Crossword 118: Conjunction Conversion

 
Thomas Anshutz, A Rose

Thomas Anshutz, A Rose

 

Here's a riddle:  What Pakistani president's first name is a catchphrase used by Alicia Silverstone's character in the 1995 film Clueless?  The answer is in this week’s puzzle's revealer!

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118-Conjunction-Conversion.puz

118-Conjunction-Conversion.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

118 Conjunction Conversion

N.B. Curious about my shockingly unorthodox views on crossword substitution themes? See my FAQs, or the introductions to Crossword 031 and Crossword 59.

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A crossword of mine will appear in papers that carry Universal Crossword on Friday, February 28.


Novel 118: Catherine Gore, Preferment (1839)

 
George Frederick Watts, Reverend A. Wellsted

George Frederick Watts, Reverend A. Wellsted

 

The ambitious younger son of an earl’s younger son struggles to make his way in the world.

Here is another novel by Gore (see Novels 012, 072), in which that great writer deploys her witty style to develop another well constructed plot and another set of memorably vivid characters.

“Mrs. Gore is an expert and long practised delineator of aristocratic and courtly life. . . .  aristocratic manners, political intrigues, roués, cold-hearted, eccentric, vain, and silly personages of title, are sure to engage her pencil, which is often keen and satirical.” Monthly Review, December, 1839

“We might point to at least a dozen entire scenes of this novel which are equal in the terseness of their satiric wit, the rich play of their humour, and the characteristic truth of their personal delineations, to those of . . . the best modern comedies.” New Monthly Magazine, December, 1839

“We could bet against odds that Mrs. Gore could not write a dull book if she got the Bank of England for her trouble. . . .  Wit, satire which tickles rather than wounds, and a charming facility in depicting a foible, a peculiarity, or an individualizing quality, by a single trait—one stroke of the pen, one happy epithet.” Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, January, 1840

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/prefermentormyun01gore
v.2 https://archive.org/details/prefermentormyun02gore
v.3 https://archive.org/details/prefermentormyun03gore

Crossword 117: A Miss is as Good as a Mile

 
Hubert von Herkomer, Miss May Miles

Hubert von Herkomer, Miss May Miles

 

“A miss is as good as a mile”—what an odd expression!  “Miss” and “mile” are grammatically but not conceptually parallel.  “Good” actually means “bad.”  It’s a triumph of sound over sense, and therefore well suited to this web site.

Download this week’s crossword:

117-A-Miss-is-as-Good-as-a-Mile.puz

117-A-Miss-is-as-Good-as-a-Mile.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

117 A Miss Is as Good as a Mile

Novel 117: James Maclaren Cobban, The Golden Tooth (1901)

 
Edward Robert Hughes - A First Visit to the Dentist

Edward Robert Hughes - A First Visit to the Dentist

 

A young farmer is wrongly accused of murdering the local squire; a mysterious man steps in to help.

James Maclaren Cobban (1849-1903) wrote some 25 novels in various genres, beginning in 1879.  This is one of at least three murder mysteries featuring a mustachioed amateur sleuth named Townshend.  The plot is excellent, the style good, the characters vivid if simple.

Cobban’s “qualities of literary art and insight into human nature give a relieving touch to the ordinary mechanism of this class of novel.” Manchester Guardian, February 27, 1901

“An excellent and ingeniously constructed tale” treated with “briskness, humour, and unconventionality.” Spectator, April 27, 1901

A “detective story with all the usual impossible incidents, hairbreadth escapes, and wonderful dovetailings.” New York Times, August 19, 1901

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Cobban, The Golden Tooth (1901)

Novel 115: M.E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd (1863)

 
George Frederick Watts, Ellen Terry

George Frederick Watts, Ellen Terry

 

A passionate woman with a dubious past marries a rough, honest squire.

Here’s another by the great Braddon (see Novels 004, 061).  Like most of her novels it is engrossingly plotted and cleverly phrased—and was dismissively reviewed.

“As good a specimen of the marketable ladies’ novel as could be found.  Further than that it does not go.  There is no genius, or poetry, or high feeling, or delicate painting, or subtle observation in it.  But for a professional work, as a piece of composition, to be sold by a woman for a certain sum of money, it is masterly; and we invite all that great army of female stragglers in the battle of life who wish to carry the literary flag triumphantly, to read the book carefully, and observe how much a woman must bring with her to the ball if she wants to write like Miss Braddon.  In the first place, the English . . . is wonderfully good. . . .  The make of the sentences and the choice of words, the easiness with which the sense is conveyed which the author wishes to convey, and the absence of all that is awkward and ponderous, are sufficient to satisfy the exigencies of the most rigid criticism.  Then the plot . . . of the book is most exciting.  We are kept at the topmost pitch for as long as possible. . . .  Then Miss Braddon . . . knows all about men and their ways. . . . The book . . . impresses us, before we have finished it, not only with a sense of the great powers of the authoress . . . but also with a conviction that she has a vein of feeling higher than the world of . . . tobacco, and brandy-and-water and that this feeling is perfectly genuine and unaffected.” Saturday Review, January 31, 1863

“There are touches of humour and pathos which we look for in vain in Miss Braddon’s former work, and often an elevation of thought which would have accorded better with a loftier subject”; “If we have failed to convey a very favourable impression of her last effort, it is not because we deny Miss Braddon’s talent as a writer, but because we regret to see it employed on so unlovely a theme,” one which may have “an insidious effect” on the minds of readers. London Review, February 14, 1863

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/aurorafloyd01brad/

v.2 https://archive.org/details/aurorafloyd02brad/

v.3 https://archive.org/details/aurorafloyd03brad/

Crossword 114: Making the Worst of Things

 
John William Waterhouse, Pandora

John William Waterhouse, Pandora

 

Two weeks ago I pushed this web site in a daring new direction, challenging aesthetic norms in order to engage with the gritty underside of the human condition.  The critical plaudits I expected, however, have not arrived, at least not yet; so it’s time to double down, to go all in, to—what’s another tough-sounding idiom like that?  I don’t know.  Anyway, if you’re a complacent member of the bourgeoisie, prepare to be shocked!

Download this week’s crossword:

114-Making-the-Worst-of-Things.puz

114-Making-the-Worst-of-Things.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

114 Making the Worst of Things

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A crossword of mine will appear Wednesday, January 29, in the Wall Street Journal.

Novel 114: Rosa Nouchette Carey, Sir Godfrey's Grand-daughters (1892)

 
Henry Tanworth Wells, Emma and Federica Bankes of Soughton Hall

Henry Tanworth Wells, Emma and Federica Bankes of Soughton Hall

 

A young lady resists her grandfather’s plan for her to marry her cousin.

Rosa Nouchette Carey (1840-1909) wrote over 40 novels featuring virtuous women in domestic settings.  This one is certainly vulnerable to such dismissals as the Athenaeum's:  "nice and pretty young women . . . go through some pretty and romantic adventures with some exceptionally handsome and enterprising young men.” But despite its slow pace and its characteristic avoidance of the strange or surprising, it holds the attention: the style is free of sentimentality, and several characters are well and plausibly delineated.

“A quaint, simple tale of an English community. . . . Throughout the story is natural and entertaining, the style sympathetic, and the study of character clear and good.” Critic, November 5, 1892

It is “pre-eminently soothing"; a “quiet story of the life of rural gentlepeople . . . and the substance of the novel is well matched by the cultivated refinement of Miss Carey’s literary style”; it has “interest given by delicately truthful characterization rather than by exciting sequence of events. . . . One of the pleasantest of recent contributions to domestic fiction; it is not lacking in humour, and there are passages of true and unstrained pathos.” Academy, December 4, 1892

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/sirgodfreysgrand01care

v.2 https://archive.org/details/sirgodfreysgrand02care

v.3 https://archive.org/details/sirgodfreysgrand03care



Novel 112: Catherine Anne Hubback, The Rival Suitors (1857)

 
James Clarke Hook, Wreckage from the Fruiter

James Clarke Hook, Wreckage from the Fruiter

 

A virtuous young lady is courted by both an honest young coast-guard captain and a middle-aged landowner with a past.

Catherine Anne Hubback (1820?-1880?) was Jane Austen’s niece (the daughter of her brother Sir Francis—possibly more a drawback than an advantage in her career, since it led critics into invidious comparisons).  She wrote ten novels between 1850 and 1862.  This one begins well, though it eventually comes to grief amid melodramatic crimes implausibly concealed and even more implausibly revealed.  The second volume, where well-delineated characters are shown at amusing cross purposes, is the best.

“It is well written, carefully worked out, and very interesting; the morality is healthy, and, though highly wrought, is neither fantastic nor overstrained. . . .  The incidents of the discovery are too much forced, and the repetition of disasters at sea shows a want of invention . . . surprising in so clever a writer.” Athenaeum, May 23, 1857

It is, “though not free from defects . . . the best of all Mrs. Hubback’s works, and one which proves her to be nearly allied by genius, as she is by blood, to the first of English female novelists”; she “shows considerable ingenuity in the construction of the plot, and no small power of telling a story.  Then some of the characters are very powerfully sketched, and presented in a manner which displays great knowledge of human nature.” Saturday Review, August 8, 1857

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://books.google.com/books?id=z5k9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

v.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=8pk9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

v.3 https://books.google.com/books?id=DZo9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false

Novel 110: Anne Manning, Poplar House Academy (1859)

 
Sir Luke Fildes, A Schoolgirl

Sir Luke Fildes, A Schoolgirl

 

Abandoned by their father, three sisters open a school.

For Anne Manning see Novel 052

“Until now, we have never seen a work of fiction which seemed to deserve the title a Tale of Real Life, but we must thank the authoress . . . for having justified, in her present work, our belief that such a tale might be so told as to find many and grateful listeners.  About the vraisemblance, simplicity, and reality of the story there can be no question.  Its construction—it cannot be said to have a plot—is that of many and many an unwritten biography, and among its readers there will be not a few who will recognise it as little more than a sober and truthful portrait of their own existence. . . .  To those who read it on a quiet evening after a good day’s work—to those who read with a sober taste rather than with omnivorous mental appetite—it is likely to prove an agreeable and welcome variety, after the laboured piquancy of more pretentious works.  Those who know  . . . how wearisome a task novel reading may become, will probably agree with us in wishing that more of the novel-writers of our day were capable of imitating the good taste, simple style, and modest coloring which are the crowning merits of the pictures of English home life contained in these two little volumes.” Saturday Review, April 9, 1859

“In the course of the tale this practised and agreeable writer inculcates many just and sound views as to the importance and dignity of the tuitional vocation when rightly apprehended.” Critic, April 30, 1859

“There is a good sound English style, a kindly human sympathy, and a genial, warm and Christian spirit in the writings of this lady that make them deservedly popular, and this, her most recent work, is decidedly one of the most pleasant.” Eclectic Review, May, 1859

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/poplarhouseacade01mann

v.2 https://archive.org/details/poplarhouseacade02mann