Review - The Squire's Daughter

The Squire's Daughter
by Archibald Marshall
First published in 1912

The Squire's Daughter is the first book in a series known as the Clinton Family Chronicles by Archibald Marshall (1866-1934). Reviews contemporaneous with the publication of his novels compared Marshall with Anthony Trollope, and from what I have read so far, I find the comparison apt. I don't understand why this series has fallen into obscurity.

Squire Edward Clinton lives at his country home of Kencote with his wife, his daughter Cecily, and twin daughters of 13 Joan and Nancy. Four grown sons, Dick, Humphrey, Walter and Frank, live away from home. Cecily, age 22, is restless living in the country, although she cannot define what would cure of her restlessness. She chafes at her father's restrictions on the women of his household, feeling that her brothers have had more liberal treatment and better education. Brother Walter, who is about to be married, has defied his father's wishes and become a doctor, rather than becoming a clergyman.

The characters are wonderfully drawn. Even the Squire is a sympathetic fellow whom one cannot help liking, despite his foibles. This is a delightful novel and recommended to all who have enjoyed Trollope's Barchester Chronicles, Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford, and Mrs. Oliphant's Carlingford Chronicles.

The Haunted House - by Charles Dickens

From Sensation Novels by Mrs. Oliphant, Blackwood's Magazine, Vol 91, pages 564-584, 1862:

"Of all the productions of the supernatural school, there is none more perfect in its power of sensation, or more entirely affective in its working out, than the short story of the 'Haunted House,' most thrilling of ghostly tales . . . "

The Haunted House
page 329 of The Commercial Traveller and The Haunted House
by Charles Dickens

Archibald Marshall

Archibald Marshall (1866-1934)

Archibald Marshall wrote a series of novels which sounds promising. The series was mentioned in an article by Maurice Francis Egan, The Return to the Quiet Novel, published in the Bookman, Volume 54, page 17. After discussing how many in England during World War I sought refuge in the novels of Anthony Trollope, Mrs. Oliphant and Mrs. Gaskell, Egan tells how he was made acquainted with a series of novels by Archibald Marshall. Although I have not read them, I have downloaded the following and offer the titles here with links to the downloadable (free) editions at Google Books.

The Squire's Daughter
The Eldest Son
The Honor of the Clintons
The Old Order Changeth
The Clintons and Others

Rainbows from tears

I came across an image in one of Mrs. Oliphant's poems today that greatly appealed to me. The poem is "The Shadow on the Way" published in Blackwood's Magazine in June 1853. Mrs. Oliphant would have been 25 years old when it was published. The poem indicates that she had already experienced sadness and grief, but at 25 she was able to say:

Yet sometimes clouds, a frowning line
Will steal across those kindly skies;
And now and then some tears of mine,
Under this fair and soft sunshine,
Make rainbows to mine eyes.

Best Sellers of September 1900

From The Bookman, September 1900

Has anyone read any of these?

Ellen Glasgow's Richmond

I am reading Romance of a Plain Man by Ellen Glasgow. It is set in Richmond, Virginia and opens with scenes on the Church Hill section of the city in 1875. Little Benjy Starr is playing in the churchyard of St. John's Church (where Patrick Henry made his give me liberty or give me death speech). Throughout the novel, or at least what I've read so far, there are real locations mentioned, places that I have seen.

When little Benjy playing in the churchyard cemetery, he comments: "One sleeper among them I came to regard, as I grew somewhat older, almost with affection - not only because he was young and a soldier, but because the tall marble slab implored me to 'tread lightly upon his ashes.' Not once during the many hours when I played in the churchyard, did I forget myself and run over the sunken grave where he lay."

Now I want to know, do that grave and tombstone really exist in St. John's cemetery? A soldier from which war? The story opens in 1875, but my impression of the cemetery is that most of the graves date from long before the Civil War. I sent an email to the church asking if they know of such a grave. If I don't hear back from them, I will go over to there and take a look for myself.

Romance of a Plain Man is a compelling read.

I love novels which convey a sense of place, and Ellen Glasgow was masterful in this regard. Her Richmond comes alive in this book. In doing some online research about Glasgow I found mention of what I thought was a book called Ellen Glasgow's Richmond by Tricia Pearsall. It turned out to be a chapter in a book of essays titled Regarding Ellen Glasgow. After a trip to the Library of Virginia this morning, I am now reading that chapter, longing for the weather to cool off so I can track down some of the houses said to be models for homes in Glasgow's novels.

I also learned that Elizabeth Van Lew was a model for at least one Glasgow character. Van Lew was a Richmond resident who acted as a spy for the Union army. After the Civil War she was shunned by Richmond society. Her house no longer stands, but Glasgow mentions in A Certain Measure that when a shild she heard Van Lew being discussed and saw her from a distance.

Novels Set in Virginia

The Bookman, Volume 33 (1911) (beginning on page 44 of that volume) has a wonderful article titled, The South in Fiction: Virginia, by Louise Collier Willcox. This is part II of a three-part series titled The South in Fiction. The article is illustrated with photos. For those interested in novels with a sense of place, this article is an excellent starting place.