"Reading Charlotte M. Yonge's The Daisy Chain and see the echoes or rather foreshadowings of Ivy Compton Burnett in it. Ivy would have made Dr May marry Meta Rivers and she would then have had an affair with Norman. Some patches of Ivy dialogue too.... It is enjoyable and very readable." (Diary, 9 November 1969.) (Pym, A very private eye. Granada, 1985. p. 364.)

Written in the mid-19th century, this is a family chronicle about the May family. In the first chapters, their mother is killed and the eldest sister crippled in a carriage accident, leaving Dr May to cope alone with his eleven children. The story focusses particularly on Ethel, a homely but academic and driven girl, who begins by helping the poor and establishing a school for them, but aspires to build a church and encourage them to follow the Bible.
Her elder brother Norman is brilliantly gifted but suffers from a sensitive and depressive nature.
Sister Flora meanwhile aspires to mix with the gentry.
With an underlying moral precept of not seeking one's own glory, the Mays encounter tragedy and joy and improve as individuals.
This is a very long book (600 pages of close type) and although I wanted to know what happened, I don't think I could have got through much more! Some of the characters were a little too unbelievably virtuous. It may be compared to a 'What Katy did' for adults - and I'm sure that Susan Coolidge's saintly invalid Cousin Helen was based on crippled sister Margaret, dispensing words of goodness from her sick-bed! ( )