Novel 126: Ellen Pickering, The Quiet Husband (1840)

 
Thomas Phillips, William Blathwayt IV and His Wife, Frances Scott

Thomas Phillips, William Blathwayt IV and His Wife, Frances Scott

 

A virtuous young lady, raised in luxury but suddenly orphaned and poor, is taken in by her mother’s former lover.

Ellen Pickering (1802-1843) wrote some sixteen novels before her early death.  If you don’t allow yourself to be annoyed by the plot here (especially the tediously mysterious lovers’ misunderstanding), you’ll enjoy the various carefully developed characters placed in striking situations.

“The quick eye and clear intellect to observe, and the ready pen to convey to others in a pleasant manner the impressions received, are the gifts of which Miss Pickering makes such good use.” Literary Gazette, June 6, 1840

“While we object to the story as being rather too improbable, to the dénouement as occurring merely at the author’s arbitrary pleasure, . . . we . . . pronounce the story . . . to be one that rivets the attention; serving also as the vehicle of numberless happy sketches as well as pointed and telling truths.  The lady has an admirable knack at dove-tailing just reflections in the progress of the narrative, and perhaps still more artlessly, to appearance, in the course of close and rapid dialogue.  With what a keen eye does she mark, if not a very wide world of life, at least distinct and important segments in its circle! with what a delicate hand does she delineate character!” Monthly Review, July, 1840

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014559115

Crossword 125: E Emotion

 
Walter Langley, Silent Sorrow

Walter Langley, Silent Sorrow

 

Here’s another crossword which, though made like all my crosswords to endure forever, is nonetheless at the same time keenly focused on the present moment.  A few weeks ago I made a puzzle on the topic of the general retreat (by those who can afford it) from the pandemic onto the internet; now here’s another, on that trend’s darker emotional consequences.

Are you indignant at the obscurity of this crossword’s base phrases? at the randomness of its substitutions? Are you tempted to compose an angry complaint? There’s no need! This crossword includes within itself its own outraged response! The 15 letters involved in its substitutions (either as replacing or replaced) can be anagrammatically rearranged into the terse but telling phrase, “Hate E Emotion Gag!”

Download this week’s crossword:

125-E-Emotion.puz

125-E-Emotion.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

125 E Emotion

Novel 125: Theo Gift, An Innocent Maiden (1883)

 
James Charles, Study of a Girl in White

James Charles, Study of a Girl in White

 

A murder places an innocent girl in a difficult dilemma.

For Theo Gift, see Novel 015.  In this brief novel, the characters, though mostly types, are compelling, and the plot is deftly handled.

Gift’s “idea of an innocent English girl is much more complex and natural than the mere selfish, silly chit who plays the ingénue in most novels. . . . Both the men are very well drawn. . . .  There is nothing depressing in this very pretty, refined, and carefully written book.” Academy, March 1, 1884

“Theo Gift’s last heroine is a very charming little maiden indeed, whose story may be recommended for its purity of tone and unaffected style.  Nor does it want a fairly constructed plot. . . .  Theo Gift always seems in kindly sympathy with the people of whom she writes.” Morning Post, March 13, 1884.


Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/aninnocentmaide00boulgoog



Novel 124: Anthony Hope, Mr. Witt's Widow (1892)

 
William Powell Frith, Mary, Queen of Scots Bidding Farewell to France

William Powell Frith, Mary, Queen of Scots Bidding Farewell to France

 

A man suspects that his cousin’s fiancée, a rich young widow, might once have been a thief.

Anthony Hope (Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, 1863-1933), best remembered for The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), wrote thirty-some other novels, beginning in 1890; this is a delightful social comedy, well paced and smartly phrased.

“All the characters are neatly sketched, and Mr. Hope’s dialogue is crisp and pointed.  Altogether, this lively and piquant story is good reading.” Saturday Review, May 7, 1892

“The story is good both in conception and in execution.  The style is just suited to the subject.” Spectator, June 11, 1892

“The development and denouement afford rich material for a first-class society comedy, and at the same time the story is clever and exceedingly enjoyable.” San Francisco Chronicle, October 30, 1892

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/mrwittswidowfriv00hopeuoft

Novel 123: Isabella Neil Harwood, Raymond's Heroine (1867)

 
George Hayter, The Honourable Mrs. William Ashley

George Hayter, The Honourable Mrs. William Ashley

 

After her father is ruined by an absconding financier, a girl is adopted by her rich aunt.

Isabella Neil Harwood (1837-1888) wrote five novels in six years (1864-1870) before turning to drama.  This, her third novel, has a good plot with surprising turns and some complex characters.

“Domestic life has its depths, as well as its shallows; and the dreadful significance and mystery of life is that none of us know how noble or how vile we may be. To detect this secret strength of mere humanity is a great merit, and one possessed in a high degree by the book now before us.” Saturday Review, April 13, 1867

A “substantially good novel. Home and the world are its theme, but they are treated in no threadbare sentimental fashion. . . . The story . . . is original and well-constructed. . . . The development of character . . . is natural although artistic. . . . The dialogue is natural, and its narrative always well written.” Examiner, April 13, 1867

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044C46#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2046%2C-126%2C5523%2C2501

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044C4C#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2023%2C-125%2C5479%2C2481

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000044C52#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2047%2C-126%2C5523%2C2501



Novel 122: Richard Pryce, The Quiet Mrs. Fleming (1890)

 
James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Seaside

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Seaside

 

A beautiful and mysterious woman takes winter lodgings in a seaside resort town.

Richard Pryce (1864-1942) wrote 21 novels between 1887 and 1911; this one is a quiet mystery story with carefully developed characters and setting.

The story is “ingeniously told from the outside.  The reader is led round about the centre of interest, but never holds any intercourse with the principal actors.” Manchester Guardian, February 17, 1891

“The story is not too long to be read at a sitting, and it is too interesting to be laid down by any one who gets beyond the first page.” Academy, March 28, 1891

“Mr. Richard Pryce’s story is told with much quiet humour, and with admirable self-restraint”; unlike the plot, the characters are “far from commonplace” and there is “not one line of padding or a dull page in the book.” Murray’s Magazine, May, 1891

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/183709227.2465.emory.edu

Novel 121: L.B. Walford, Troublesome Daughters (1880)

 
George Dunlop Leslie, The Daughters of Eve

George Dunlop Leslie, The Daughters of Eve

 

A man falls in love with a mysterious girl on a Scottish farm.

Here is another fine novel by Walford (see Novels 018 and 066):  the particularly amusing characters counterbalance the particularly implausible plot (based on an impossible psycho-medical catastrophe and an outrageously idiotic lovers’ misunderstanding).

“If the story of ‘Troublesome Daughters’ were at all equal in merit to the author’s delineation of character, the book would be one of the best as well as one of the most charming published of late.” Athenaeum, July 24, 1880

“A fresher, prettier, more unpretentious little story than ‘Troublesome Daughters’ is not to be found, and Mrs. Walford deserves cordial recognition of the growing strength of her hand.” New York Tribune, August 1, 1880

“There is plenty of incident and bright conversation in Troublesome Daughters, and the story is interesting enough to bear reading aloud, which in itself is no slight praise.” Literary World, August 28, 1880

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/troublesomedaugh01walf/

v.2 https://archive.org/details/troublesomedaugh02walf/

v.3 https://archive.org/details/troublesomedaugh03walf/

Crossword 120: Whirled Piece

 
James Jacques Joseph Tissot, At the Rifle Range

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, At the Rifle Range

 

I’ve got a thirty-eight special, and a Colt forty-five, and a thirty-two-twenty, and a Winchester seventy-three, and a hard-shooting pistol just as long as my right arm, but, I don’t know, somehow I just don’t feel safe. . . .

Actually——that’s a joke!  I’ve never used  a gun.  All right, I admit it, I’ve used STEN and UZI once or twice in a puzzle, and I used NRA (as Will Nediger points out) just last week. But if any of you solvers out there have purchased a submachine gun, or joined the NRA, because you found these things mentioned in my puzzles, please, for your own sake as well as mine, return the gun, cancel the membership, and—why not?—donate the refund, or your next round of dues, to this website!

Guns bother me.  They’re useful neither for self-protection (since the proverbial “bad guy with a gun” always enjoys the crucial advantage of surprise) nor for restraining undue government power (the US military has us all outgunned).  So, as part of my world-improvement program (and a sort of sequel to Crossword 116) I’ve here turned them (or anyway the letters that compose their names) to more benign uses.

Download this week’s crossword:

120-Whirled-Piece.puz

120-Whirled-Piece.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

120 Whirled Piece

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!

Download this week’s crossword:

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.