ffred's
nearly-forgotten treasuresA great reader of novels—French as well as English—her mind was tinctured by the class of literature to which she was addicted, and wanted bracing as much as her body.
After presenting such radical, didactic tales as The White Slave and Perfect Motherhood, it's good to offer a bit of a break to the reader. William Harrison Ainsworth was known principally for Rookwood, The Lancashire Witches, and his other historical novels, but when his literary sales began to sag, he began a series of three novels set in contemporary times. Of the three, Hilary St. Ives has been considered the best, and so I decided to take it on.
A fine-cut gem set unpretentiously in the cultural milieu of the Victorian era, this work (not unlike The Second Son) presents the main characters with a certain degree of propriety and sympathy, believably lets them speak often for themselves, and demurs from inviting the reader to draw any socio-political conclusions therefrom. There's also plenty of humor, and during final chapters, I fully expected the characters to break out in Gilbert & Sullivan patter song. As such, it would make a fine BBC miniseries.
The text came from these scans of volumes I, II, and III of the 1870 edition. I corrected any obvious typographical errors, and updated a few obsolete or inconsistent spellings.
So here it is: the master HTML version, the home-brew Kindle version, and the actual Amazon publication.
April 23, 2025