Afbeelding van de auteur.

Jane Helen Findlater (1866–1946)

Auteur van Crossriggs

8+ Werken 203 Leden 11 Besprekingen

Over de Auteur

Bevat de naam: Jane Findlater

Ontwarringsbericht:

(eng) Also wrote stories with her sister Mary Findlater.

Werken van Jane Helen Findlater

Gerelateerde werken

The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Medewerker — 118 exemplaren

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Geboortedatum
1866-11-04
Overlijdensdatum
1946-05-20
Geslacht
female
Nationaliteit
Scotland
Geboorteplaats
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Woonplaatsen
Lochearnhead, Stirling, Scotland, UK
Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland, UK
Beroepen
novelist
Relaties
Findlater, Mary (sister)
Stewart, Charlotte (co-writer)
Wiggin, Kate Douglas (co-writer)
Smith, Annie Lorrain (governess)
Korte biografie
Jane Findlater and her older sister Mary are sometimes referred to as "the Findlater sisters." They were born in Scotland, the children of a minister. They were educated together at home by their father and governesses, and had a close relationship that extended to the co-writing of books. Jane's first novel, The Green Graves of Balgowrie (1896) was successful enough to enable her to support the family financially. Of the novels written with her sister, perhaps the best-known is Crossriggs (1908), a light-hearted romance of upper-class manners. They followed it with other similar novels that were highly popular in their day. The sisters also collaborated on two long novels with Charlotte Stewart (under her pseudonym Allan McAulay) and Kate Douglas Wiggin. Their popularity led to a wide circle of literary and artistic acquaintances, including friendship with Ellen Terry, May Sinclair, and Mary Cholmondeley. After meeting Henry James, the sisters got to know his brother William and his sister-in-law Alice while on a lecture tour to the USA in 1905. By the 1920s, their work seemed old-fashioned, and Beneath the Visiting Moon (1923) was their last book.
Ontwarringsbericht
Also wrote stories with her sister Mary Findlater.

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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.
 
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Alishadt | 9 andere besprekingen | Feb 25, 2023 |
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.
… (meer)
 
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BookBarmy | 9 andere besprekingen | Jul 8, 2017 |
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.
… (meer)
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BeyondEdenRock | 9 andere besprekingen | Mar 29, 2017 |
Interesting piece off of my vintage early motoring fiction pile with a unique twist.....4 different authors! A country English hotel romance told from the perspective of the 4 major characters, each writing in their journals or letters. Each of these characters were written by different authors. A fun little story involving a 'motor'....and written in 1904, that is fairly early. Love the artwork on the cover and thoroughly enjoyed the read. I have a whole bunch of this type of book, but this is the first i have read....I am encouraged!… (meer)
 
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jeffome | Dec 29, 2016 |

Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk

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Statistieken

Werken
8
Ook door
2
Leden
203
Populariteit
#108,639
Waardering
½ 3.7
Besprekingen
11
ISBNs
29

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