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Francis Danby, The Deluge
30 Down is based on a very old, very bad joke, one I must have heard, and should have got over, in early childhood.
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A puzzle of mine appeared yesterday in The Los Angeles Times (and The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Chronicle, etc.)
Richard Buckner, Emily, 1st Viscountess Hambleden, and her Daughter
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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Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, Dignity and Impudence
In is out! That's the kind of upside-down, through-the-looking-glass sort of a wonderland world this bold new puzzle creates. And just so you don’t get too comfortable, at least one in . . . is still in! You won’t find that feature in many other puzzles.
The above painting refers to a subtheme, daringly embedded in baffling cross-references.
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Frederick Daniel Hardy, The Clergyman's Visit
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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Edward Burne-Jones, The Mirror of Venus
I try, as much as possible (given my other aims) to avoid product names in my crosswords, because I want my crosswords to continue to provide enjoyment centuries hence, when all those products will be forgotten. And I especially dislike “fashion labels,” which encourage us to act from combined motives of personal vanity, financial recklessness, and mindless herd conformity. When this puzzle, however, insisted on one designer-label name, I figured I might as well “double down.” Solvers of the future will infer them from the crossings.
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John Ballantyne, John Phillip in His Studio
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
Evelyn De Morgan, Hope in the Prison of Despair
Feeling anxious? Why spend a fortune on talking cures or psychotropic drugs, when you have access on this website, free of charge, to cruciverbal-behavioral therapy (CBT)? Work this puzzle, and you’ll find yourself growing reconciled at last to life’s enduring misery and your own congenital inadequacies!
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039-Shedding-Anxieties--Literally.puz
039-Shedding-Anxieties--Literally.pdf
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Philip Calderon, Juliet
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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Albert Joseph Moore, A Garden
When I wrote the clues for this puzzle, the temptation to cross-reference was particularly difficult to resist. 10 Down, 33 Down, and 19 Across all refer to an activity that may be performed on 4 Down, 6 Down, 12 Down, 14 Across, 60 Across, and in fact anything 47 Down. But for your sake, gentle solver, resist I did.
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John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Miss Dorothy Vickers
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
James Charles, On a Sussex Farm
This puzzle is based on my experience of farm life, which is drawn almost entirely from children's books with animal sounds.
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Sir David Wilkie, Pitlessie Fair
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), a prominent political economist and social critic, wrote only a few works of fiction, of which this is the longest and most ambitious. It has great faults, a painful lover’s misunderstanding plot among them, but equally great virtues, especially its terrifyingly life-like evocation of group injustice.
“The reader must bear with some prosiness and some triviality in the outset of the tale” but “he is secure of finding . . . something better than mere amusement—namely, that pleasure which opens, elevates, and humanizes the mind. In short, equally for its tendency and its truth, this tale is a valuable present to the middle classes.” “Nothing can be more true in its village tone, than the picture of society at Deerbrook.” Athenaeum, April 1, 1839
“The story of Deerbrook is simple and most natural, both in its conception and its working out; the characters are as forcible, and at the same time as original, as any thing so strictly true can be; and the scenes are those of the every-day life of the middle classes of society.” New Monthly Magazine, May, 1839
“A story of domestic life; a story of the affections, the passions, and the incidents of a country village” which “is wrought out with a quiet vigor and a masterly fidelity to Nature and to Man. We see in it not our neighbors merely, but ourselves. Every page is radiant with the portrayal of the suicidal insanity as well as loathsomeness of malice, of envy, of tale-bearing, of anger, and of ill-will.” New-Yorker, July 1, 1839
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v.1 https://archive.org/details/deerbrooknovel01mart
v.2 https://archive.org/details/deerbrooknovel02mart
v.3 https://archive.org/details/deerbrooknovel03mart
John William Waterhouse, Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus
Do you worry that online media are creating illusory bonds and instilling obsessive habits that rob you of your authentic self? Of course you do! But not this website: on the contrary, I’m here to put you on your guard.
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A puzzle of mine will appear this Wednesday, August 1, in the Wall Street Journal.
James Tissot, Autumn on the Thames
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
Edwin Longsden Long, Spanish Girls
I’ve always been annoyed by the saying that this puzzle is built on; maybe after you solve it, you will be too. By the way—this puzzle is a pangram: every letter of the alphabet is represented. I don’t usually care about such things, but when I found I was only one very famous basketball star away, I thought—“why not?” Don't worry—he’s so very famous even I have heard of him, and I confess I’ve never sat through a whole basketball game live or televised. I have nothing against the sport particularly, but I can’t endure the sound of those squeaking shoes.
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Thomas Sully, Fanny Kemble
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
Richard Doyle, Under the Dock Leaves
We’ve come to my 6th and final magic-spell-based puzzle. I made a 7th, featuring “Mythballs” (legendary dances) and “Doctor Why” (pointless British sci-fi series)—but I’ve decided to spare you the pain and myself the embarrassment. An 8th, with the revealer “ibex,” never got past the early planning stages.
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A puzzle of mine will appear next Wednesday, July 18, in the Wall Street Journal.
William Powell Frith, The Family Lawyer
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
Sir Joseph Noel Paton, The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania
The more I think about the national anthem, the more annoyed I grow. Take just the half-line “Whose broad stripes.” Try to say it ten times rapidly. Can’t do it? Neither can I. It’s hideously cacophonous: "dstr" is not a songlike sound cluster. And the words are not even true. The stripes on the U.S. flag are actually less broad than the stripes on most flags, just because there are more of them: 13; whereas, for example, on the French tricolor there are 3—which, since they’re vertically oriented, are very broad indeed. The ratio of height to width for the average flag is 3 to 5. So say your flag is 5 feet, or 60 inches, wide. If you’re French, your stripes are fully 20 inches “broad” (60/3). If you’re American, your stripes are not even 3 inches “broad” (36/13). The Union Jack, the enemy’s flag for Francis Scott Key, had broader stripes than that. If flag stripe-breadth is the measure of national merit, the U.S. falls sadly short. But like all bad poets, Key is not even thinking of what he means.
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A puzzle of mine will appear next Thursday, July 12, in the Wall Street Journal.
George Dunlop Leslie, Riverside, Wallingford, Berkshire
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
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v.1 https://archive.org/details/acharmingfellow01trolgoog
