Walter Besant (1836–1901)

This is a classic 19th century novel about the Scilly Isles - the Hell Bay of its century, it begins in a similar way with a woman of the isles rescuing a shipwreck victim. This is a much more reflective and spiritual novel, though, and is of its time, with the 19th century novel's reliance on coincidences, lost family relationships, lost treasure and beautiful women being manipulated by powerful and unscrupulous men. Armorel Rosevean and Alec Feilding (sic) respectively fill these roles very successfully, though the latter's ability to fool so many people about his non-existent talent strikes the modern reader as perhaps a tad unrealistic. The main "hero", Roland Lee,is on the other hand, not a particularly strong character. For me, the real hero of this novel is Scilly itself, and especially the now uninhabited island of Samson where Armorel and only a handful of others still live (incidentally, the dates are inaccurate as this novel is set in the 1880s and Samson was abandoned in 1855). The descriptions of the islands, waters, rocks, channels, flora and fauna is wonderfully evocative for anyone who has ever visited and this formed a backdrop to my visit in August 2013 (I even read some of it sitting on top of Samson's North Hill after seeing the ruined cottages where the islanders lived). Even the descriptions of the sea crossing from Penzance and the train journey there from London rang true! A wonderful book in this context.… (altro)

A rich widow adopts the two-year-old daughter of a former servant and raises her with her own daughter who is the same age. For some reason, the widow will not tell the girls which one is adopted. One of them is sent to live with a sister and therefore thinks that she must be the poor adopted one. As one may imagine, the story revolves around this scenario for a while until it is revealed that she is NOT the adopted one. The author paints a faithful picture of London slum life without being offensive and the plot is quite intricate and loaded with entertaining characters much like Dickens.… (altro)