David Alfred Bywaters's Crossword Cavalcade & Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender. Every Saturday! Either a new language-torturing puzzle or an old novel by an unjustly neglected Victorian author. Why waste time on other amusements?

Novel 159: Mrs. Henry Wood, The Channings (1862)

John Partridge, The Clough-Taylor Family
John Partridge, The Clough-Taylor Family

An exemplary family struggles against misfortune in a cathedral town.


Here is another novel by Mrs. Wood, with many of the same qualities, good and bad, as East Lynne (see Novel 077).  Among its minor characters is a mischievous choirboy named Bywater.

“It can never be read without profit both by parents and children. . . .  The merit . . . lies in the detail, and the extreme truthfulness and simplicity in which it is related. . . .  It is impossible not to read every word with interest; and we feel that we know every character intimately, and feel real regret at parting with them.”  Athenaeum, April 26, 1862

“It is pleasing, and readable, and well-contrived. . . .  Very few of the purveyors of fiction could write as good a book.”  Saturday Review, May 10, 1862

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/channings01wood

v.2 https://archive.org/details/channings02wood

v.3 https://archive.org/details/channings03wood