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A stubborn squire mishandles his children and tenants.

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Nothing is known of H. Bouverie Pigott except that she wrote three novels between 1862 and 1873, of which this was the second.  Its plot is a standard affair of parental ambition crossed by filial willfulness, but the characters are consistent and well defined.

“An easy, natural story made up principally of incidents of family history such as any of us may have met with. . . .  The characters, too, are for the most part, fashioned after ordinary types.”  Athenaeum, April 15, 1865

“A domestic story of considerable ability and promise, without any particle of sensational or villanous intermixture of any kind or description whatever.  This is something new in modern novel writing, and yet the interest of the story never flags.  The reader’s sympathies run strongly with the hero and heroine to the very end.  The characters are naturally drawn, and are precisely such as may not unfrequently be met with in ordinary life.”  Caledonian Mercury, April 29, 1865

A contrasting view:

“It is so painfully harmless that it is the kind of book suited for a good-conduct prize at a young ladies’ boarding school. . . .  Taken in judicious doses” it “will probably act as a wholesome soporific during the very hot summer we are threatened with.”  Morning Post, April 15, 1865

Download this week’s novel:

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014000718
(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)

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It’s Christmas!  So here’s a little gift, just for  you—a new crossword puzzle!  I made it myself!  As to the title—if you’re not fond of Christmas carols, don’t worry—remember how I let you off last year?

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Download this week’s crossword:

214-Let's-Go-Carolling!.puz

214-Let's-Go-Carolling!.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

214 Let’s Go Carolling!

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An English girl goes to live with her guardian in northern India.

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Here is another novel by Cunningham (see Novels 020, 161); set in what is now Pakistan, it expresses a fairly jaded view of British rule.

“It is not often that a novel-reader comes across a story so bright, so amusing, and so sparkling. . . .  Anglo-Indian life has never been better sketched.” Saturday Review, June 19, 1875

“Contrary to the wont of novels treating of Anglo-Indian life, which are generally to the English reader inexpressibly wearisome, the ‘Chronicles of Dustypore’ are bright, clever, and amusing, and just the kind of thing wherewith to wile away an otherwise tedious hour.”  Morning Post, August 30, 1875

A contrasting view:

The author is “a person of pleasant wit, extended reading, and excellent taste, but as soon as the least pressure is put on him to discover the views of so exceptional a witness on the graver questions of English administration in India, the airy creature flies off and vanishes in a spray of tittle-tattle.” Academy, July 3, 1875

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/chroniclesofdust01cunn

v.2 https://archive.org/details/chroniclesofdust02cunn

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Why is the English word signifying assent so ugly?  “Si” sounds helpful, “oui” cute, “ja” endearingly goofy, but “yes,” with its growling short “e” and sibilant conclusion, seems just hostile.  When people say it while making that ugly pulled-down-fist motion—often with the implication, “Yes, my enemies lie slaughtered before me!”—they’re only realizing the sound’s  potential.

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Download this week’s crossword:

213-Yes.puz

213-Yes.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

213 Yes

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A virtuous young lady misunderstands, and is misunderstood by, the man she loves, who is troubled also by issues of inheritance.

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Here is another novel by Waddington (see Novel 014), with characterization so good as to make up for a lovers’-misunderstanding / stolen-inheritance plot of greater-than-average idiocy.  At one point, for example, a character shoots himself—and misses!

“A number of the characters . . . are sketched with great ability and truthfulness, and the story altogether reads well.  If there is no great profundity or consistency in the plot, there is abundant variety in the characters, and vivacity in the dialogues.”  Caledonian Mercury, March 19, 1842

“Time was, when a book containing such shrewd insights into human character, and so many kindly sympathies . . . would have made a sensation.”  Athenaeum, March 26, 1842

“Miss Waddington’s characters are for the most part drawn with great ability. . . .—they are distinct portraits, and . . ., supposing them to be placed in the position she gives them, they perform their parts with spirit and truthfulness. . . .  Many incongruities, and much of that tiresome twaddle meant for dialogue, which ladies who write are so fond of filling their books with, disfigure the ensemble of ‘Newstoke Priors;’ but, notwithstanding these defects . . . it is a novel in parts powerfully written, and on the whole as full of interest as any of its contemporaries.”  Morning Post, May 3, 1842

A contrasting view:

“There is enough good stuff in this novel to have formed one interesting volume, but from being diluted into three it is absolutely attenuated into inanity.”  The Era, March 13, 1842

Download this week’s novel:

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph013983897

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My main purpose on this website has been to edify the world—to educate its taste, elevate its morals, and enrich its spiritual experience by crossing only the most edifying words and phrases.  After four years, however, I cannot but confess that the world seems stubbornly unedified.  Everywhere I turn I continue to encounter bad things:  ugly art, unethical behavior, wrong ideas. So this week I’m trying a direct approach.

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Download this week’s crossword:

212-An-Edifying-Crossword.puz

212-An-Edifying-Crossword.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

212 An Edifying Crossword

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In a remote French seaside town, a neglected girl resists her vain stepmother’s control.

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Here is another novel by Edwardes (see Novel 158), featuring another attractively rebellious heroine.

“A most amusing tale.”  Athenaeum, April 19, 1873

“It is humorous, vivid, rapid, lavish, and yet brief; unconventional almost to dash, and yet in no sense immoral in its tendency. . . .  There is a flavour of something like true genius about A Vagabond Heroine.” Spectator, July 5, 1873

A contrasting view:

“We wish our lady writers would leave off drawing these queer, unlikely, and unlovable heroines.  Murderesses and gamins, idiots and adventuresses, seraphs bred in the mire and angels fashioned out of the dirtiest clay—we are tired of them all.  They are fantastic caricatures of human nature rather than sober and life-like portraits. . . .  All these unnatural and impossible heroines are as little like the women of real life as are the six-handed and three-headed goddesses who may serve as emblems, but are absurd as artistic representations.”  Saturday Review, September 27, 1873

Download this week’s novel:

https://books.google.com/books?id=6j4tLQ0fFXAC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=edwardes%20vagabond%20heroine&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=edwardes%20vagabond%20heroine&f=false

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Some weeks ago (see Crossword 193) I was boasting of the wholesome food consumed by the skilled artisans here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender.  This week, I’m afraid some of it got tangled up in the crossword-making machinery.  We salvaged what we could.

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Download this week’s crossword:

211-Processed-Food.puz

211-Processed-Food.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

211 Processed Food

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A strong-willed young lady marries a charming officer-in-training.

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Here is another of Payn’s 60-some works of fiction (see Novels 011, 081), with an excellent portrait of a genial character drifting carelessly into evil.

“Though the subject is unpleasant, Mr. Payn has made a readable book. . . .  There is plenty of vivacity in the narrative throughout.”  Athenaeum, May 19, 1877

The novel “deals with a painful subject in a way which other novelists might emulate with advantage.” Spectator, January 26, 1878

A contrasting view:

“It is nothingness, like its lighter brethren, but it is heavy nothingness, the very ponderosity of Nihilism.  It is not interesting, it is not amusing, it is not appealing, it is not instructive, . . . it is hopeless to go on saying what it is not. . . .  There ought to be no difficulty in turning off such books as this once a month, or even sooner; anyone of average capacity might spin them off as fast as he could hold the pen.”  Examiner, May 5, 1877

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/whathecosther01payn

v.2 https://archive.org/details/whathecosther02payn

v.3 https://archive.org/details/whathecosther03payn

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I was going to call this puzzle “The Unities,” but who cares nowadays about the rigid neoclassical critical standards applied to the drama of the 17th and 18th centuries?  Nobody, sadly, but me—and perhaps you, learned solver.  If so, I apologize for pandering instead to the degraded popular tastes of the age.

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Download this week’s crossword:

210-Striptease.puz

210-Striptease.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

210 Striptease

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A meek solicitor’s clerk is unexpectedly elevated to the peerage.

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Here is a late work by the great Yonge, for whom see Novels 003, 053, 103, 155.

“That Stick is not only a pleasant, well-told, healthy story, but it is a careful study of a number of characters. . . .  Altogether this is one of the best of the . . . novels that Miss Yonge has published.”  Academy, April 4, 1892

“‘That Stick’ is an excellent story in its unpretending way. . . .  The materials seem unpromising, and the principal characters commonplace; but, though sensational incidents and titanic emotions are conspicuously absent, the book is full of quiet charm. . . .  The personages are excellently contrasted, and the portraiture is singularly natural and sympathetic.”  Athenaeum, April 16, 1892

A contrasting view:

“As a novel, this book will have more interest for women than for men, and in all probability more interest for school-girls than for women.” Speaker, February 13, 1892

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/thatstick01yong

v.2 https://archive.org/details/thatstick02yong

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It’s time to get our economy up and running again!  As a public-spirited American I’m happy to help out with some plant openings.

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Download this week’s crossword:

209-Plant-Openings.puz

209-Plant-Openings.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

209 Plant Openings

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The two children of an eccentric diplomat marry, with mixed results.

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Here is another of the brilliant early novels of W.E. Norris—for whom see Novels 002, 054, 104, and 156.

“It is a pleasant story, cheerfully and cleverly told, and containing some really fresh and spirited studies of character and manners.”  Athenaeum, December 25, 1880

“A fine book to be read and enjoyed, as it was probably written, slowly and with intention. . . .  The author had already attracted attention . . . by his remarkable gift of presenting quite naturally, and without exaggeration, eccentric and unusual types.  But after all it is, we suspect, not so much happy instinct as deliberate continence which preserves Mr. Norris from the ensnaring example of Dickens and the deplorable influence of the American humorists. . . .  In his method, in his flashes of airy wisdom or grave playfulness relieving a style of old-fashioned dignity and fullness, he recalls” Henry Fielding.  Academy, January 22, 1881

“Readers of ‘Matrimony’ will find in it a novel of merit and interest much greater than average. . . .  It cannot be said that there is much plot in the story, but there is excellent delineation of character, an easy, flowing narrative and an abundance of kindly humor, which go far to make it a novel to be placed high on the roll in this branch of literature.”  New York Tribune, June 7, 1881

A contrasting view:

“A pleasant novel (one part excepted . . .) of the ‘agreeable rattle’ kind. . . .  Serious criticism would be out of place in reviewing this tale.”  Spectator, February 5, 1881

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/matrimony01norr

v.2 https://archive.org/details/matrimony02norr

v.3 https://archive.org/details/matrimony03norr

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I conclude this web site’s fourth year with a fourth “Cavalcade of Crosswordese” (see Crosswords 052, 104, 156).  And this time, in order to ensure that I’m using only the freshest stale entries available, I’ve drawn them all from recent New York Times themeless puzzles, on the assumption that the most prestigious crossword venue in its most unconstrained format would surely allow only the very best crosswordese that can be had!  It’s just another of my tireless labors on your behalf.

Grateful?  All you have to do is click on that “Donate” button below and give me some money! (You may also donate through PayPal or Venmo using my email address.) $12 will get you a bonus 15 x 15 “Victorian” puzzle filled only with words in use before 1901; $13.50, a bonus 21 x 21 puzzle; $15, both of these; and $10,000,000, your name on the website.

Ungrateful?  Oh well.  I won’t bother you again until next year.

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Download this week’s crossword:

208-Cavalcade-of-Crosswordese-IV.puz

208-Cavalcade-of-Crosswordese-IV.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

208 Cavalcade of Crosswordese IV

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An impecunious baronet takes in a difficult French orphan girl reputed to be his hostile neighbor’s niece.

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For Beale, see Novel 60.  The first two volumes of this novel are excellent, with striking characters, especially the French girl heroine, placed in dramatic situations—excellent enough to make up for the third, which loses itself in idiotic lovers’ misunderstandings and tedious sentimental fantasy.

“Fay is not an unattractive heroine . . . and her freaks as a child are amusing.”  Graphic, October 23, 1875

A novel with “really fine studies, drawn to the life, and from beginning to end full of vitality and individuality.”  Spectator, January 2, 1892 (the novel was then republished).

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B8E8#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-71%2C-1%2C2605%2C1996

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B8EE#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-85%2C-131%2C2806%2C2149

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004B2D6#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-44%2C-1%2C2659%2C2037

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I stopped going to musical performances years ago, because the loud ones hurt my ears, and the soft ones were invariably spoiled by somebody in the row behind me elaborately unwrapping a piece of hard candy.  And I’ve always wondered—did the people behind me at the loud performances also come equipped with plastic-wrapped pieces of hard candy, the unwrapping of which I was unable to hear over the music?  Or do people only bring wrapped pieces of hard candy to soft musical performances—just as they generally wait for the quietest moments of those performances to do their best unwrapping?  It’s a mystery.

But what isn’t a mystery is that this website is now concluding its fourth year, and I will mark the moment, as I did the conclusions of its first three years, with two 21 x 21 puzzles, and an opportunity for grateful solvers to make a donation.   Are you a grateful solver?  As in previous years, you may donate using the button below, or through PayPal or Venmo using my email address.  There are four donation levels.  Donate $12 and receive a 15 x 15 crossword which employs only words current during the Victorian era (and, of course, still current today).  Donate $13.50 and receive a large, 21 x 21 crossword.  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, Mackenzie Scott, the name of the website will be “Mackenzie Scott Presents David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender.”

And speaking of Mackenzie Scott, this year I’m offering a discount to billionaire divorcees.  Divorce can be hard, even for billionaires, and we at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender understand that.  So if you’re a divorcing billionaire (Jeff? Bill? Melinda?) I’ll rename the site in your honor for a mere $9,000,000.  That’s a million-dollar discount!  And just think how envious your ex will feel at the sight of your name on the most fabulous crossword site on (or off) the internet!  Get there first!

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Download this week’s puzzle:

207-Dynamic-Range-Compression.puz

207-Dynamic-Range-Compression.pdf

Solve this week’s puzzle online:

207 Dynamic Range Compression

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The children of rival attorneys fall in love.

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For Davies, see Novel 094.  This novel includes perhaps a few too many intrusive authorial reflections, but otherwise provides a good, straightforward plot, a well developed social setting, and entertaining characters.

“There is an air of unexaggerated truth about The Browns and the Smiths  that is sure to find a fair number of readers who will appreciate its sterling merits.”  Observer, November 9, 1863

It is “harmless in its plot and gentle in its satire. . . .  a pleasant and instructive narrative.” Examiner, April 30, 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/brownssmithsintw01davi

v.2 https://archive.org/details/brownssmithsintw02davi

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This puzzle, as its title implies, has men in it, and frankly I have some qualms about posting it.  I’m troubled not so much by  the lack of gender-inclusiveness (for which I atone right away, in the answer to 1 Down) as I am by the presence of people of any kind.  For, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, etc., people, in my experience, are annoying.  There are some exceptions—myself, for example, and my near relations, and my current friends—but most people, if they’re not doing something absolutely wrong, are at best getting in the way.  So please, as you solve this puzzle, do not take it as in any way an endorsement of humanity in general.

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Download this week’s crossword:

206-Who-Let-All-These-Men-in-Here?.puz

206-Who-Let-All-These-Men-in-Here?.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

206 Who Let All These Men in Here?

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A young wife is troubled by her husband’s thriftless pleasure-seeking.

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Here is the sequel to last week’s novel, narrated by the same engaging middle-aged Scotswoman.

“In giving individuality and expression to the characters of the young people in the tale, the author has been very successful, and this, with the pen as with the pencil, is no easy achievement in art.  The other characters throughout the story are well drawn, and the novel will sustain the reputation gained by the former work, of which it is a companion and continuation.  Both contain good pictures of Scottish life.”  Literary Gazette, November 24, 1855

“The concluding series of ‘Some Passages’ is to our thinking superior to the beginning, and this we take to be about the most satisfactory compliment we can pay the authoress.  There is a vein of simple good sense and pious feeling running throughout, for which no reader can fail to be the better.” Athenaeum, December 8, 1855

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/lilliesleafbeing01olip

v.2 https://archive.org/details/lilliesleafbeing02olip

v.3 https://archive.org/details/lilliesleafbeing03olip

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It’s time to test your etymological knowledge!  To which question might this puzzle’s title phrase, in its original meaning, have been an appropriate response?
A. “How do I make this blob of tofu look like a turkey?”
B. “A bird is attacking me—should I shoot to kill?”
C. “What’s a good slogan for a specialized chicken restaurant with no thighs, or breasts, or legs?”
D. “I forgot to learn the play I’m acting in this afternoon—what should I do?”
The answer may be found in the first letter of 2 Down in the attached puzzle.

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Download this week’s crossword:

205-Just-Wing-It.puz

205-Just-Wing-It.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

205 Just Wing It