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Joseph Farquharson, The Shortening Winter’s Day is Near a Close
Hey solvers! Xmas is almost here! And then comes NYE, and after that MLK Day! There’s no time to spll thgs out! So hurry! Do this xword rght nw!
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Paul Fordyce Maitland, The Bayswater Road from Kensington Gardens
Leonora Blanche Lang, née Alleyne (1851-1933) wrote only this one novel; however, she was largely responsible for the series of twelve collections of fairy tales (the Blue Fairy Book and its variously-colored successors) edited by her husband and fellow novelist, Andrew Lang. This novel, like the fairy book translations, displays her quiet wit and polished style.
“The only draw back to its universal circulation that we can perceive is that” it lacks the pleasure “which seems to consist in seeing how people in fiction live in a manner which is neither the reader’s manner nor that of any human beings who ever breathed the vital air. If this latter delight does chiefly move any man or woman, let him or her by no means read Mrs. Lang. Neither let him read her if he wants bad taste or bad manners or bad French . . . or bad morals. Neither let him read her if he cannot see a joke, for here be many jokes; neither if he wants passions ‘grand, epic, homicidal,’ for here, though the feeling shown is quite natural and human, it is by no means always or often in altitudes. This is, we admit, warning off a very considerable clientele, and it is possible that Mrs. Lang may be the reverse of grateful to us. But ruat cælum. We have not in the least exaggerated the pleasure and pastime which the book is pretty certain to give to people of good breeding, reasonably wide interests, good taste, and a slight inclination to the humorous view of life. It is a pity, perhaps, that some of the things here are not enshrined in a more durable setting; for the book is deliberately, and almost provokingly, ephemeral in design. But this design is so closely connected with what is best in it, with its pleasant fashion of daffing the world aside and bidding it pass, that it is almost illogical to grumble. In fact, a very determined moralist with a sense of humour (supposing there to be such a person) might detect a moral in the slightness with which the book is put together. Into these regions, however, it is not necessary to enter; and all that is necessary is once more to express thanks to Mrs. Lang for this agreeable entertainment, in which she has chosen to make the figures come like shadows and so depart. There is something remarkably lifelike in your shadow; and, save in quite exceptional circumstances, he is one of the most agreeable of companions.” Saturday Review, June 14, 1884
“The plot may be regarded as disappointing by some readers; but, whatever the story loses in that respect, it more than makes up for by caustic cleverness in writing. We get a series of pictures rather than a consecutive narrative. Its real interest lies in the writer’s charming style and power of saying good things. . . . In fact, these Dissolving Views are very vivid and very entertaining while they last.” Academy, June 21, 1884
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At present, the British Library’s website has been, oh so sadly, taken offline because of a ransomware attack, rendering a great many links on this website temporarily useless. Until it returns, one may download the American reprint here:
Henry John Yeend King, Feeding Time
That’s right—I’m fed up! I’m fed up, for example, with politics, which is actually just an effect of tribalism, which is in turn just an effect of human nature, which is itself just an effect of nature in general, which is after all just an effect of whatever mysterious process created everything for whatever mysterious purpose. So I’ll just do a crossword.
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Alexander Mark Rossi, On the Shores of Bognor Regis
Menella Bute Smedley (1820-1877), cousin of Frank Smedley (see Novel 048), wrote eight novels between 1849 and 1868; this one features sharply delineated characters in a quiet domestic scene.
“There is no doubt that ‘Linnet’s Trial’ will find many admirers; it is a well-sustained story, and the characters are elaborated with a firm hand, and evidences of a perception at once keen and clear. . . . The volumes are beautifully printed on delicate cream-tinted paper.” Art Journal, April 1864
“A pretty, well-written story. . . . The conversations are lively and clever, and the incidents sufficiently interesting.” Athenaeum, June 18, 1864
“A very interesting story. The discrimination of character is really remarkable, and quite without visible effort. . . . It may be recommended for the youngest of young ladies.” Spectator, September 3, 1864
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Walter Sickert, The Acting Manager or Rehearsal: The End of the Act
This web site now concludes its sixth year. Is it time for us to bring it to a close? We might; but we can’t decide what to do with our protagonist “David Alfred Bywaters.” Should we have him marry the princess and live happily ever after? Die in a shoot-out with rival crossword constructors? Maybe we’ll just have him wake up and discover that it was all a crazy dream.
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George Frederick Watts, Miss Mary Kirkpatrick Brunton
Here is the second novel by Henry Milton, Anthony Trollope’s uncle (for the first see Novel 031). I have now recommended at least one novel for each of the 64 years of Victoria’s reign.
It “bears about as much resemblance to life as the broadest farce; but when the improbability is got over, the farce is ludicrous enough. The writing is vigorous and straightforward.” Spectator, January 18, 1845
“The principal characters are cleverly drawn, and the natural course of their progress in life is dramatic, though simple and unforced into striking situations. The course runs easy; the descriptions of men, manners, and things, are the result of sensible observation; and the interest of the whole tale leads the reader on to the end with sufficient effect. . . . Some of the humorous scenes are ludicrous enough, but rather overdone.” Literary Gazette, January 25, 1845
“The story is skilfully developed, . . . the characters are in general well and cleverly individualised. There are several passages in the work that cannot fail to leave on the reader a strong sense of narrative power in the author.” New Monthly Magazine, February, 1845
“Bating an evil propensity to exaggerate, Lady Cecilia Farrencourt is excellently written; and in spite of it, we must not scruple to confess that the book has not a little amused us. The heroine . . . is cleverly drawn; there is a lively, spirited, easy tone in the writing; a great deal of good sense and good-nature; a nice perception of the ludicrous; and perhaps some excuse for even the broadest passages of caricature, in a prevailing abundance of animal spirits.” Examiner, February 8, 1845
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Benjamin Robert Haydon, Bartholomew Fair
Here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender we always conform our dress to the eternal and universal rules of etiquette. We wear morning coats, evening gowns, dinner jackets, party frocks, top hats, white ties, and tails—whatever is appropriate to the time of day, the season of the year, the nature of the occasion, etc. Never, ever do we wear “tees,” cropped or otherwise. But our consumer research department advises us that we need to appeal to a broader demographic—to the vile habits, undeveloped tastes, uninformed opinions, and appalling manners of the vulgar multitude. So today’s puzzle includes allusions not only to the informal dress but also to various of the other things—musical, literary, etc.—which that multitude is said to enjoy.
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A crossword of mine appears Thursday, November 16, in Universal Crossword
John Callcott Horsley, The Waiting Maid
For Aïdé, see Novels 076, 176, and 236.
“Mr. Aïdé’s forte lies in character. Among all . . . there is not one which is exaggerated on the one hand or indistinct on the other”; the novel shows his “knowledge of the world, and his sympathy with the more hidden qualities and feelings of human nature. . . . When, united with this delicate observation and this power of drawing character, there is a clear and incisive style, we have much for which to be grateful in these days of false psychology and questionable grammar.” Saturday Review, April 22, 1871
“An admirable little miniature painting, with no dreary padding; one of the most taking little stories we have read for many months past.” Spectator, May 6, 1871
A contrasting view:
“It indicates no great fertility of imagination, nor any remarkable insight into character. If it has few merits, its demerits are also trifling.” Athenaeum, April 15, 1871
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Charles Robert Leslie, The Queen's Private Bedchamber, Hampton Court Palace
Digital privacy is a matter of great public concern these days, and here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender we take it very seriously—both your privacy and our own. No doubt various commercial entities would be bidding against each other for our web site data if we put it on the market—but we never have, and we never will. If we happen to learn something about you, the solver, we instantly and completely forget it. As for ourselves, if we need to buy something online, we set up a burner account and pay in crypto-currency; but mostly we buy things in person, using small bills and fake beards. And of course we operate under an assumed identity from an undisclosed location marked only by the electrified razor wire that surrounds it.
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James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Quarreling
This is the second of this anonymous author’s novels (the first, Broomhill, had appeared three years earlier). Despite some period clichés (e.g., the ideal clergyman who, after final exhortations to his family, expires with a heaven-witnessing smile), it represents some delightfully bad marriages.
“With greater powers of writing and more knowledge of life than usually belongs to the circulating library novel, Married Women is essentially of that class. . . . The scenes, though not wanting in power or spirit, possess that faded air which characterizes general imitation. But there is the main thing in a novel—a well-varied story, told with sufficient rapidity, relieved by secondary fortunes without complex involution, and if not reminding one of the actual yet rarely outraging probability. It is a book for the reader rather than the critic; though better adapted to the main end of writing, that of pleasing the class of readers for whom it is designed, than some fictions of a more vaulting ambition.” Spectator, March 10 1855
“We have read this novel ourselves with much pleasure, and we have no doubt that many others will do the same. If rigidly criticized, the story will be found straggling:—it concerns too many people, who are all independent of each other, and do not work together to produce unity of result. But, notwithstanding this, the book is extremely interesting, and, what is more, the tendency is healthy and unexceptionable. The characters are well and firmly drawn. . . . Some of the scenes evince quiet power and force of delineation, without ambitious straining after effect.” Athenaeum, March 17, 1855
A contrasting view:
“Milk-and-water triviality. . . . We suppose there is still a public for novels like this among the clients of circulating libraries in provincial towns; and, after all, an interest in such feeble creations is better than blank ennui or indulgence in acrid gossip.” Westminster Review, July 1855
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https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990146724840107026
(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Unconscious Rivals
Like most of my puzzles, this one began with a single phrase I thought amusing (in this case, 39 Across). After finding four more phrases that followed the pattern of the first, and constructing and filling a grid, I discovered, to my dismay (through Matt Ginsberg’s sadly discontinued clue database, which I use to avoid forever replicating the same clues for the same answers), that one of my theme answers had already been clued not once but twice, in 2009 by Matt Jones, and in 2021 by Gary Larson.
Now, why must other people always be getting in my way? I used to enjoy doing crosswords; but ever since I took up constructing them, I find I can’t complete a themed puzzle without saying to myself either “What a bad theme, compared to the themes I produce at fortnightly intervals; what a shame!” or “What a good theme; I’m sure I’d have thought of it eventually and done it even better, but now here it is already done; what a shame!”
Anyway, though I replaced the shopworn theme answer with a bright new one, I cannot deny that two puzzles with roughly the same theme have preceded this one into the world. But what then? Was Michelangelo’s David preceded by no other statues of David? Was Raphael the first to paint a Madonna?
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Johann Hermann Carmiencke, Poughkeepsie Iron Works (Bech’s Furnace)
Charlotte Dunning Wood, born in 1858 or 1859 in Poughkeepsie, New York, wrote two novels and various stories before marrying Edward Linn Morse (the youngest son of Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the code that bears his name) in 1888. She died in 1898.
“For an entertaining summer story, Upon a Cast, by Charlotte Dunning, may be recommended. The name is meaningless, but the story is effectively told. Society life in a fashionable town on the Hudson . . . , the embarrassment of one fair maid with two unfortunate lovers . . . form the subject matter of the book, which is agreeably free from dark and treasonable shadows. Miss Dunning deserves special praise for the ease and naturalness of her narrative.” Jewish Messenger, July 3, 1885
“A very bright American story. . . . The characters . . . are described with a trenchant and familiar pen. The characters are well drawn and though the incidents are ordinary ones, they are handled with skill. It is a very pleasant and entertaining book.” Texas Siftings, July 11, 1885
“Bright and brisk; its story is sufficient, to say the least; its people are pleasant, well bred, well educated, clever; and its dialogue, which is abundant, is admirable and to the point.” Saturday Review, April 17, 1886
A (somewhat) contrasting view:
“An unusually bright and pretty story, without being remarkable for either power or originality.” Portland Daily Press, July 8, 1885
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Henry John Stock, The Four and Twenty Elders
“Senior,” as a euphemism for “old,” has been around for many years—as least since the senior citizens of the present day were junior citizens. Indeed, the very fact that the term hasn’t had an update in such a long time is, I suspect, a consequence of the unspoken ageism that permeates our society. We need a new word or phrase that means “old,” but lacks the pejorative associations with wrinkles, hair loss, jowls, etc. that “senior” now inevitably evokes. Unyoung? Ripe? Temporally enriched? Durable? Not yet dead? Well, I leave it to the online influencers whose coinages appear regularly in all the major crossword venues. Meanwhile, before “senior” dies out, I hasten to post this puzzle.
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Henry Yeend King, At the Farm Gate
For Paul, see Novels 025, 136, 198, and 251.
“A good story, and of a kind that demands a hearty welcome. . . . It is admirably written, in a style that combines ease and carefulness, and it is as refined and elevated as it is clever.” Spectator, April 13, 1878
“There is much skill in Mrs. Paul’s method of bringing together the different threads of her narrative and keeping her reader’s attention upon a plot which has enough and not too much ramification, while it contains no incident which does not bear upon the progress of the story.” Examiner, May 18, 1878
“This cannot be called a powerful novel, but it is a good one: thoughtful, well-written, and marked by a reticence, here and there, which speaks volumes for the culture and fine feeling of the author.” Contemporary Review, September, 1878
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William Powell Frith, Catherine Seyton Looking from the Battlements at Loch Leven Castle
Do you find, disconsolate solver, that when you address yourself hopefully to a new crossword, expecting a little harmless recreation, perhaps some amusing wordplay, you are faced instead, whether you move down or across, with slang you’ve never used, movies you’ve never seen, brands you’ve never bought, songs you’ve never heard? The problem is that you’ve been looking for crosswords in all the wrong places! Here is where you belong, where the “wrong places” are really just silly, happy, friendly puns that just want the very best for you and yours.
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A crossword of mine appears today, and another will appear Wednesday, September 20, in The Wall Street Journal.
Alfred William Hunt, A North Country Stream
For Hunt, see Novel 039; above is a painting by her husband, who was, like the novel’s hero, a landscape painter.
It combines “shrewd observation with an excellent style of simple English.” Athenaeum, December 18, 1880
“In these days of the multiplication of words and darkening of knowledge, the reviewer is generally thankful and grateful for signs of excellence in any one branch of novel-writing—for a well-conceived plot, for clever condensations, for life-like characters. What must be his feelings, therefore, towards a writer who excels in a high degree in each of these branches, and gives us a book containing characters which become as real to us as Mr. Elton and Mr. Collins have done, and fragments of conversation and description which will for ever be interwoven with the subjects of which they treat.” Academy, January 8, 1881
A contrasting view:
“The reviewer . . . has found the ‘Casket’ so unusually leaden he can do little more than raise the lid and clap it to again.” New York Times, March 13, 1881
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v.1 https://archive.org/details/leadencasketnove01hunt
Solomon Joseph Solomon, The Breakfast Table
Meal preparation! Here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender, not only do we dress for dinner in correct evening attire, we also take care at every meal to provide ourselves only with nutritionally balanced dishes hand-crafted from organic ingredients gathered laboriously from our own fields. All this takes so much time that we barely have any left in which to chew and swallow the stuff, much less to read novels and make crosswords. So in this fortnight’s puzzle we’re combining our labors.
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A crossword of mine will appear next Tuesday, August 29, in The Wall Street Journal.
Stanhope Alexander Forbes, Farmyard
I can discover nothing about C.H.D. Stocker; this is her only novel (I choose a feminine pronoun only because the protagonist is a woman). And that is a pity, for her witty, incisive style and scenes of comic household disorder are just brilliant.
“Miss Stocker’s novel is very good indeed.” The plot is “by no means original. . . . But the really good work which makes itself conspicuous and delightful throughout Miss Stocker’s three volumes is the lifelike portraiture. . . . English children of the ‘happy family’ order have rarely been drawn with more geniality and truth.” Athenaeum, December 6, 1884
“A capital piece of work. . . There are some happy descriptions both of the country and of London . . . and Miss Stocker’s style is spontaneous and unusually correct. . . . On the whole . . . Miss Stocker has used an old situation . . . with effect.” Academy, December 13, 1884
“This novel, utterly without pretension, and belonging for the most part to the domestic order of fiction, is bright and amusing . . . , really pleasant reading.” Morning Post, December 28, 1884
Stocker “can imagine striking situations and use them with a certain dexterity. But, above all, he has a very genuine sense of humour.” Saturday Review, February 7, 1885
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v.1 https://archive.org/details/betweenactsnovel01stoc
George William Joy, Cordelia Comforting her Father, King Lear, in Prison
Are you worried, anxious solver? Are you afraid that you won’t get there on time, that you won’t be welcome even if you do get there on time, that you won’t enjoy yourself even if you are welcome, that you won’t get back home safely even if you do enjoy yourself? Well, worry no more! This puzzle is here to show you that all will be well.
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Martin Archer Shee, Young Actress
“Mr. Wedmore’s is a carefully written novel of character, . . . a little cramped and subdued by the quietism of modern taste.” Athenaeum, December 20, 1873
“His human figures are almost without exception individualised; we know and see them. . . . The story is told with perfect clearness, and with the rapidity and compression of what is very rare,—thoroughly skilful narrative." Spectator, January 10, 1874
“The attraction of Two Girls is to be found in a certain freshness of subject and manner. . . . His strength lies in the representation of character and dramatic little scenes, quiet but brightly coloured.” Academy, January 17, 1874
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