Novel 158: Annie Edwardes, Ought We To Visit Her? (1871)

November 23, 2020 David Bywaters

John William Godward, Ionian Dancing Girl

An Englishman, newly inheriting the family estate, returns after many years on the Continent with his ballet dancer wife.

Annie Edwardes (1830?-1896) wrote some 21 novels, many featuring heroines who, like the one here, defy Victorian social convention.

“Mrs. Edwardes understands and describes man very well indeed; and woman and her nature she understands something more than very well.” Pall Mall Gazette, November 21, 1871

“This is the brightest book we have read for some time. . . . With little plot and less descriptive writing, it is full of sparkle, and point, and sub-acid humour, and sketches of character.” Spectator, November 25, 1871

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/oughtwetovisith03edwagoog

Crossword 157: Not Going Anywhere

November 20, 2020 David Bywaters

John Atkinson Grimshaw, Moonlight on the Lake, Roundhay Park, Leeds

With this puzzle I embark on my fourth year of providing the world with a weekly crossword and a weekly Victorian novel recommendation. And I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for the duration (don’t ask me of what), grimly determined to see it through (whatever it might be). Nothing can shake my resolve!

Well, we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Download this week’s crossword:

157-Not-Going-Anywhere.puz

157-Not-Going-Anywhere.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

157 Not Going Anywhere

Pointing Hand.png — A crossword of mine appears on Thursday, November 26, in Universal Crossword

Novel 157: Noell Radecliffe, Wheel within Wheel (1861)

November 16, 2020 David Bywaters

A woman loves a man who regrets an entanglement with a married woman.

Here is another masterpiece by the unknown Radecliffe (see Novels 005, 105); its carefully finished plot, lively but nuanced characters, and incisive style are all typical of its author.

“It is written throughout with a remarkable smoothness and evenness; . . . its characters are, in general, well conceived and consistently carried out, and both its hero and heroine, without being at all unnatural, are sufficiently out of the common way to inspire more than common degree of interest. The construction of the story, however, is, we are inclined to think, the point which does the author most credit. This is, as might be expected from the title of the book, of a more than usually complicated nature; and we are compelled at once to admire the ingenuity which has led to its conception, and the singular skill by which so great a multiplicity of distinct interests and incidents are made to converge to the final catastrophe.” Spectator, May 5, 1861

“A lively, brisk novel” written “with apparently great ease, and very considerable correctness of style.” Critic, May 11, 1861

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000049E36#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-459%2C-107%2C3367%2C2237

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004C158#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1223%2C-128%2C3825%2C2542

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000049E3C#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-492%2C-121%2C3424%2C2275

Crossword 156: Yet Another Cavalcade of Crosswordese

November 13, 2020 David Bywaters

I conclude this website’s third year with a third cavalcade of crosswordese—a puzzle that combines the tiredest crossword fill I can find into the groanworthiest answer phrases I can imagine. Its purpose is to arouse in the solver the emotions of morphological pity and alphabetic fear, thereby inducing a catharsis of those emotions (see Aristotle’s Poetics).

Once cleansed, you’ll find yourself in a mood to donate to the site; so I’ve made that easy for you with the button below. Donate $10 and you’ll get a crossword filled only with words and phrases current in the Victorian era (and still current today, of course). Donate $13.50 and you’ll get a 21 x 21 crossword. Donate $15 and you’ll get both. Donate $10,000,000 and the site will be renamed in your honor.

DONATION UPDATE:

I can also receive donations through PayPal and Venmo, at my email address.

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156-Yet-Another-Cavalcade-of-Crosswordese.puz

156-Yet-Another-Cavalcade-of-Crosswordese.pdf

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156 Yet Another Cavalcade of Crosswordese

Novel 156: W.E. Norris, My Friend Jim (1886)

November 9, 2020 David Bywaters

Jan van Beers, Portrait of a Young Woman

A ruthless rector’s daughter lets nothing interfere with her social and material ambition.

Here is yet another novel by that most unjustly neglected of unjustly neglected novelists, W.E. Norris (see Novels 002, 054, 104). This one features an amusingly bad anti-heroine.

“A capital sketch . . . of some phases of modern English life . . . told in an admirable way. . . . Since Thackeray wrote, no British novelist, Trollope and one later writer excepted, present such amusing and delicate social cynicism, such fidelity to human nature, or handle such a diamond pointed pen when holding up the weakness and folly of mortal man.” Independent, September 30, 1886

“Mr. Norris does not crowd his canvas, his presentment of life is veracious and sober, his environment is clearly, often brilliantly, delineated, his characters are persuasively human and unheroic.” Saturday Review, October 16, 1886

“To those who appreciate finished style, quietly cynical humour, and consistent art in the rapid delineation of varied character, it can hardly fail to afford a treat.” Observer, December 26, 1886

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/myfriendjim01norr

v.2 https://archive.org/details/myfriendjim02norr

Crossword 155: Pull Out All the Stops

November 6, 2020 David Bywaters

Robert Alexander Hillingford, Gifts for the War Chest

I conclude this website’s third year, as I did previous years, by providing you, first, with large 21x21 puzzles, and, second, with an opportunity to donate. Not that I need the money—but you, gentle solver, need an outlet for those impulses of gratitude that fill your generous soul, and I am willing to provide one.

As usual, there are four donation levels. Donate $12 and receive a 15x15 crossword which employs only words current during the Victorian era (and, of course, still current today), and which refers nostalgically to a simpler era of food packaging. Donate $13.50 and receive a large, 21x21 crossword, a sequel to last week’s puzzle with an added twist. Donate $15 and receive both. Be the first to donate $10,000,000 and the website will be renamed in your honor, so that if your name is, say, Jeff Bezos, the name of the website will be “Jeff Bezos Presents David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender.”

(By the way, careful solvers will notice that this puzzle’s 6 Down makes a return appearance after its debut as 16 Across in Crossword 039—but with an even more hilarious clue!)

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Download this week’s puzzle:

155-Pull-Out-All-the-Stops.puz

155-Pull-Out-All-the-Stops.pdf

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155 Pull Out All the Stops

Novel 155: Charlotte Yonge, The Pillars of the House (1873)

November 2, 2020 David Bywaters

A large orphaned family grows up in genteel poverty.

I have not yet read all Charlotte Yonge’s novels (see Novels 003, 053, 103), but of those I have read, this is the masterpiece. It is twice as long even as the average Victorian three-volume novel, but you will wish it longer.

“We do not think that many of those who begin the four volumes will be content to leave them unfinished; and few who do finish them will not feel as if a great group were added to their intimate friends. . . . Miss Yonge’s dramatis personæ have the reality which others seek in vain to give. . . . It is intimate realization of her own characters, as living people, that gives to Miss Yonge’s stories, in spite of their apparent want of construction, a consistency, a tendency to one point which we sometimes miss in novels more ambitiously composed, and involving an obvious and avowed ‘plot’. . . . Her skill in drawing a number of people, all of whom have a family likeness, while each is yet unmistakably distinct from all the others . . . and, at the same time, perfectly consistent in his or her own development, was never more severely tested than in this history of the thirteen young Underwoods, whose fortunes she follows for eighteen years. . . . The charm consists . . . in the admirably accurate delineation of the daily ‘hopes and fears, passions and pleasures,’ which mould the quiet natures and sway the otherwise uneventful lives of” her characters. Athenaeum, September 27, 1873

“Her range is of the narrowest, but within it she shows herself thoroughly the artist. Nearly all her characters here . . . have a distinct life and individuality of their own.” Examiner, December 6, 1873

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v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004CC9E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1724%2C-221%2C4882%2C2504

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004F1A0#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1710%2C-125%2C4854%2C2489

Crossword 154: Nicknames

October 30, 2020 David Bywaters

Today’s puzzle has a sequel, involving a further twist, which I’ll make available next week as a bonus. Meanwhile, here’s another painting by the great Atkinson Grimshaw, this one suitable for Halloweens with full moons.

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154-Nicknames.puz

154-Nicknames.pdf

Solve this week’s puzzle online:

154 Nicknames

Novel 154: Mary E. Mann, The Parish of Hilby (1883)

October 26, 2020 David Bywaters

William Edward Millner, The End of the Day

A farmer falls in love with one woman while entangling himself with another.

For Mann, see Novel 016. This is her first novel, justly praised for its unpretending plot and careful characterization.

“The whole book is pervaded by a keen sense of those subtle class distinctions which play so great a part in country life.” Academy, March 31, 1883

“Mrs. Mann writes a sensible, characteristic, and thoroughly entertaining ‘story of a quiet place.’ She affects nothing and makes no pretence; her tale of the parish of Hilby is refreshingly straightforward, and she succeeds admirably in her modest undertaking. . . . Few more genuine or delightful romances have recently made their appearance.” Athenaeum, April 7, 1883

“Though it does not make great promises, at all events it performs as much as it has undertaken, after a thorough and enjoyable fashion which is not always to be met with in more ambitious works.” It provides “a good and carefully-drawn picture of tranquil country life. . . . Mrs. Mann has the excellent gift of being able to put herself in the place of the individuals she writes about, looking at things from the point of view they would be likely to take, and sympathizing with their sentiments, and this gift imparts real human nature to her work, and enables her to render faithfully delicate gradations of disposition and feeling which are not very easy to put into words, though it is by no means unusual for people to have a vague impression of their existence.” Spectator, April 14, 1883

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014791028

Crossword 153: Clothes Down

October 23, 2020 David Bywaters

It strikes me that this is my third attire-related theme this month. Should I try for a fourth? “Dressing Up,” maybe, where words like CROSS and RANCH and WINDOW and SURGICAL might be found backwards, from down to up, within phrases that seem funny from up to down? Let’s see, CROSS gives us HOLINESS ORCHIDS: “Megachurch’s incense substitutes?”—great! RANCH gives us SWITCH NARCOTICS: “Give up heroin for fentanyl?”—hilarious! But WINDOW? What about TWO-D NIWA? The Niwa clan, as Wikipedia tells us, was a “retainer clan of the Oda clan during the Sengoku period of Japan.” So “Flattened Sengoku-period clan member”—Get it? Hmm. And SURGICAL?—GUERRILLA CIG RUSE: “That old trick in which the irregular military opponents of an occupying power distract enemy attention with a tobacco product, informally”? Oh never mind.

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153-Clothes-Down.puz

153-Clothes-Down.pdf

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153 Clothes Down

Novel 153: Frances Cashel Hoey, Falsely True (1870)

October 19, 2020 David Bywaters

John Bagnold Burgess, A Spanish Beauty in a Red and Black Lace Shawl

Prevented by tragic family history from marrying the virtuous young lady he loves, a young man seeks his fortune in Brazil.

Here is another novel by Hoey (see Novel 067), with a plot not unreasonably censured by the critics, but several vivid, conflicted characters.

“Upon the whole an interesting and carefully written book.” Athenaeum, September 3, 1870

“There is a great deal of power in this story; and not a little of it is shown in the sketches of character, though less, we think, in the conception of the plot, which is very finely conceived, if not quite as well executed”; it will “earn for Mrs. Cashel Hoey a reputation far above that of the most successful manufacturer of ‘novels of the season.’” Spectator, September 24, 1870

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F408#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-317%2C-1%2C3052%2C1951

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F40E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-305%2C-1%2C3061%2C1957

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003F414#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1217%2C-125%2C3900%2C2493

Crossword 152: What a Boring Theme!

October 16, 2020 David Bywaters

John William Godward, Mischief and Repose

So many of the crossword themes in the best, or anyway the best-paying, crossword venues seem to me, well, boring. “Here are some common phrases with words that can join another word to make other common phrases!” “Here are some common phrases that hide words in a certain category!” “Here are some names of celebrities that happen to share a linguistic feature!” “ Here are some common phrases that share some pattern or other!” “Here are some common phrases placed on the grid in some pattern or other!” “Here are some common phrases consisting of two words each of which starts with the same two letters!” “Here are some celebrities whose first and last names each start with the same two letters!” “Here are some celebrities who all wrote the same kind of book!” “Here are some words and phrases that actually mean the same thing!”

I don’t understand the appeal. But who am I to fight a prevailing trend? I can’t beat ’em, so darn it, I’m going to join ’em. Today’s crossword has the most boring theme ever to appear in any crossword anywhere. It’s going to put me on the map!

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152-What-a-Boring-Theme!.puz

152-What-a-Boring-Theme!.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

152 What a Boring Theme!

Novel 152: Margaret Oliphant, Hester (1883)

October 12, 2020 David Bywaters

A rich, powerful female banker neglects one cousin, a talented young woman, and favors another, a dashing young man.

Here is another novel by Oliphant (see Novels 007, 008, 056, 107). It lacks concision, but it represents some particularly interesting, internally conflicted major characters, and some particularly amusing minor ones.

“The author has drawn powerful pictures of this country town, and introduced into her tale a number of remarkable character sketches. No other writer describes as well as Mrs. Oliphant all the lights and shades and the almost invisible barriers which serve to divide into as many distinct classes the dwellers in provincial neighbourhoods. . . . The scenes as the dénoûment approaches are very powerful, the climax artistically foreshadowed.” Morning Post, January 2, 1884

“I have had so much pleasure in the book—its immeasurable delicacies of observation, its keenness of perception, its many moving touches of humour and wit and fine creativeness. . . . It has a certain distinction of manner, an easy mastery of method, and a fine superiority of mental attitude.” Academy, January 5, 1884

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014632723

Crossword 151: Changing for Dinner

October 9, 2020 David Bywaters

This puzzle is modeled on the upper-class Victorian habit of changing into special clothes at dinner-time—not, as you might expect, special food-repellant clothes, that might be difficult to stain and easy to clean—but extra-fancy clothes.

The process of adapting this custom to the crossword form required a good deal of punning. Now, the ability to enjoy unlikely puns is something you’re born with or not. No doubt it results from a long-ago genetic mutation; probably it confers some survival advantage—though it also exposes its carrier to unique risks. Anyway, if you don’t have such an ability, you might want to spare yourself this week’s puzzle.

Download this week’s crossword:

151-Changing-for-Dinner.puz

151-Changing-for-Dinner.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

151 Changing for Dinner

Novel 151: Laurence William Lockhart, Fair to See (1871)

October 5, 2020 David Bywaters

A young soldier goes to Scotland to shoot birds and falls unwisely in love.

Laurence William Lockhart (1831-1882), was an army officer (he was present at the siege of Sebastopol) and newspaper correspondent (he was nearly executed during the Franco-Prussian War) as well as the author of three novels, of which this is the second. Despite a slow start, and aside from a couple of overdrawn caricatures, it has vivid characters and an excellent plot.

“Just as we are usually better pleased by a painter who gives us a faithful view of some place well known to us . . . than by one who represents wonderful scenes with which we are not familiar, so is it with the story-teller: and thus a novel like the present, the incidents of which involve what is more or less the only form wherein romance presents itself in the lives of ordinary people, pleases far more than the productions of the criminal school, which appeal to the experiences of (fortunately) a very limited portion of the public.” Athenaeum, November 18, 1871

“Next to the masterpieces that are apparently things of the past, we like the clever novel that grows on one”; Lockhart “shows power in the numberless little touches that lighten love scenes and descriptions; in slight liftings of the corner of the veil that hides the future from us; in felicitous ways of putting things.” Saturday Review, January 20, 1872

“Fair to See is so pleasant a novel to read that one does not care to ask too curiously whether it is written according to the rules of art.” Spectator, March 23, 1872

Download this week’s novel

v.1 https://archive.org/details/fairtoseenovel01lock

v.2 https://archive.org/details/fairtoseenovel02lock

v. 3 https://archive.org/details/fairtoseenovel03lock

Crossword 150: Richly Arrayed

October 2, 2020 David Bywaters

William Etty, Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball

Some people seem to think that, just because they never leave the house anymore, they need take no trouble about their dress—that they can sit around all day in sweatpants and t-shirts, or other sartorial atrocities named for bodily fluids or letters of the alphabet, and suffer no debilitating moral effects in consequence.

Not I! When I made this puzzle, I wore a three-piece Oxford-gray vicuna-wool suit trimmed in gold thread, a hand-stitched mulberry-silk shirt of deepest burgundy, a powder-blue diamond-plated necktie, and Belgian linen underwear lined with mink. I trust that when you solve it you also will array yourself no less richly.

Download this week’s crossword:

150-Richly Arrayed.puz

150-Richly Arrayed.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

150: Richly Arrayed

Novel 150: Albany de Grenier de Fonblanque, Jedwood Justice (1892)

September 28, 2020 David Bywaters

A popular young man is rumored to have run off with a cruel baronet's wife.

This, like the same author’s A Tangled Skein (Novel 089), is an intricately plotted mystery with vivid characters, written in a lively style.

“The machinery of the plot is intricate and uncommonly well worked. And although ingenuity and multiplicity of incident are the cardinal features of Mr. De Fonblanque's book, there are many passages which rise to a higher level” and are “full of insight and expressive power.” Athenaeum, January 2, 1892

“It is written throughout with force; it has a carefully constructed plot, and ends with a dénouement which the reader, even though experienced at guessing surprises, will hardly have expected.” Spectator, January 30, 1892

“There is no flagging in Jedwood Justice: the country society is well sketched.” Academy, February 6, 1892

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004D292#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-286%2C-1%2C2952%2C1962

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004D298#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-279%2C-139%2C3208%2C2132

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004D29E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-287%2C-1%2C2947%2C1959

Crossword 149: Broken Down

September 25, 2020 David Bywaters

Charles Burton Barber, The Broken String

Astute solvers will recall that nine weeks ago I posted a puzzle called “Beaten Down.” This is what the critics call a “recurring motif.”

Download this week’s crossword:

149-Broken-Down.puz

149-Broken-Down.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

149 Broken Down

Novel 149: Victoria Baker, Half-a-Dozen Daughters (1871)

September 21, 2020 David Bywaters

Charles Edward Perugini, Playing at Work

A gentleman loses his competence in foolish speculations and tries to support his six daughters by running a chemist's shop in Yorkshire.

Victoria Baker (1838-1913) wrote five novels between 1864 and 1894 under the pseudonym J. Masterman. This one is a lively treatment of several common Victorian themes.

“Without being exactly a work of genius, this is a very pleasant, wholesome novel, showing considerable descriptive power, and introducing us to some very agreeable and amiable characters. The author writes in a fresh, lively style, and his dialogue is singularly crisp and natural. He has a keen sense of humour, and at times is unaffectedly pathetic.” Illustrated Review, November, 1871

“In tracing the quiet annals of this interesting family the reader will find many domestic pictures full of homeliness and beauty. The characters are drawn with individuality and distinctness, the narrative is easy, and the episodes are life-like and natural.” Morning Post, November 20, 1871

“Half-a-Dozen Daughters is one of those healthy, natural books which remind one of a breezy day in the country.” Saturday Review, December 16, 1871

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004616A#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-314%2C-1%2C3274%2C1975

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_0000000437EE#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-299%2C-1%2C3276%2C1976