Crossword 076: Hydration

 
Gustave Moreau, Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra.jpg
 

Gustave Moreau, Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra

I was planning a large puzzle based on the twelve labors of Hercules.  I was going to make the labors turn corners so that they’d seem extra laborious (crossword answers that turn corners are really hot these days). I had fit in "Nemean," "Lernaean," "Ceryneian," "Erymanthian," and "Augean," all very neatly—but "Stymphalian" defeated me. Oh well—here’s this instead.

Download this week’s crossword:

076-Hydration.puz

076-Hydration.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

076 Hydration

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A puzzle of mine will appear tomorrow, Sunday, May 5, in The Los Angeles Times (and The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Chronicle, etc.)



Novel 075: Percy White, The Grip of the Bookmaker (1901)

 
John William Waterhouse, The Flowerpicker

John William Waterhouse, The Flowerpicker

 

A retired bookie feuds with an aristocratic colonel whose daughter attracts his genteelly educated son.

Percy White (1852-1938) wrote some 30 novels between 1893 and 1914, many, like this one, clever social comedies set in London.

White’s muse “is at her best when inspiring her author with lively scenes about social London, and providing him with scalpel and knife to dissect the heart of some worldly old sinner.” This is “a very clever study of a retired racing man . . . both amusing and brightly written.  Perhaps on the whole the adjective ‘sparkling’ is the one that fits best.” Spectator, July 27, 1901

“Frivolous, amusing, and well written.” Academy, August 24, 1901

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/gripbookmakerCorrected

Novel 074: Ellen Wallace, Beyminstre (1856)

 
William Powell Frith, The Fair Toxophilites

William Powell Frith, The Fair Toxophilites

 

A virtuous young lady loves a proud man.

Ellen Wallace (1816-1894) wrote seven novels beginning in 1840, of which this was the last. Its silly central plot conflict is kept mercifully in the background, allowing for a thoroughly entertaining display of its many and various settings and characters.

“The novel reminds us, in many respects, of Madame D’Arblay’s Cecilia . . . in the felicitous delineations of character, the accurate descriptions of varied habits of life, and the skilful management of the dialogues. . . . The conduct of the story is excellent.” Saturday Review, April 12, 1856

The novel “is pleasant for the archness and good humour which are its predominating characters.” Examiner, April 26, 1856

“This is a book we can cordially recommend to such of our readers as may be in search of a good novel:—it is clever and interesting, the two cardinal virtues of a novel.” Athenaeum, April 26, 1856

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/beyminstre01wall

v.2 https://archive.org/details/beyminstre02wall

v.3 https://archive.org/details/beyminstre03wall



Crossword 073: Ursine Sprawl

 
John Evans Hodgson, The Fruit Bearer

John Evans Hodgson, The Fruit Bearer

 

Though I may not be the first puzzle constructor to have employed this pun, I doubt anyone has taken it to such daring lengths.  

Download this week’s crossword:

073-Ursine-Sprawl.puz

073-Ursine-Sprawl.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

073 Ursine Sprawl

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A puzzle of mine will appear Friday, April 19, in The Los Angeles Times (and The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Chronicle, etc.)


Novel 073: Bithia Mary Croker, Pretty Miss Neville (1883)

 
George Elgar Hicks, Home From School

George Elgar Hicks, Home From School

 

An Irish girl grows up and goes to India.

This is the second of Croker’s fifty-some novels (the other of her novels I’ve recommended, Novel 013, was approximately her thirtieth).  Its first volume, describing its narrator’s Irish childhood, is especially engaging.

“Altogether this is an attractive and brightly written story, above the average of its class not only by its conception and execution, but also, and particularly, by the graceful manner of its narration.” Athenaeum, May 12, 1883

“On the whole, we prefer the Irish scenes, to the Indian; but both are described with much liveliness, and make sufficiently good reading. . . . Some of her characters . . . are very pleasantly drawn.” Spectator, July 23, 1883

“The story embraces a considerable range of incident; . . . there is not a dull page . . . from the beginning to the end.” Saturday Review, September 29, 1883

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/prettymissnevil02crokgoog

v.2 https://archive.org/details/prettymissnevil01crokgoog

v.3 https://archive.org/details/prettymissnevil00crokgoog

Novel 072: Catherine Gore, Stokeshill Place; or, The Man of Business (1837)

 
Thomas Phillips, George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, and His Daughter Mary Wyndham, Later Countess of Munster

Thomas Phillips, George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, and His Daughter Mary Wyndham, Later Countess of Munster

 

A virtuous young lady is trapped in the  conflict between her striving middle-class father and the aristocrats who envy his wealth as he does their status.

Here is another great novel by Gore (see Novel 012), one of the most popular novelists of the early Victorian period, one of the best of any period.  The titular “man of business” and the social setting in which he struggles are memorably delineated.

“No one possesses greater skill in taking up the thread, and unwinding it, till daylight breaks into the social labyrinth, than Mrs. Gore. . . .  She has also the power of making her discoveries very amusing to her readers. . . .  Years hence, we believe [her works] will be taken up as the most curious and accurate pictures ever drawn by a living writer of an actual time.” Literary Gazette, August 12, 1837

“In the case of a writer so long and deservedly popular as Mrs. Gore, our recommendation is scarcely needed, but yet we will recommend, candidly and without stint, these volumes to an attentive perusal. . . .  Considering the author’s sex, her keen perceptions of the real and rough business of life occasionally excites our surprise.  She has evidently studied mankind in other places and among other subjects than drawing-rooms and London coteries.” Metropolitan Magazine, October, 1837

This is “like all Mrs. Gore’s novels, skilfully constructed in point of plot, and cleverly as well as naturally detailed.  She is a smart writer as well as a shrewd observer; and along with these requisites for one who would show up the frailties and follies of mankind or lash them effectively, she can, whenever she chooses, strike a deeper note and appeal to strong and tender affection.” Monthly Review, November 1837

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/stokeshillplaceo01gore

v.2 https://archive.org/details/stokeshillplaceo02gore

v.3 https://archive.org/details/stokeshillplaceo03gore

Novel 071: Esther Bakewell, Glenwood Manor-House (1857)

 
Thomas Benjamin Kennington, The Letter

Thomas Benjamin Kennington, The Letter

 

A virtuous young lady living in poverty is employed as the companion of a rich woman on a Yorkshire estate.

Esther Bakewell (1798-1873), who also wrote a novel for children consisting entirely of one-syllable words (available on Gutenberg.org) seems to have written only one novel for adults—this one.  It offers an odd but amusing mixture of quiet domestic life with unlikely criminal scheming.

“This novel possesses merit far above the average. . . . There is a certain amount of character in the book, there are plenty of incidents, and some of the situations are excellent, the more so from the fact that they are situations which really belong to the novel and not to the drama.” Illustrated Times, July 25, 1857

 “The action of this volume never flags; some of the persons introduced are of classes perfectly well known, yet presenting points of idiosyncrasy that single them out from the mass, and impart a strong individual character.” Morning Post, September 5, 1857

Download this week’s novel:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004780E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-796%2C-132%2C3078%2C2636

Novel 070: Elizabeth Daniel, Esther Dudley's Wooers (1874)

 
George Bernard O'Neill, The Reproof

George Bernard O'Neill, The Reproof

 

A proud young lady, newly orphaned, goes to live with an elderly cousin in a northern backwater and adapts with difficulty to local society.

Elizabeth Daniel (1823-1878), was the wife of promising Scottish novelist Robert Mackenzie Daniel until, in 1846, he went mad, dying the following year.  Thereafter she wrote some thirty novels of her own; this, appearing late in her career, is a quiet character study.

“Mrs. Mackenzie Daniel has proved in a satisfactory manner that a story may be interesting without being sensational, religious without being morbid, moral without being dull, a study of character without being a marvel of psychological surgery.  While capable of taking a bright view of individuals, she does not yearn and gush about the divinity of the human race; and in exhibiting the occasional infirmities to which flesh is subject, she does not think it necessary to discover in the mass of mankind the existence of crude lumps of moral nastiness.” Athenaeum, May 2, 1874

“A very readable novel.  The story is  well told; the characters are drawn with considerable cleverness.” London Daily News, May 23, 1874

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B9B4#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-936%2C-124%2C3300%2C2471

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B9BA#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=8&xywh=-89%2C0%2C2661%2C1992

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B9C0#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=8&xywh=-115%2C0%2C2644%2C1979

Novel 069: Anne Marsh-Caldwell, Emilia Wyndham (1846)

 
Edmund Blair Leighton, Till Death Do Us Part

Edmund Blair Leighton, Till Death Do Us Part

 

A virtuous young lady, left in poverty, marries a stiff old lawyer.

Anne Marsh-Caldwell (1791-1874) published some 26 works of fiction between 1834 and 1867; her high moral tone exemplifies what most people associate with the word “Victorian.”  Here, however, she successfully portrays complex characters in interestingly difficult situations.

“A masterpiece . . ., a most beautiful tale, with a charming, tender moral. . . . The characters are real, the incidents unforced, and the whole story a delightful combination of the natural, the passionate, and the wise.” Examiner, April 11, 1846

It “goes far, in our opinion, towards realizing the idea of a perfect novel.  Its conception is new and striking, its characters are strongly marked and consistently sustained, and they are developed in conversation and action rather than in description.  The book is full of amusing pictures of life and manners, while it lays open the deepest feelings of the mind and heart.  The interest never flags, and yet the narrative is always simple, natural, and vraisemblable.” Christian Remembrancer, October, 1847

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/emiliawyndham01mars

v.2 https://archive.org/details/emiliawyndham02mars

v.3 https://archive.org/details/emiliawyndham03mars

Novel 068: David Christie Murray, Joseph's Coat (1881)

 
George Paul Chalmers, Old Letters

George Paul Chalmers, Old Letters

 

A young man, heir to a fortune, offends his mother and flees his country with the connivance of his greedy uncle, leaving his secret wife behind.

I return to David Christie Murray (see 009).  This, his second novel, was a great critical and popular success; its villains are particularly enjoyable.

“It is excellent alike as writing and as invention.  The style is one of uncommon vivacity and intelligence. . . .  About his work, too, there is a happy and attractive flavour of novelty.  His characters and incidents are for the most part new and fresh.” Academy, November 5, 1881

“‘Joseph’s Coat’ is one of the best novels we have met with for a long time.  It shows not only a rare power of understanding and drawing character, but the perhaps rarer power of constructing a plot of first-rate interest. . . . The character of young George is . . . a masterly study.” Athenaeum, November 19, 1881

It provides “a psychological inquiry into the nature of the class variously called knaves, scamps, or scoundrels.  It is a study in the various shades of roguery.  The author . . . evidently enjoys the work of delineation, of tracing ill-doing to its source, and detecting the scamp while he is still in favour with honest but less discerning people.” Saturday Review, June 10, 1882

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/josephscoat01murr/

v.2 https://archive.org/details/josephscoat02murr/

v.3 https://archive.org/details/josephscoat03murr/

Crossword 067: Doubling Back

 
William Fraser Garden, Back Lane, Holywell

William Fraser Garden, Back Lane, Holywell

 

I’m back in action, with back-to-back thrills!  I've got your back!  It’s payback time!  So don’t hold back!  Just download the puzzle.

Download this week’s crossword:

067-Doubling-Back.puz

067-Doubling-Back.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

067 Doubling Back


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A puzzle of mine will appear Friday, March 8, in The Los Angeles Times (and The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Chronicle, etc.)