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

Download this week’s novel:

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

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

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 008: Margaret Oliphant, Phoebe, Junior (1876)

 
William Logsdail, An Early Victorian

William Logsdail, An Early Victorian

 

A genteel young woman manages the social difficulties of her residence with her tradesman grandfather.


This is the sequel to Oliphant’s Salem Chapel, recommended last week.  It’s a memorable representation of external social conflict, internal moral conflict, and the relation between them

It is “fuller than usual” of Oliphant’s “special powers,—her keen insight into a variety of feminine character—the able bourgeoise—her shrewd observation of English middle-class life, and her restrained, satirical humour.  It betrays, too, what we had scarcely expected to find, a capacity for depicting scenes of almost tragical emotion without failure, and without . . . melodrama.”  Spectator, June 17, 1876

Oliphant “finds an easy amusement in bringing together by the ears men of different religious creeds and professions, and subduing them to uniformity by their weaknesses. . . . Even the mischief-makers and villains essential to the story are not so much worse than their neighbours as more uncomfortable to themselves and to the people about them.”  Saturday Review, July 22, 1876

Phoebe is “one of the finest and most finished portraits ever drawn by Mrs. Oliphant. . . . There is something exceedingly subtle about this lady’s female characters.” Contemporary Review, March 1877

Download this week’s novel:

v.1    https://archive.org/details/phoebejuniorlast01olip

v.2   https://archive.org/details/phoebejuniorlast02olip

v.3   https://archive.org/details/phoebejuniorlast03olip

Novel 003: Charlotte Yonge, Heartsease (1854)

 
William Henry Margetson, Lady with Pansies

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

Download this week’s novel (in the 1885 ed.—other editions, but not the first, are also available at archive.org):

    https://archive.org/details/heartseasebrothe00yong

Novel 002: W.E Norris, No New Thing (1883)

 
Franz Xaver Winterhalter - Adelina Patti

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

Download this week’s novel:

     v.1: https://archive.org/details/nonewthing01norr

     v.2: https://archive.org/details/nonewthing02norr

     v. 3: https://archive.org/details/nonewthing0norr