After last week’s self-indulgence I try here to show a little humility.
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Crossword 007: Self Effacement
John Collier, Lady Godiva
Novel 007: Margaret Oliphant, Salem Chapel (1863)
George Goodwin Kilburne, In Church
A sincere, idealistic, highly educated dissenting minister is troubled by the bullying interference of his low-bred, gossiping congregation.
Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) wrote more than 100 novels between 1849 and 1897. This is the first of the “Chronicles of Carlingford,” five novels set in the same provincial city; it is the first of two featuring the Dissenters in that city. Its vivid portrayal of a conflicted character is somewhat marred by a melodramatic subplot. The sequel will appear next week.
“This book will take a permanent place in English literature. . . . The literary wealth of the book consists in the delineation of the Salem Chapel ‘connection,’ its obstructive relation to the effervescing life of the young minister, and the diplomatic depth of worldly wisdom which it develops on critical emergencies in his pious and devoted mother” whose character is “an etching of marvelous delicacy and art, with every line and shadow separately touched in.” As to another main character, a low-bred deacon, “Through all the vulgarity of its surface there is so much genial strength and breadth, so much vulgar manliness, so much intelligence in the shopocratic shrewdess, so much true mettle behind the stratum of butter and bacon, such a liberal feeling” that he becomes “a figure of more true dignity...than the young minister itself.” Spectator, February 14, 1863
“The humour which sketches individual characters and enters into the nice individualities and idiosyncracies; the occasional bitter and burning revolt against the ordinations of Providence in the mysteries of life; the clever delineations, especially of chapel ways and manner” are all praiseworthy. Eclectic Review, March, 1863
The novel shows “the weakness of enthusiasm, refinement, and mere well-meaning, in contact with the vulgar realities of every-day life.” National Review, March 1863
“In the painting of really good people, and of the thoroughly wicked, she fails; but her descriptions of well-meaning men and women, not very good and not very bad, are excellent.” Examiner, November 5, 1864
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Crossword 006: Oenology
John Collier, A Glass of Wine with Caesar Borgia
A common crossword genre is the hidden-word puzzle: some word or set of related words is enclosed in common phrases, “stale,” for example, in “first alert” (clue: “Smoke alarm brand”). Fun stuff. But I prefer to enclose words in startling new phrases created not to hide those words, but to tax my ingenuity for clues that make sense of them, “amusing,” for example, in “hippopotamus in-group” (clue: “Semi-aquatic jungle clique”). It’s a matter of taste. In this puzzle I may have gone too far, however.
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Novel 006 Elizabeth Anna Hart, Wilfred's Widow (1883)
Edward Killingworth Johnson, The Young Widow
A close-knit family, mourning the death of its eldest hope in Australia, take in his widow, eager to excuse her odd manners and behavior.
Elizabeth Anna Hart (1822-1886), also known as Fanny Wheeler Hart, published six novels and two narrative poems between 1869 and 1883. Wilfred’s Widow is a light-hearted social comedy with a memorable anti-heroine.
It is “one of the few original novels that have lately appeared. The idea of the story is fresh, and the central character is drawn with considerable strength.” Morning Post, March 1, 1883
“A thoroughly amusing book, the interest of which carries the reader on through every page of a sufficiently brief story.” Spectator, March 3, 1883
It “shows a good deal of that quiet humour in which women...so often excel. . . . The style is bright and simple throughout, without any affectation of cleverness, and the characters appear as clearly as if they had been forced to unfold themselves in whole chapters of self-analysis.” Athenaeum, March 10, 1883
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v.1 http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/600067016.pdf
v.2 http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/600067017.pdf
Crossword 005: A Minus
Talbot Hughes, A Nun Embroidering Fabric
Repetition is comforting.
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Novel 005: Noell Radecliffe, The Secret History of a Household (1855)
Walter Dendy Sadler, Girl on a Bench
A virtuous wife deals with the appalling misbehavior of her arrogant husband.
Noell Radecliffe published eight novels between 1854 and 1870. Nothing else is known about her (him?), and yet her (his?) works have great emotional power and psychological subtlety. In The Secret History of a Household, she (he?) evokes a nightmarish world where well-meaning innocence is inevitably encompassed and defeated by selfishness and cruelty.
“Every lover of the beautiful and the true in woman will sympathise with the wife.” Morning Post, February 15, 1855
“With much talent, and the power to interest and carry along the reader, it is as bad and pernicious a book as we ever read. . . . There is a total want of all faculty to discriminate between right and wrong.” Athenaeum, March 17, 1855
“This work evinces no diminution of [Radecliffe’s] power of delineation and . . . faculty of invention. . . . Of the general portraiture we must say that it is strong—rather strong than flattering; and of the general tone of the pictures of genteel life, that it is dark—more dark than pleasing.” Morning Chronicle, April 4, 1855
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Crossword 004 Plutocratic Pastimes
William Holyoake, In the Front Row at the Opera
The rule-bound, rigidly symmetrical crossword form cries out, I think, for utter nonsense. This is a modest tribute to the nonsense poems of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll.
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Novel 004: M.E. Braddon, The Doctor's Wife (1864)
Robert James Gordon, Woman Reading
A young woman, addled by overindulgence in novels, marries a good but unimaginative doctor.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) wrote over 60 novels between 1861 and 1900. In The Doctor’s Wife she reflects wittily and ruefully on her craft and its effects.
“Miss Braddon has displayed quite unexpected power, that she can create a female character ordinary and yet bizarre, analyze her emotions with delicate skill, and display her action in incidents each of which is a surprise, yet on reflection is pronounced by the reader accurate and natural.” Spectator, October 22, 1864
“Isabel’s is an original character, and it is excellently drawn.” London Review, October 22, 1864
The heroine’s character is “wholly consistent from first to last, and artistically true to the type of human nature which the novelist has set herself to portray.” Saturday Review, November 5, 1864
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v.1 https://books.google.com/books?id=BkPQAAAAMAAJ
v.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=B0TQAAAAMAAJ
v.3 https://books.google.com/books?id=RUTQAAAAMAAJ
“Stereotyped” 1 vol. ed. (Archive.org)
Crossword 003: Broken Ranks
Jerry Barrett, Queen Victoria's First Visit to her Wounded Soldiers
Only corporal punishment could improve this puzzle.
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Novel 003: Charlotte Yonge, Heartsease (1854)
William Henry Margetson, Lady with Pansies
A naive young girl marries into a difficult family and wins her way by her virtue.
Charlotte Yonge (1823-1901) wrote some 60 novels between 1844 and 1900. No novelist has ever created characters more lifelike, original, and fully individualized than Yonge’s.
“One of the loveliest, sweetest, and most attractive creations that ever sprung to life at the poet’s bidding.” Fraser’s Magazine, November, 1854
“There is ... minute etching of incident and character, and every page repays the reader, by disclosing some trait of interest essential to the development of the story. The interest lies chiefly in the details of the daily life and daily trials of the different characters. These are drawn with considerable vigour.... ‘Heartsease’ is the most true looking story we have read for a long time.” Athenaeum, November 18, 1854
“The characters are exceedingly well drawn and distinguished... The book, although not of the intense kind, bears evidence of very keen observation, and very true and careful thought, and as a work of art, must rank very high.” Putnam’s, February 1855
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Crossword 002: One for Two
Alfons Mucha, Dance (1898)
This puzzle, though admittedly half-witted in its way, is also semi-autobiographical: it's the second I ever made. The picture illustrates 9 Down.
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Novel 002: W.E Norris, No New Thing (1883)
Franz Xaver Winterhalter - Adelina Patti
A half-Italian orphan, raised by a wealthy English widow on her country estate, misbehaves.
W.E. Norris (1847-1925) wrote over 40 novels between 1877 and 1925. No New Thing is a romantic comedy in a witty style, with a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a contemptible young man. The critical comparisons to Anthony Trollope are apt.
“In the Trollopian vein . . . is Mr. Norris’s patient way of letting his characters reveal themselves as the circumstances permit. But whoever may be Mr. Norris’s masters in fiction . . . No New Thing is as thoroughly fresh and original a novel as has been published for a long time. The plot has been constructed with great care, and the writer shows much insight into human nature, and a turn for satire.” Academy, May 19, 1883
“He has caught Trollope’s genial manner in drawing people as they are—men and women who are, on the whole, content with life as they find it, who are not always analyzing their emotions nor craving for a ‘higher synthesis.’ Mr. Norris reminds one of Trollope also in his way of discussing a situation by a series of questions in the form of the argument which would probably have been gone through by the persons whose course of action is to be considered. In humour and gentle pathos Mr. Norris shows resemblances to Trollope. . . . Perhaps the best character in the book is a young man who has many talents and no application, who is completely selfish and always agreeable, and who has a redeeming point in a sort of emotional affectionateness.” Athenaeum, May 26, 1883
“As a piece of style, this novel is wholly exceptional; it is careful, clear, and polished, yet always graceful and easy. To read such writing is a pleasure.” British Quarterly Review, July 1883
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v.1: https://archive.org/details/nonewthing01norr
Crossword 001: "It's an Upset!"
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Bacchante (see 67 Across)
I post this puzzle, “It’s an Upset,” to celebrate the fact that my website is now “up.” Fitting, isn’t it? If you persevere in visiting my website, you will find that I am distinguished by nothing so much as my acute sense of the fitting—my command of nuance—my exquisite tact. Tell your friends!
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Novel 001: Mrs. Alexander, The Wooing O't (1873)
Charles James Lewis, Reading by the Window
A virtuous young lady, orphaned and poor, agrees to become the salaried companion of a worldly woman traveling to Paris.
Mrs. Alexander (1825-1902), born Annie French (her pen name was derived from the first name of her husband, Alexander Hector) wrote over 60 novels between 1854 and 1902. The Wooing O’t, despite its self-consciously traditional plot (the title comes from the mocking chorus of Robert Burns’s comic song “Duncan Gray”), represents social conflict and emotional ambivalence with rare skill.
“Marvelously successful in painting a most repulsive gallery of unmitigated vulgarians, both in the London chemist’s shop in which she launches her heroine, and in the second-rate Parisian circle, in which she accomplishes her introduction to what is called fashionable society.” Athenaeum, September 27, 1873
“The book has a pleasant vivacity and movement, and the worldly, frivolous people who flit about in it are all agreeable, like people one meets at a garden-party, and never cares to meet again, but who chat easily as they eat ices and knock croquet-balls about.” Spectator, October 11, 1873
“The whole character of Maggie is very tenderly touched and very clearly conceived. In so far as she is concerned, The Wooing O’t has the merit of originality. She is flesh and blood, and stands out solidly. . . . Not a line about her is exaggerated.” Saturday Review, November 8, 1873
“There is nothing very startling about the plot, no desperate passions or mysterious relationships, nor do any of the characters bring themselves within the range of the criminal law. But the interest is sustained, the conversations natural, and the characters well drawn.” North American Review, April 1874
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First Edition (1873), British Library
v.1: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044496
v.2: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004449C
v. 3: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000444A2
Eighth Edition (1890), Archive.org