.


Nothing seems to be known of Hope Stanford.  This, the first of her two novels, though quite good, in my opinion—its heroine especially is refreshingly unusual in her plainness and ill-temper—was not very well received.

“There is a good deal that is thin and common-place in this novel, but also decided tokens of originality and dramatic instinct. . . . One or two of the characters on which the author has spent most pains are exceedingly well done.” Contemporary Review, July, 1884

“This is a pleasant, simply written story with which there is little fault to find.  We think the writer has aimed somewhat too high, and that her characters are hardly sufficiently worked up. . . . Still the interest is well kept up. . . .  Finally the writer possesses one merit dear to the heart of all critics.  She knows what she wishes to say, and says it in clear simple language, pleasantly free from mannerisms and strainings after effect.” Scottish Review, October 1884

A contrasting view:

“There is practically no plot, and the incidents are neither happy nor well contrived.  The situation selected for study is tolerably good” but “the three volumes demand more compression and conciseness.” Athenaeum, May 10, 1884

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Novel 237: Agnes Macdonell, Quaker Cousins (1879)

 

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, The Woman of Fashion

 

Two Quaker orphans are brought to live with their worldly great aunt.


Agnes Macdonell (1840-1925) wrote three novels in the 1870s, of which this is the last.  The title characters’ earnestness grows wearing at times, but their selfish, self-deluded aunt is a lot of fun.

“There is a natural ease about the progress of events which is the result of care and thoughtfulness.  The story is, in fact, in admirable harmony with the refinement and self-restraint shown in the characters.” Athenaeum, March 22, 1879

“A book for people who prefer homely scenes described with humour and delicacy.” Academy, April 19, 1879

A (somewhat) contrasting view:

A very readable novel” but “spun out with gratuitous prolixity.” Saturday Review, May 10, 1879

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v.1 https://books.google.com/books?id=FYU-AQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=editions%3AwMa2nv7aBUIC&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

v.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=NYU-AQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=editions%3AwMa2nv7aBUIC&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

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Novel 227: Lucy B. Walford, Pauline (1877)

 

George Frederick Watts, Eveleen Tennant

 

A virtuous young lady falls in love with a Byronic hero, her brother with their pretty cousin.


Here is another novel by Walford, for whom see Novels 018, 066, 121, and 174.

“The incidents are as interesting as is consistent with probability, and . . . the principal characters behave and talk like ladies and gentleman. . . . Walford has a keen appreciation of the irony of life.” Athenaeum, October 13, 1877.

Walford has a “faculty for observing certain types of society, which to a more careless eye would present no salient points to be seized and tabulated”; she can “take a perfectly commonplace mortal out of a crowd, and so  . . . set him before a reader that the truthfulness of the presentation shall be at once recognised, and the individual become a personal acquaintance.” Academy, November 3, 1877

A contrasting view:

“There is an air about the book, a pretentiousness, an aplomb, which led us to feel that there must, somehow, be something in it. . . .  Unquestionably there is something about it different from other novels; but we are unable to say that this difference is in its favour.  The story never gets hold of us, and the characters come like shadows, and so depart.” Observer, October 14, 1877

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https://archive.org/details/22598996.60953.emory.edu

Novel 224: Jane Ashton, Sophia (1878)

 

Thomas Benjamin Kennington, Lady Reading by A Window

 

An ordinary middle-class girl lives with her neglectful father in a small, gossip-prone city.


About Jane Ashton nothing appears to be known.  This is her only novel.  It is odd in its abrupt ending and its jaded view of human nature, which however it convincingly represents.

“The author has copied nature with fidelity.  Her descriptions are minute and painstaking; and her manner, formed after Jane Austen, is not ill-adapted to convey a clear and distinct impression.” Athenaeum, May 11, 1878

“Sophia is a very brief tale of a very dull life in a small cathedral city.  It . . . merits commendation for the attentive study which the writer has given to certain social types discoverable in most country towns, but so handled in this story that they are persons and not lay figures.  The skill of the work lies in the fact that, although the heroine is . . . thoroughly commonplace . . . yet a certain compassionate interest in her fortunes is aroused . . . by means of . . . uncompromising realism of treatment.” Academy, July 13, 1878

A supplementary remark:

The Athenaeum review continues: “Miss Ashton will never please a large circle of readers if she devotes so much more care to the detection of the weaknesses of characters than to the illustration of their virtues.  It is an unprofitable kind of cynicism which gives us only two endurable characters out of two dozen, and which exhibits those two as impersonations of the commonplace.”

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Novel 223: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charlotte’s Inheritance (1868)

 

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Woman in an Interior

 

The further adventures of an unscrupulous dentist and the heiresses who attract his interest.


Here, as promised, is the sequel to last week’s novel.

Miss Braddon’s enlarged experience as a writer of fiction is very discernible in this volume, which is decidedly one of her best, if not the best, she has given to the public. . . .  Charlotte’s Inheritance is well written, and contains some excellent character-drawing, unspoiled by exaggeration for mere effect.  Even the very repulsive personage, so indispensable to the authoress . . . is not, it is painful to confess, without his probabilities.” Spectator, October 25, 1868

A contrasting view:

It “seems to have been put together for the stage, and with an eye to effects.  It is an extremely disagreeable story, and it has nothing to redeem its coarse reality.” Athenaeum, March 21, 1868

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/charlottesinheri01brad

v.2 https://archive.org/details/charlottesinheri02brad

v.3 https://archive.org/details/charlottesinheri03brad