I didn't have a clear idea of what to expect from this book, and so once I was at the halfway point, I had to keep reading because I was just so concerned about what was going to happen to poor Alex. I wasn't quite satisfied by the end, which is why my rating is not so high. It's well written, though, and really makes you feel things for the character. ( )

I often roam my favorite book blogs to see what others are reading and recommending. (Just what I need, more to read, but nonetheless, I roam away.)

Both Eden Rock and Heavenali praised a somewhat obscure Scottish novel called Crossriggs.

My library didn't have a copy, so I turned to our inter library system. My little book had to travel almost 700 miles from the library at University of California, Long Beach -- which cost me nothing. (Most every library has an inter-library loan arrangement for its patrons, and may I just say bravo to our public libraries throughout the country, both big and small.) The loan did come with some stringent rules -- I could only renew it once, and late fees racked up at $1 per day. So with that pressure, and after taking a moment to admire the beautiful illustration on the cover --"Lady in Grey" by Daniel MacNee, I opened this book and fell in.

The novel opens with introductions to the principal characters in the small Scottish village of Crossriggs, then the first chapter enticingly sets up the plot:

These, then, were the principal characters in our little world of Crossriggs - a world that jogged along very quietly as a rule, and where "nothing ever happened", as the children say. Then quite suddenly, two things happened. Matilda Chalmers husband died in Canada, and we hear that she was coming home with all her children to live at Orchard House. That was the first event. The next was that the Admiral's good-for-nothing son died abroad, and young Van Cassilis, his grandson and heir, came to Foxe Hall. Then and there happenings began.

Crossriggs was written in 1908 by by two sisters who together produced novels, poetry, short stories and non-fiction. At the beginning of their writing career, the sisters were so impoverished, their first works were scribbled and submitted on discarded sheets of grocer's paper.

This is an old fashioned read, reminiscent of Jane Austen but without all the characters. (I always have trouble keeping Austen's multitude of characters straight.) Because Crossriggs takes place in a small village, the characters are limited in number and more manageable for the reader.

Alexandra Hope, our main character, practically sparkles off the pages -- full of happiness, love and with ambitions and ideas passed down from her vegetarian, head-in-the-clouds, idealist father...called Old Hopeful. Alex is described as rather plain, but brimming with dreams, imagination and mostly energy. A male admirer in the village describes her best:

“‘Alex,’ he said, ‘you have a genius for living! You just know how to do it . . . You’re alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realisation of our duties, are as dead as stones!'”

When Alex's widowed sister Matilda comes home with her five children, the household is not only strained for space, but also for money. Alex adores her sister and children, and happily takes on running the now overflowing household and more than her fair share of caring for Matilda's children. Alex acquires two jobs to bring in the necessary funds to feed and care the now expanded family. Unlike Alex, Matilda is beautiful but meek, lacking the bravery of her sister. She seemed to be always sewing something (thus the beautiful cover).

Their increased family size and the strain upon the household finances does not trouble Alex's father , Old Hopeful -- he leaves the worrying to Alex:

The ordinary limitations of poverty were nothing to a man of Old Hopeful's temperament; "A handful with quietness! A dinner of herbs where love is! Who would want more? ...What I spent I had: what I save I lost: What I gave I have."

Old Hopeful is a loving father, and while Alex finds him frustrating, her love for him shines through:

Futile, Quixotic, absurd and unsuccessful, as she knew her father to be, she recognized that he had the right of the argument of life.

The reader can sense the authors took great pains to get everything just right - the characters, the village settings, the weather, the change of seasons -- all lovingly crafted. Many of the observations are pure delight:

But the house that had once been the Manse remained much the same always -- no bow-windows or iron railings there. A tall man (and the Maitlands were all tall men) had to stoop his head to enter the low doorway - an open door it had always been to rich and poor alike. The square hall was half-dark and paved with black and white flags; the sitting rooms, low-roofed and sunny, wore always the same air of happy frugality with their sun burnt hangings and simple, straight-legged furniture. There was no attempt at decoration for decoration's sake, only an effect which was the outcome of austere refinement in the midst of plenty.

And this description of the beloved Miss Bessie's eccentric wardrobe:

Miss Bessie's taste was not coherent, and as time went on, this want of sequence increased. It seemed as if she could not adhere to a scheme even in braid and buttons, for her bodice would be trimmed with one kind of lace, and her wrists (those bony wrists with their plaintive jingle of bangles) with cascades of another pattern. In her headgear especially she was addicted to a little of everything - a bow of velvet, a silk ribbon, an ostrich tip, a buckle, a wing from some other fowl, and always, always, a glitter of beads.

Crossriggs is definitely a period piece and, like Trollope or Dickens, ones reading must slow to a careful pace. The sisters Findlater are excessive in their use of quotation marks. This can get confusing, as not only are conversations in quotes, but the characters thoughts are also in quotes. I found myself thinking "wait a minute did she actually say that?" "Oh no, she was just thinking it..." See how I use the quotations - confusing. Also, there's a great many exclamation points, which again, is part and parcel of the period.

But this slow reading pace will reward the reader with some priceless observations and tidbits.

...the faint jangle of the door-bell (the Hopes' door-bell sounded as if it had lost its voice from talking too much).

and this

"Things are so different when looked at from the outside! Of course they are, that is whey we make most of our mistakes in life."

For me, the best part of Crossriggs was Alex, I really liked her spirit and found myself cheering her at every insurmountable turn. Towards the end, a great trip is planned...and Alex remains Alex as with this rebuttal about needing a new dress:

"Pooh!, Alex cried. Clothes! Why Matilda, there's the world - the great round, interesting world to see!"

And who could not relate to her ability to escape into books:

...Alex sat by the fire, snatching half an hour of reading before the children all came tumbling in again. Her thoughts were very far away, for she had the happy power of forgetting the outer world altogether when she read anything that interested her.

The plot takes some twists - some expected and unexpected (there's an accidental death that shook me for hours), but it's the village life, the characters and the observations that truly shine in this book.

Crossriggs may not be for everyone, but I adored it. It's a slow, quiet read and spurred by my inter-library loan deadline, I stuck with it and am very happy to have made the effort. It was sad to send this copy of Crossriggs back home to Long Beach. I'm going to find my own copy to add to my library. ( )

I had lots of reasons to think I would love this book:

- It’s set in a small Scottish town, early in the 20th century.
- It’s is a collaboration between sister authors - writers working together always intrigue me.
- It’s a Virago Modern Classic.

I did love it. I can’t say that its a great book, but it is a lovely period piece.

Alexandra Hope lives in Crossriggs with her father. He is generous to a fault, he loves to help people and to try new things but he rarely stops to consider practicalities; and so the family is rather poorer than it might be. She is bright, spirited and unconventional. Marriage doesn’t appeal to Alex, and she turned down a proposal from a rather dull man who was deemed a good catch; but that didn’t mean she didn’t worry about her family’s situation.

Her worries increase when her recently widowed sister comes home from Canada with her five young children. Alex loves her sister and adores her nieces and nephews, but she knows that she will have to find a way to keep the family afloat. Matilda is rather more conventional than her sister, but she is almost as oblivious to practicalities as her father and she blithely assumes that everything will be alright.

Alex finds that she can earn a little money by reading to the Admiral Cassilis of Foxe Hall, the family’s blind, aristocratic neighbour. She does her job very well and that leads her to other jobs that require a lovely speaking voice.

It also leads her to a friendship with Van Cassilis, the Admiral’s nephew. It quickly becomes clear Van has deeper feelings than friendship for Alex, but those feelings are not reciprocated. She knows that he is younger than her, she doesn’t think his feelings will last, and, most significantly, she has already lost her heart to another.

Alex is in love with Robert Maitland, another neighbour who has rather more money and social standing than the hopes. He is fond of her, he is her wisest counsellor and her moral compass, but as he is married Alex knows that her she can never speak of or act on her feelings.

I was inclined to like Alex. She was a wonderfully imperfect heroine; walking a fine line between idealism and realism; pride and humility; compassion and causticity; reserve and outspokenness.

There were so many characters that were so very well drawn. I’ve mentioned some of them already, I can’t mention them all, but I can’t leave out Robert Maitland’s Aunt Elizabeth – known as Aunt E.V by everyone in Crossriggs – who was a wonderful matriarchal figure, or Miss Bessie Reid, who was no longer young, who had to look after a very elderly aunt, but who still dreamed of romance.

I believed in them all, and I believed in their village community.

The Hope household was poor but it was never dull. The children were bright and entertaining, the family patriarch – who would always by known as ‘Old Hopeful’ – was a welcoming host, and there were lots of lovely outings and much fun to be had.

The Findlater sisters must have taken such care over the characters, the community and the stories that they created. I loved them all.

I particularly loved the beautiful evocation of the changing seasons.

The story was beautifully positioned between two different eras. Much of it feels wonderfully Victorian, but Alex is quite clearly a ‘New Woman’ caught up in small town life,

The influences were clear. There are definite echoes of a particular Jane Austen novel in the characters and the relationships, and there were something in the style and in the drawing of the community that told me that the sisters must have read and loved Trollope too.

The writing style seemed fluctuate, the plot was rather uneven, but because there were so many good things, because I was so caught up, I could forgive that.

The story moved slowly for a long time, but in the later chapters all of the storylines came to a head.

Alex and Van fall out, and he makes a reckless decision that will have irreversible consequences. There’s a villainess in the mix here, and I’m afraid she was the one character I couldn’t quite believe in. Maybe because she came into this world from outside …

The unhappy loss of her friend, the pressure of the work she has taken on to support her family, takes its toll on Alex. Her physical health, her emotions and her mental health all begin to fray.

There was a suggestion that another relationship could change.

I saw an obvious ending, but there were one or two twists in the tail of this story, before it came to a conclusion that I hadn’t expected but thought was completely right. ( )

In the tiny Scottish village of Crossriggs, Alexandra Hope lives with her unworldly father. He is an impractical, vegetarian dreamer, called Old Hopeful by the locals, she one of those wonderfully spirited, unconventional Victorian women. Crossriggs is just an hour or so by train to Edinburgh – but it might be much further – it feels like a place far removed from polite Scottish society – remote and rather narrow – but also quite comfortably small, set against a backdrop of awe-inspiring countryside.

The household at Orchard House is a very poor one, only Alex – as she is generally called – worries about the practical aspects of being so poor. Then Alex’s older sister Matilda, now widowed returns to her father’s house with her five children.

“On the day of Matilda’s home-coming, Mr Hope was on his way to the station, hurrying along full of benevolent sympathy for his bereaved daughter, when he met Miss Elizabeth Maitland and Miss Bessie Reid. He stopped for a moment to speak with them.
‘I am just starting for Glasgow to meet my poor Matilda and her five children. There is room in the old house for them all, and plenty of room in our hearts! I must meet her when they land – she will be in need of support and comfort, poor girl,’ he explained.
His grey hair, which he always wore very long, streamed upon the breeze, his usually ruddy face was very pale with emotion. Bessie Reid and Miss Maitland exchanged glances when he had hurried on.
‘Poor Matilda – what a home-coming!’ said Miss Bessie
‘Yes poor soul; she will need something more than his support if she has five children to provide for,’ remarked Miss Elizabeth.’ “

Alex – loves her sister and adores her nieces and nephews – especially little Mike, loves having them all around her but instantly realises how difficult things will be. Matilda is the perfect, Victorian widow and mother, a little unimaginative, still pretty; she seems merely to trust that everything will work out. Alex who has absolutely refused to entertain marriage to the one eligible (dull) man, who is interested, now sets about finding ways to help her large family.

“‘Alex,’ he said, ‘you have a genius for living! You just know how to do it . . . You’re alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realisation of our duties, are as dead as stones!'”

There is a wonderful collection of Austenesque characters in the village of Crossriggs. The most notable of these – in every way – is the Maitland family. Robert Maitland has been a friend and neighbour for as long as Alex can remember, and for as long as she can remember she has looked up to him, having adored him as a young girl Alex has never let go of her feelings for Robert Maitland despite his being older and married. Robert’s wife is Laura, a frail beauty, whose only child died several years earlier, now they live with Robert’s Aunt Elizabeth – known as Aunt E.V by everyone in Crossriggs. The Maitlands have money and position, despite which they remain on especially good terms with the impoverished Hopes. Other members of Crossriggs society include the Scotts, the minister and his wife – whom Alex and the Maitlands quietly despise and no one seems to like, and the Reids. James Reid is the man Alex refuses to marry, he now lives away from the village – while his sister, no longer young, ridiculously attired, cares for an elderly, aunt and talks about the time she spent in Europe with a group of people who she tries to make sound glamorous and interesting.

In a bid to earn money – any money for her family – Alex offers to read each day to the Irascible Admiral Cassils of Foxe Hall – a man who is very particular about the society he keeps. The Admiral is almost blind, living alone – until his grandson comes to stay – he is charmed by Alex’s reading, her voice and the two become tender, unlikely friends. The Admiral’s grandson Van Cassils is almost nine years Alex’s junior – but he too is drawn to Alex – and to the household at Orchard House. For the household – although poor – is never dull – the children are lively, entertaining and Old Hopeful is a likeable if eccentric host, and he and Alex find themselves on very much the same wave length. Van Cassils is something of a radical – much to his grandfather’s disgust – Alex is always quick to say what she thinks – and Van finds this refreshing. Alex enjoys Van’s company – his friendship has become very important to her, and she can’t help but have some concerns when a sly, superficial young woman appears on the scene.

Over the course of the next four years – Crossriggs sees many changes, comings and goings, new romances, visits from pompous relatives, tragedy and comedy. Society is never quite the same when the Maitlands are away from home, Laura’s health is suffering and through little looks and things nearly said both Robert and Alex know how the other feels. Alex is now spending several days a week travelling back and forth to Edinburgh to teach elocution, while still reading to the Admiral when she can.

I loved every bit of this novel – and have tried to write about it without spoiling it for others. Alex is a wonderful character and the community of Crossriggs is delightfully drawn. I found this book very hard to put down, so very readable, there’s drama and humour and pathos in this story of a family who like Van Cassils the reader would rather like to be a part of. I particularly loved the ending – I was cheering – it was a little untypical – and I appreciate those kinds of endings. ( )

Crossriggs is a family drama, chronicling the developments in the impoverished but genteel Hope family in the country town of Crossriggs. The story begins with the return of Matilda, whose husband has recently died. Matilda was living a simple middle class life in Canada, but now she and her five children return to her father and her younger sister Alex in their small home. Although they have barely enough to support themselves, they eagerly welcome their family home, and scrape every bit together to make ends meet. Meanwhile, their aristocratic and snobbish neighbor, the Admiral, is joined by his grandson Van Cassilis and a friendship arises between Alex and Van. The family friendship between the Hopes and the Maitlands continues, despite the Maitlands possessing much more money and social esteem.

The emphasis in the first part of the novel is on the Hope family figuring out how to support five children and overcome their father's generosity. Mr. Hope has a huge heart and loves to support people in all their needs and innovative ideas, but he lacks common sense. He constantly extols the virtues of education and helping others, but is incapable of seeing how his philosophic lifestyle deprives his daughters of the money to provide the basic necessities of life. The burden to provide falls on Alex's shoulders. Ignoring Matilda's protests, Alex takes a job, reading to Admiral Cassilis, who is blind. In her new position, she meets Van Cassilis, and a friendship develops between the two. Van clearly has deeper feelings than friendship for Alex, but she resolutely keeps the younger man at a distance. She wants friendship, not romance, not only because he is younger and she thinks his feelings are just infatuation, but because her affections reside elsewhere. As the novel progresses, the reader moves from suspicion to certainty that Alex is in love with Robert Maitland, and that he returns the feeling. Unfortunately, he is married. Both parties have too much integrity to even consider an extramarital affair, and try to suppress their emotions as much as possible.

While matters of the heart add much interest to the book, the novel is not a romance. The story examines the lives and struggles of the hope family, the rise and fall of idealistic young Cassilis, the clash between the old and new generations, and the side lives of other Crossriggs residents. Alex discovers that her fine reading voice can earn the family money. Van's grandfather tries to make a suitable arrangement for him. Alex's insufferable uncle and aunt visit. As the novel progresses, Alex begins to wear away, her physical health paying the price for the enormous exertion she takes on herself to support the family, and her emotions and mental health fraying. Her short temper becomes shorter and shorter.

The last third of the novel was the most interesting. Multiple plot threads that previously ran beneath the surface come out in a tangled mess. Van's jealousy about Alex's feelings for Maitland explode, they fight, and he makes a negative decision that alters his life forever. Meanwhile. Alex and Robert teeter on the edge of feelings and actions that their integrity can not condone. The novel does not end on a dour note, thankfully; however, it also does not conclude with a typically happy romantic ending.

I enjoyed the characters in Crossriggs. The family is developed and inviting. As the central character, Alex stands out as the best developed of the novel, and she was sympathetic and intelligent. I did not always agree with her interpretation of events, but I liked her on the whole. She was a curious blend of idealism and realism, compassionate but also caustic. The author also did a wonderful job developing a specific setting in the world of Crossriggs. Despite these positive qualities, the story did not engage me fully until the last third of the novel, when events gathered intensity and resonance. Perhaps the book needed Dolly Orranmore earlier in the story, as her attractive but foul character added a spice to the book, and provided a kind of antagonist for Alex. Before the conflicts emerge, the book was a pleasant read for a lazy afternoon, but not one that excited me to return to it. The novel is written well, delivers a cast of diverse and interesting characters, but the plot simmered in embers for too long before it finally burst into flames. ( )