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Sir William Blake Richmond, The Sisters

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Three middle-class sisters grow up and find various fates.

Nothing is known about Cecil Maxwell, except that she (he?) wrote this one novel—a very good one, on the whole. All through its beginning and middle it is excellent in its kind, with complex, well-defined characters placed in interesting situations.  Its end is marred by the sort of lover’s-misunderstanding plot that mars so many Victorian novels—the sort of misunderstanding occasioned by the inexplicable failure of A to ask B a simple yes/no question. But if you accept the premise that anybody might ever act that way, even the ending, though sad, isn’t bad.

N.B.: Since I posted the above, the indefatigable Troy J. Bassett has identified Cecil Maxwell from her publisher’s records as Laura Mary Denniston (1847–1928).  See https://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=2064.

“We cannot now do justice to the spirit and verve of ‘A Story of Three Sisters.’  It is full of brightness and colour.  It is a poet’s novel. . . .  The writer . . . is a very close observer of character and motives.”  Westminster Review, January 1875

“This is a well-written story of common-place life, without much incident and without any exaggeration; it is carefully studied and well disseminated.”  British Quarterly Review, January 1875

“The charming Story of Three Sisters owes . . . much of its attraction to a pure and graceful style. . . .  The characters . . . are drawn with tender care and feeling. . . .  It is rare to find so nearly perfect . . . a story . . . , which is one to linger over, and return to with a sort of nostalgie.”   Academy, January 30, 1874

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043BF0#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=8&xywh=-492%2C0%2C3639%2C1973

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000043BF6#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-488%2C0%2C3618%2C1962

The reader may find a one-volume American edition here:  
https://archive.org/details/astorythreesist00maxwgoog
and here:
https://archive.org/details/astorythreesist01maxwgoog

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Did you ever have to read Moby Dick?  It was justly panned by discriminating contemporaries (an “ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact . . . disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English,” said the Athenaeum; “the soliloquies and dialogues of Ahab, in which the author attempts delineating the wild imaginings of monomania, and exhibiting some profoundly speculative views of things in general, induce weariness or skipping,” said the Spectator).  But then some misguided cabal of English professors, at some point in the 20th century, contrived to make it required reading, and generations of students have paid a heavy price.  53 Across is a terse comment on the incalculable suffering induced by ill-judged curricular decisions.

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Download this week’s crossword:

184-On-End.puz

184-On-End.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

184 On End

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Abraham Solomon, The Bride

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A gentleman accused of fraud in a bank failure is loved by two good women.

Here is another novel by Drury (see Novel 64), featuring, amid a great deal of virtuous suffering, an eventful plot and some well-drawn characters.

“A thoroughly readable story, well written and well worked out, if due allowance be made for the improbabilities of the plot.” Westminster Review, July, 1863

“The plot is original, and well managed throughout, the characters well conceived and sustained. . . .  the style pure, simple, and unaffected, and the interest uninterrupted.”  Continental Monthly, January 1864

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/deepwatersnovel01drur

v.2 https://archive.org/details/deepwatersnovel02drur

v.3 https://archive.org/details/deepwatersnovel03drur

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Henry Stacey Marks, Where Is It?

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I don’t know. . . .  I’m completely at a loss. . . .  I’m pretty sure I was about to say something—something pretty important, too—but I just can’t remember what it was.

Download this week’s crossword:

183-Um....puz

183-Um....pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

183 Um…

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Sydney Prior Hall, The Maharani of Cooch Behar

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A virtuous young lady, orphaned and unwanted by relatives, is lured to India, where she has diverse adventures.

Here is another novel by Croker (see Novels 013, 073, 129), with a good (if somewhat episodic) plot, sharply defined characters, and a vividly realized setting.

The novel presents “the conditions and circumstances of Anglo-Indian life . . . as well as authors who take themselves more seriously. . . .  The best part of the story is the picture of a third rate boarding house.” Athenaeum, March 1, 1902

“The book is fresh and vivacious; the pictures of Indian life are vivid and convincing.”  Saturday Review, March 15, 1902

Download this week’s novel:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Qh0mAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=editions%3AoGWMJUprgrUC&pg=PP12#v=onepage&q&f=false

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Charles Robert Leslie, Children Playing at Coach and Horses

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Why can’t we all just get along?  What’s wrong with people, that they’re always fighting about one thing or another?  I blame irresponsible crossword constructors.  How many times have you, gentle solver, awakened in the morning full of warm, happy feelings about the entire human race, and then, in the course of solving your daily crosswords, encountered some word that made you hate everybody?  I can’t be sure I haven’t included such a word in the puzzle below (it’s hard to predict just what might set a person off—for me, it’s “alii”), but if I have, I hope to have counteracted the effect with my theme, which fosters a whole new kind of cooperation.

Download this week’s crossword:

182-Extraordinary-Cooperation.puz

182-Extraordinary-Cooperation.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

182 Extraordinary Cooperation

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A dispossessed petty monarch cynically plots to extort money from his country and from an American heiress.

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Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916), an American journalist, editor, fashion leader, and crony of Teddy Roosevelt, had time for only a few short novels.  The characters in this one, though hardly complex, are entertaining, as is the action-packed plot—which features the unexpected but crucial intervention of a dashing young American journalist.

“It is a very pleasant story, and . . . it is written with not a little brightness and literary skill.  Indeed, as a mere teller of a story Mr. Davis has nowadays few superiors:  for he can always produce his effect with a few strokes of the pen.  He is never diffuse, and consequently never wearisome.” Speaker, September 3, 1898

“Mr. Harding Davis’s new story is very slight, but it has charm. . . .  It is extremely well conceived and arranged.”  Academy, September 17, 1898

Download this week’s novel:

https://archive.org/details/kingsjackal00daviiala

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Are you aware that, in the course of a lifetime, the average American adult discards enough ones and zeros to fill seven virtual football stadiums?  It’s just one more way that technology is making our world into a dystopian hellscape.  I’m thinking of doing my part to reverse this trend by etching my crosswords in stone the old-fashioned way and delivering them by ox-drawn carts.  Subscription fees may rise, of course, but won’t it  be worth it?  What can equal  the sound, the smell,  the tactile thrill, of entering your answers in granite, with a chisel?

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Download this week’s crossword:

181-Digital-Waste.puz

181-Digital-Waste.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

181 Digital Waste

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An Irish politician pursues an heiress, while a Polish anarchist and his Tsarist opponents plot against each other.

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Here is another novel by Murray (see Novels 009, 068, 127) with vivid characters, some of them remarkably unprincipled, and a thrilling, if implausible, plot.

“Secret societies and Polish and Irish patriots are not as a rule very promising subjects for a novel, and Mr. Murray has increased his difficulties by making his story a study of character first, and only secondarily a tale of exciting incidents.  But the chief person is . . . excellently presented, and the plotting is . . . cleverly contrived.” Athenaeum, February 6, 1886

“It is hardly needful to say that the book is thoroughly readable, and a piece of skilled workmanship.”  Academy, February 13, 1886

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003AA58#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-913%2C-1%2C3229%2C2211

v.2 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003AA5E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-903%2C-1%2C3226%2C2209

v.3 http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003AA64#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-898%2C-1%2C3194%2C2187

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For me, crosswords aren’t about wordplay, enigmas, and such contemptible stuff, they’re about making the world a better place.  Here’s a puzzle that not only mentions good things (many other constructors justly praise themselves and each other for that), it actively promotes cultural exchange, global understanding, world peace, united human progress towards a brighter future!  Solve it and become a better person!

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Download this week’s crossword:

180-Globalization.puz

180-Globalization.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

180 Globalization

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To support her ailing father, a virtuous young lady becomes a paid companion on an English estate.

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Nothing is known about Mrs. Thomas Erskine except that she published four novels, of which this is the second.  Its quietly interesting plot and striking characters ought to have led its author to a more prominent career.

“In the sustained fidelity with which the characters, few and simple as they are, maintain their consistency and distinctness, Mrs. Erskine shows . . .  care and minuteness of observation.”  Athenaeum, November 21, 1874

“It is admirable for observation, for humour, for pathos; it is refined without affectation, and interesting without effort.  Even the subordinate characters—the supernumeraries who only cross the stage—are carefully studied and full of life.”  Academy, December 1, 1874

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014400822
(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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I have already mentioned on this site that my crosswords promote human betterment by mentioning those things we ought to pursue (“good,” for example, has appeared in six of my puzzles) and those other things we ought to shun (“evil” has appeared in eight).

But lately I’ve been exploring the crossword form as a vehicle for soul-searching confessional autobiography. So this is the second puzzle based on U.S. States in which I have lived (see Crossword 128).  Like much autobiography, it’s designed not just to indulge the writer but to give a voice to others with similar life experiences—in this case, to solvers who have lived in one or more U.S. States.  They will, I’m sure, “relate,” and feel gratifyingly “validated” in consequence.

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Download this week’s crossword:

179-Midwestern-State-Sponsored-Terror.puz

179-Midwestern-State-Sponsored-Terror.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

Midwestern-State-Sponsored Terror

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A virtuous young lady marries a middle-aged attorney to please her dying mother.

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Here is another novel by the other Molesworth (see Novel 100), with well-defined characters placed in a carefully developed, interestingly uncomfortable situation.

“We have read it with a pleasure which is due partly to the inherent interest of the subject, hackneyed as it is, but mainly to the quiet dignity of the style, and a certain sub-acid flavour discernible throughout.” Molesworth has “hit off many of the weak points of provincial life.”  Athenaeum, January 27, 1872

“The author . . . is an exceedingly graceful writer, with a good deal of literary taste.  Her pair of sisters have evidently been a work of love, and some pride as well.  We may congratulate her on a success.”  The main character “is certainly made so life-like that we have learned to look at her with her creator’s partial eyes.”  Saturday Review, June 15, 1872

Download this week’s novel:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014012488

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This puzzle celebrates the versatility in English of the terminal “s”—which can indicated plurality, possession (either singular or plural, depending on apostrophe placement), or nothing in particular (as in the name “Bywaters”). It can also (with an apostrophe) indicate an elided version of the common word “is,” but I'm saving that for another puzzle, in which I’ll celebrate the versatility of the English apostrophe.

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Download this week’s crossword:

178-That's-Thats.puz

178-That's-Thats.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

178 That's Thats

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A beautiful, much-admired woman marries so that she may become a society leader.

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Here is another novel by Chetwynd (see Novel 80); though not free of sentimentalism, especially at the end, it features some excellent studies of changing characters.

“The plot is very ingeniously constructed. . . .  The husband . . . and the wife . . . are both highly individual characters, and exceedingly well drawn.” Academy, December 17, 1892

“We do not often get such good, careful work. . . .   From the first to the last page it is well written, and worth reading.”  Spectator, January 28, 1893

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/brilliantwoman01chet

v.2 https://archive.org/details/brilliantwoman02chet

v.3 https://archive.org/details/brilliantwoman03chet

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Among the many human proclivities that baffle me is the love of racing—of doing a thing, or of watching somebody or something do a thing, faster than some other body or thing.  It honors the tyranny of Time, that inexorable force which impels us all helplessly towards apparent annihilation. It upsets the restful calm for which we ought all to strive, as both an aesthetic and a moral ideal. Rather than be in a hurry, I’m happy to come in last.

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Download this week’s crossword:

177-Coming-in-Last.puz

177-Coming-in-Last.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

177 Coming in Last

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A man of towering intellect resists the power of love.

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Ellen Georgiana Clutton-Brock (1845-1894), née Eyre, wrote two novels, of which this is the first.  The first volume is good, and the second excellent, as complex characters make believable mistakes; the third, in which Providence intervenes to reward and punish them, is not so disappointing as to ruin the the whole.

“The author of ‘James Gordon’s Wife’ has succeeded by sheer cleverness of writing in making readable, and occasionally really interesting, a story which in less able hands would probably have been insufferably dull.”  Athenaeum, May 27, 1871

“The story is an ordinary one enough, with the incidents too obviously arranged to suit a moral; but it is told with a force and a liveliness which altogether redeem the book from the charge of being dull.” Spectator, September 2, 1871

Download this week’s novel:

v.1 https://archive.org/details/james-gordons-wife-1

v.2-3 http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014384326
(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)

Though the inspiration for this puzzle was 64 Across (see my remarks on “The Star Spangled Banner” accompanying Crosswords 032 and 033), I’m proudest of 38 Across, which I recommend to any statistics-compiling social scientist stuck for a topic.

Download this week’s crossword:

176-Parliamentary-Divisions.puz

176-Parliamentary-Divisions.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

176 Parliamentary Divisions

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A younger son is badly treated by his mother.

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Here is another novel by Aïdé (see Novel 076),  with a good plot and some striking characters.

“‘Penruddocke’ is a novel which shows a certain amount of power”; several characters are “well enough drawn to raise a story, in other respects carefully told, above the ordinary level.” Athenaeum, July 5, 1873

“Even the most blasé of novel-readers would find in this tale a plot sufficiently interesting to arouse his jaded senses, and yet it contains, at the most, only two incidents that can fairly be reckoned ‘sensational.’  It mainly depends for its interest on the clever way in which the plot is worked out, nothwithstanding the presence of an unusual number of dramatis personae.” Examiner, July 5, 1873

“Mr. Hamilton Aïdé has given us another of his carefully written and interesting stories.  Without anything remarkable in power or new in incident, Mr. Aïdé always succeeds in engaging and holding our attention. . . .  The plot is carefully worked out. . . . And he is careful in his writing; his English is simple, correct, and elegant.” Spectator, July 19, 1873

Download this week’s novel:

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990146524130107026

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This puzzle, moving as it does from the ridiculous (gag gifts) to the sublime (church music), is calculated to lift you above sordid cares on a kind of celestial crossword chariot.  It’s part of my ongoing project of making the world a better place, one solver at a time.

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Download this week’s crossword:

175-Chariot.puz

175-Chariot.pdf

Solve this week’s crossword online:

175 Chariot