The Meadow inside You (Victorian Style Tales for Children)

🌿 Timeless Tales for Thoughtful Hearts

On Victorian-Style Children’s Stories and the Wisdom of a Bumblebee

There’s a kind of storytelling that feels like a warm shawl wrapped around your shoulders. The kind of tale told beside a hearth, with the clock ticking softly and the scent of wildflowers drifting in from a garden path. These are the stories I love to write—quiet, thoughtful, and rooted in the timeless charm of the Victorian tradition.

My collection of children’s stories draws inspiration from that golden age of children’s literature, where animals wore waistcoats, mice lived in vicarages, and the smallest moments carried the deepest truths. These are not noisy tales with flashing lights and roaring dragons, but gentle fables for quiet readers—about kindness, courage, curiosity, and growing into oneself.

They are stories for children, yes—but also for parents who remember the hush of Beatrix Potter’s world, or the wonder of The Wind in the Willows. Stories that linger in the heart long after the page is turned.

Today, I’m sharing one of my favourites from the collection:
🐝 The Bumblebee Too Busy to Play 🌼

It’s the story of Bixby, a bumblebee who works harder than anyone in the hive. He gathers, buzzes, and packs his pollen baskets with admirable determination—but he never stops. Never rests. Never plays.

Until, one day, the flowers grow quiet. The air stills. And Bixby discovers something he’s been missing—not just in his work, but in his heart.

It’s a tale for every child who feels they must do more to be worthy. And for every grown-up who’s forgotten how to pause, breathe, and notice the beauty around them.

You can read the full story below:

A story about work, wonder, and the joy of slowing down

In the warm hum of a summer meadow, where the buttercups swayed and the air smelled of clover and sunshine, there buzzed a very busy bumblebee named Bixby.

Bixby was always busy.

While other bees stopped to chat or nap on dandelions, Bixby zipped from flower to flower with such speed he was more blur than bee.

“Pollen!” he’d mutter. “Nectar! Must fill the sacks, must feed the hive!”

He had pollen baskets on his legs packed tight with golden dust, and wings that never stopped whirring.

“Come play, Bixby!” called a ladybird sunbathing on a poppy leaf.

“Too busy!” Bixby buzzed.

“Join us for a petal picnic,” chirped a pair of butterflies, sipping dew from a curled rose.

“No time!” Bixby called, his antennae already turning toward the next bloom.

He visited daisies and dog-roses, foxgloves and forget-me-nots. He poked his head into honeysuckle horns and wriggled down into bellflowers. He sniffed, sipped, gathered, and zoomed.

He was the finest forager in the hive. The tidiest. The fastest. The most determined.

But not the happiest.

***

One afternoon, the wind shifted. The sun hid behind a cloud, and a hush fell over the meadow.

Bixby paused on a knapweed head to stretch his wings—and realised, quite suddenly, that he was alone.

The others had gone. The butterflies, the beetles, even the dragonfly who always teased him.

The flowers looked tired. The air felt still.

Bixby sat down.

For the first time in days, he noticed how soft the petals were beneath his feet. How the pollen tickled his legs not just with purpose, but with joy. He listened—and heard the low hum of the earth, the sigh of a breeze in the grass, the tiny pop of a seed pod bursting open.

He lay back against a daisy and sighed.

And just then, a small voice piped up beside him.

“You’re the bee who never plays.”

It was a blue flower, smaller than most, swaying gently.

“I don’t have time to play,” Bixby said. “I’m making honey. That’s important.”

“But so is wonder,” said the flower. “So is stillness.”

Bixby blinked.

No one had ever said that to him before.

The flower smiled. “Take just one moment. No gathering. No planning. Just be.”

So Bixby did.

He sat on that little blue bloom until the sun peeked back out and the wind stirred the meadow into song again. And when he finally rose, his baskets were still full—but now, so was his heart.

***

Back at the hive, the other bees noticed.

“You’re smiling,” said one.

“You smell like sky,” said another.

Bixby chuckled. “I sat still.”

The Queen Bee herself tilted her head. “And did the flowers miss you?”

“No,” said Bixby. “But I think I would’ve missed them.”

***

From that day on, Bixby still worked hard. He still filled his sacks and flew with purpose.

But every now and then, you’d spot him lying belly-up on a buttercup, watching the clouds drift past, wings folded, eyes soft with wonder.

Not gathering.
Not rushing.

Just being a bumblebee.
Not too busy to play.

🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸

And if you enjoy it, I hope you’ll stay a while—there are mice in grandfather clocks, gentle beetles who wish they were ladybirds, and a fox who chooses kindness over instinct.

Because sometimes, in the smallest tales, we find the biggest truths.

Thank you for reading.

Schloss Tannenlich -My First Novel

On the 1st July I finally published my first novel Schloss Tannenlicht: A School Story. It’s been 15 years in the making. I started writing it at university, but it went on the backburner when I started teaching.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Sebastien-Joubert/author/B0FGGB6N5B?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Here’s the description from Amazon: Schloss Tannenlicht: A School Story is a tender, luminous novel about first love, quiet rebellion, and the sacred weight of memory.
When Christophe—twelve years old, royal by birth but exiled by silence—is sent to Schloss Tannenlicht, a cold boarding school deep in the pine forests of northern Germany, he enters a world of ancient rites and rigid tradition. Boys are named like chess pieces. Secrets are whispered in candlelight. And intimacy, if it dares exist, must hide in plain sight.
In chapel and sacristy, Christophe falls for Francis—a choirboy of feathers, field notes, and unspoken grace. Their love is reverent, shy, and quietly transformative. But when Francis dies on a windswept island in search of a raven’s egg, grief becomes Christophe’s only companion.
Until Friedrich.
Half-wild, defiant, and utterly unexpected, Friedrich appears on the frozen edge of the school grounds like a question no one dared ask. What begins in secrecy deepens into truth. Together, they defy the codes that bind them—lighting candles that others tried to keep unlit.
Spanning snow rituals, stolen glances, and a chess game with everything at stake, Schloss Tannenlicht is a hymn to love that lingers, memory that blesses, and the quiet courage it takes to be fully seen.

I decided to publish it under my pen name Sebastien Joubert. Book two in the series will come out later this year and will be called White is Never Neutral.

If any of you good people on WordPress would be happy to review my book on Amazon, I’d gladly send you a copy. Just let me know the file format you need (.epub, .mobi, etc). I’m a new author, so I’m just getting started on the Social Media platforms! Just a sentence or two from you guys can make all the difference! Many thanks!

In the Making, by G. F Green (1952)

The forgotten author George Fredrick Green led quite an extraordinary life. Having anti-war leanings he was discreetly posted to Ceylon as an editor of a local magazine, and as this role wasn’t too time consuming, he devoted his life to ‘verandahism’, a term he invented to describe hours passed on his private verandah, drinking, smoking, taking drugs and having sex with the locals. This led to a major scandal which ultimately landed him in jail. Banged up in a military detention centre he devoted his time to writing. At the end of the Second World War, he was then transferred to Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire where he served the remainder of his sentence. After his release he suffered a major ‘breakdown’ and once again took solace in his writing. After an anthology of short stories he wrote his bildungsroman novel ‘In the Making,’ a prosy tale with verbose descriptions of a young boy’s early life and his tortuous, unrequited first-love at a prep school in Southern England. This leads us to a little review of the book.

The novel is divided into VII sections. The first (which nearly made me quit reading it) is a overlong ‘stream of consciousness’ type waffle about the fantasies of a six year old boy as he daydreams about characters from fairytales whilst warming himself each night by the fire grate. Randal Thane is homeschooled and has a deep attachment to his older sister. Although there are way too many descriptive parts in this long chapter, there are also some interesting insights into the mind of young Randal. The funniest being when he frightens himself while looking at the dark, foreboding hills in the distance. ‘That must be Germany’ he muses whilst running home frightened out of his wits.

After falling in and out of favour with his sister, his governess and family, he is eventually sent to a prep school, being too much of a pain in the arse to teach at home anymore.

Chapters II, III, IV and V are devoted to his time at the boarding school. After forming a strong dislike to a cocky, popular boy called Charles Felton, he realises, rather conflictingly, that he’s also developed strong feelings for him. This becomes evident as he watches Felton risk an audacious high-dive naked into the school pool. In contrast, Randal Thane struggles throughout the novel with his inability to master the skill (apparently it was mandatory at his school and he was constantly mocked for not being able to achieve this).

Thane’s feelings for Felton initially unsettle him so he joins the ‘looking after a rabbit’ club. This enables him to find a quiet spot away from the crowds during play times. He picks a remote corner near a huge elm tree and forms friendships with other likeminded boys. When Thane’s rabbit disappears one day, Felton volunteers to help find him. He is overjoyed that the boy he ‘hero-worships’ has offered to help. Felton finds the rabbit hidden away in the crevices of the old elm tree and decided to smoke it out. This ultimately leads to the tree catching fire and lots of commotion and excitement in the school. In the morning it becomes evident that the rabbit has been killed, and Felton offers to buy Thane a new Angora rabbit and a brand new hutch for it to live in.

We now jump to Thane’s third year at school. He is 12 years old and hangs out in the sixth form room with the senior boys, so he can watch Felton from a distance and fantasise about him. Eventually Felton and Thane become good friends and Felton asks Thane to save him a seat at a school concert. At this point Thane is head over heels in love with Felton and become weighed down with these feelings. The following winter brings heaps of snow. Classes are cancelled and Felton and Thane go off together Tobogganing. And curled up close to Felton this is when Thane’s feelings are the most intense and the scenes are full of sensuality, but only in Thane’s mind.

The Halloween party is the key theme in the novel. Thane and Felton have their costumes made by the school’s helper Barbara, and both are immensely proud of their new identities. Thane dresses as “pierrot” with a sad white-painted face, a loose white costume, and a pointed hat. This is the archetypal character, of course, from French pantomime. Felton on the other hand is dressed as “harlequin,” the pantomime fool replete with mask. During the party Thane gives Felton his prized fountain pen (given to him by his sister), but weighed down by his romantic feelings he refuses to dance with him. At the end of the party, Felton in return gives Thane his harlequin mask. Mesmerised, Thane then spends hours in bed running his fingers along the contours.

In parts IV and V Felton and Thane become inseparable, but it becomes evident that Felton doesn’t love Thane in the same way. They take evening drives with one of their teachers (Little Willie), and spend hours roaming the moors. On one particularly stormy drive, Thane rests on Felton after a sharp corner, and is repulsed. This is the start of a major realisation for Thane. Felton starts to despise Thane and the two become alienated. Before departing for the holidays, Thane chucks his fountain pen case in the fire and then watches Felton depart for the vacation with another close friend.

During the break, Thane is torn about whether to return to school. His parents see his altered state, and his mother nearly relents to Thane’s plea not to go back.

When they eventually return Thane is distant and aloof. He avoids everybody. After a particularly long daydream he misses his master’s questioning, and is thrashed before his class. In a further episode he is caught lying and sent to sickbay until the headmaster can deal with him. During the middle of the night, Thane makes a grave error of judgement by sneaking into Felton’s dormitory. He curls up in bed with him and is caught by matron trying to kiss Felton. This leads to his permanent isolation.

The final parts of the novel (VI and VII) deal with Thane’s eventual expulsion. He is offered the chance to take the Common Entrance Exams which he does in an isolated part of the school.  This enables him to find another independent school if he is successful. He spends the remainder of his days at the school with the teacher, Little Willie, reading poetry and walking in the gardens. Thane eventually learns that he has passed the exams and makes his departure.

A Short List of Victorian Supernatural Novels

It’s been a while since I’ve penned anything on this blog. I went through a long stretch of only reading non-fiction, if anything at all.

However, I wanted to open my 2022 blog with a list of Victorian novels that feature elements of the supernatural. A theme contrary to the usual social realism found in this era of books.

The following novels contain supernatural events:

  1. Charles Dickens.  A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.  1 vol.  London: Chapman and Hall, 1843.
  2. James Malcolm Rymer.  Varney the Vampyre: or, The Feast of Blood. A Romance.  1 vol.  London: Edward Lloyd, 1847.
  3. George William MacArth Reynolds.  Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf: A Romance.  1 vol.  London: John Dicks, 1857.
  4. Edward Bulwer Lytton.  A Strange Story.  2 vol.  London: Sampson Low, 1862.
  5. Ellen Wood.  The Shadow of Ashlydyat.  3 vol.  London: Bentley, 1863.
  6. William Harrison Ainsworth.  Auriol: or, The Elixir of Life.  1 vol.  London: Routledge, 1865.
  7. J. Sheridan Le Fanu.  In a Glass Darkly.  3 vol.  London: Bentley, 1872.
  8. Margaret Oliphant.  A Beleaguered City: Being a Narrative of Certain Recent Events in the City of Semur, in the Department of the Haute Bourgogne. A Story of the Seen and Unseen.  1 vol.  London: Macmillan, 1880.
  9. Margaret Oliphant.  Two Stories of the Seen and the Unseen: The Open Door. Old Lady Mary.  1 vol.  Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1885.
  10. H. Rider Haggard.  She: A History of Adventure.  1 vol.  London: Longman, 1887.
  11. Anne Crawford.  A Mystery of the Campagna, and A Shadow on a Wave.  1 vol.  London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1891.
  12. Clemence Housman.  The Were-wolf.  1 vol.  London: John Lane, 1896.
  13. Bram Stoker.  Dracula.  1 vol.  London: Archibald Constable, 1897.
  14. Richard Marsh.  The Beetle: A Mystery.  1 vol.  London: Skeffington, 1897.
  15. Clemence Housman.  The Unknown Sea.  1 vol.  London: Duckworth and Co., 1898.
  16. Theodore Watts-Dunton.  Aylwin.  1 vol.  London: Hurst and Blackett, 1899.
  17. F. Anstey.  The Brass Bottle.  1 vol.  London: Smith, Elder, 1900.
  18. Ada Goodrich Freer.  The Professional, and Other Psychic Stories.  1 vol.  London: Hurst and Blackett, 1900.
  19. Bram Stoker.  The Jewel of the Seven Stars.  1 vol.  London: William Heinemann, 1903.

Two College Friends (1871) – F. W. Loring

Frederick W. Loring is a long forgotten American author about as obscure as they come. His novel ‘Two College Friends’ (published in 1871) narrates a beautiful story of romantic friendship between two young men and an elderly professor.

Lost for over a century, Loring’s novel was only rediscovered in 1996 by the historian Douglas Shand-Tucci who republished it in the anthology:  The Romantic Friendship Reader: Love Stories between Men in Victorian America (Northeastern University Press, 2003). Loring was himself only a young man when he met his own untimely death at the age of 21. He was tragically killed by a band of Apaches while travelling to Arizona.

After reading a copy of Loring’s novel online, I was greatly impressed with its frank portrayal of love between the two young men, especially from a book published during the ‘Victorian’ period, an era particularly known for its prudence. What was even more surprising was the sympathetic Professor who ardently loved the two friends before they volunteered for the Civil War. Loring paints an exceptionally warm and daring picture of an older homosexual man – rare even in modern gay literature.

The novel revolves around two central characters called Ned and Tom. Ned is an orphan of the impetuous and insecure type, while Tom is serene and very handsome. It appears everybody in the novel is aware of Tom’s beauty, even the battle weary republican General Stonewall Jackson bizarrely comments on his good looks later in the book.

Ned is very much in love with Tom, and of course, Tom is devoted to Ned. The old professor is in love with them both and he has their photo on his desk. His most prized possession. A long time ago the professor had fallen in love with a young woman, but after being rejected, he resigned himself to a bachelor lifestyle and to teaching with its dull routine. The young woman in question was Tom’s mother, and after discovering this the professor takes a keen and queer interest in both boys.

While at Harvard the American Civil War begins and Ned enlists as an officer.  The professor persuades Tom’s mother to let him sign up too, so the boys can stay together. Their experiences are recalled intermittently in Ned’s journal entries. In one sentimental scene we read how Tom nurses Ned through a terrible fever and stays with him during his leave period. Although he is homesick and hasn’t seen his mother for over a year, he remains at the hospital to care for his beloved friend.

Later in the novel there is a campaign to destroy an enemy bridge and Ned and his men are captured by the formidable general, Stonewell Jackson. After a long discussion Jackson finds he respects and admires Ned’s straightforward, frank attitude.  He allows Ned (on his honour not to escape) to stay the night with his sick friend by the water’s edge. As Ned is bathing Tom to ease his temperature, his guard comments: ‘you care for him as you would a gal, don’t you?’ He continues ‘well, he’s poutier than any gal I ever see anywhar’. The guard explains how Ned had given him fruit and Jelly at the hospital even though he was from the enemy camp. The guard wants to return the favour and allows Ned to escape down the river with his sick friend on the boat. Ned takes Tom to safety and returns honourably to the camp the following day to report to the General. Ned explains to General Jackson how Tom is his world. The General admires the fact he returned to face his fate. However Ned is briefed he will be shot at sunrise. They shake hands and Ned is led to a quiet room with writing material to put his affairs in order. He writes a beautiful heart-wrenching letter to the professor and says his farewells. In the morning he is executed, and the novel forward many years to its conclusion. The professor never recovers from Ned’s untimely death and becomes an angry, distant and ruthless pedant. Tom marries and his wife names their first born son after Tom’s soulmate.

A Country Gentleman and His Family (1886) – Margaret Oliphant

As tame as the title sounds, this novel by Margaret Oliphant is anything but a light ‘picnic in the park’ type Victorian book. It’s a dark, psychological novel with domestic themes, following the fortunes of two families: a widowed mother and her three grown children, and a widow and her young son. As is common with Mrs. Oliphant’s writing, the novel can seem quite prosy in places, but her keen observations, and her wonderful plot twists, inspire one to see what lies ahead for the interesting and well developed characters.

The story opens with the death of the old country gentleman. After her husband’s death Mrs. Warrender becomes restless and overwhelmed by her mixed emotions i.e. the joy of emancipation and the guilt of not feeling as sorrowful as she ought to during her mourning. Oliphant tackles this sensitive topic with great skill, and I was even side-tracked by my own thoughts and feelings on the subject of bereavement.

Hereafter, the novel essentially follows the lives of the three Warrender siblings: moralistic Minnie, who marries a snobbish clergyman from an old noble family, so an appropriate match really; the naïve Chatty, who is so sweet and innocent I want to marry her myself, and the hugely unlikable and egotistical Theo, who suffers from what can only be described as a borderline personality disorder. Selfish, strict and exacting, Theo Warrender is literally a brute in every sense of the word. Overcome by his jealousy and uncontrollable anger, he systematically bullies a sickly 9 year old boy, his ‘competition’ for Lady Markland’s love. I mean really? Jealous of a child who is close to his mother. Be warned … this novel becomes quite disturbing. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but Lady Markland is eventually ordered to choose between her own son and her deranged lover.

Things are equally tough for our lovely Miss Millie, the third Warrender sibling. Her love affair with Daredevil Dick Cavendish is also fraught with scandal and trouble. Without spoiling the story, we learn that Dick Cavendish has a dark history, and there are some very serious obstacles (just impediments) in the way of their marriage… but does everything turn out well for Minnie and Dick? Well that would be telling!

Cradock Nowell: a Tale of the New Forest (1866) – R. D. Blackmore

Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825-1900) the ‘Last Victorian’ was recommended to me by a friend. Being a ‘West Country’ lad who absolutely adores the novels of Thomas Hardy, I was excited to discover another novelist whose work displayed a vivid sense of regional setting. After downloading his complete works on my Kindle and thumbing though the titles, I chose his lesser known Cradock Nowell: An Extremely Boring and Convoluted Tale of the New Forest (1866), as it was mainly based in Hampshire, an area I know well.

As with all books, it received mixed reviews. Here is one commentator’s view of the novel: ‘it is overlaid with mannerisms and affectation; the author is in love with inverted forms of phraseology, which are not English idioms; and he delights in far-fetched words and pedantic epithets.” I think this review was rather kind. For me it was without a shadow of a doubt the waffliest, disjointed and dullest book I have ever read (and that’s saying something from somebody who has a passion for obscure religious tracks and long forgotten historical novels). Even if the three-volume novel was condensed to one, I think it would have been too long.

Initially the story was engaging and I was intrigued enough to see it through the first volume. With the twins mixed up at birth, and an interesting whodunnit murder to boot (with all fingers pointing to the youngest son who was once the recognised heir), I though, wow, this is going to be a great read! But the novel constantly refers to irrelevant Greek and Latin texts and phrases, and endless obscure characters from the ‘Classics’, which perhaps, while amusing a few Oxford dons, certainly didn’t interest me. Let me tell you something … the Roman poet Ovid gives the Greek names of the 36 dogs that belonged to Actaeon, the unlucky hunter of Greek myth who was torn apart by his pack: among them were Tigris, Laelaps (Storm), Aello (Whirlwind), and Arcas (Bear). Pollux lists 15 dog names; another list is found in Columella. The longest list of suitable names for ancient Greek dogs—46 in all—was compiled by the dog whisperer Xenophon… ffs Descartes, what’s that got to do with your review???? Yeah… exactly. He sidetracks like that on every third page! But then ἀεὶ κολοιὸς παρὰ κολοιῷ ἱζάνει … as you all well know!

Anyway, I decided to continue with the second and third volumes just for the challenge, and to be fair, there were a few good scenes. A detailed shipwreck where the author clearly knew his shizzle about navigation (and a thing or two about the sea), and some interesting chapters on a remote island near Ceylon. For instance, Cradock’s attempts at survival while stranded for several months were highly entertaining. Having also lived in the tropics, the scenes with the poisonous snakes and reading how Cradock survived on fruit and tortoise meat while defending his ‘self proclaimed British island’ were amusing and very ‘Kiplingesque’ indeed.

Out of interest, towards the end of the novel the real culprit of Clayton’s murder is of course apprehended. Cradock is reunited with his father (now a shadow of his former self), everybody gets their just deserts (i.e. the traitorous distant family relations), and the novel thankfully ends. I definitely won’t be reading another Blackmore novel anytime soon… and it certainly comes as no surprise that other than his famous ‘Lorna Doone’ none of his books have remained in print.

Trail of the Serpent (1860) – M.E Braddon

The Trail of the Serpent (1860) was Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s first published novel. It originally appeared as ‘Three Times Dead; or, The Secret of the Dead’ but due to low sales, it was condensed and republished as ‘The Trail of the Serpent’. It is widely considered to be one of the first British detective novels, but either way, it is certainly a sensational novel, packed with many of the familiar tropes like family secrets, murder, jealousy, blackmail, suspense and mistaken identities, with a wonderful escape from a lunatic asylum to boot. The story begins in Slopperton-on-the-Sloshy (sounds like my native Wiltshire), where we follow the evil foundling Jabez North who rises from school usher to millionaire banker. North devises a heinous plot to snare a wealthy heiress into murdering her ‘secret’ husband with poison, and then blackmails her into marrying him. We also follow the fortunes, or rather misfortunes, of Daredevil Dick (aka Richard Marwood) who is accused of his uncle’s murder. He is detained in a mental asylum for 8 years, and in these chapters we perhaps find Braddon at her best with her comic portrayals of the other inmates. With none other than Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Emperor of the German Ocean and Chelsea Waterworks for company, Richard struggles through his ordeal until the deaf detective Peters (who communicates through sign language) hatches a successful escape plan. Eventually the complex mystery is unraveled, and the sinister Jabez North is arrested after being traced to a ship (where he is hiding in a coffin believe it or not) on route to the New World.

This is only the second novel that I have read over the last two years that I would give a five star rating. The other being the supernatural masterpiece ‘The Shadow of Ashyldat’ (1863), by Mrs. Henry Wood.

The Secret of Wold Hall (1905) – Evelyn Everett-Green

Evelyn Everett-Green came from a Methodist family, and many of her early works were pious ‘improving’ books aimed at children, especially at young girls. She wrote over 350 novels in her life time, some two thirds of them using her own name, the others were published under several male pseudonyms. She found it rather difficult writing at home and she struggled with the dreary town winters. As a result she eventually upped-sticks and settled in Madeira with her friend Catherine Mainwaring Sladen.

The Secret of Wold Hall was first published in 1905. Now entirely forgotten, this novel is a real gem, and I highly recommend it to anybody who likes a good old fashioned mystery story. Everett-Green’s realism greatly appealed to me, and the reader is left spellbound by her beautifully written and fast paced narrative.

The novel opens with a ten year old girl who has fallen down a small precipice searching for edelweiss flowers. She is rescued by a sixteen year old boy called Marcus who promises to come back and marry her when he has made his fortune. The young Lady Marcia Defresne is touched by his offer, but explains that as she is an Earl’s daughter it is impossible for her to marry outside her social class. He carries the young girl back to her hotel where the Earl St. Barbe and his family are residing. In the commotion of their arrival, her ‘brown boy’ disappears and is not seen again.

The novel jumps forward ten years, and true to his word, the now rich Marcus (son of a man recently given a baronetcy) keeps his earlier promise. Lady Marcia’s family has now hit hard times, and Sir Robert (Marcus’s father), is able to save the ‘penniless peer’ from embarrassment, and secure Lady Marcia’s hand for his son.

As the novel unfolds, we learn that there is an old secret in Marcus’s life. It transpires a strange death took place at his bachelor pad (Wold Hall) and although he was cleared by the magistrates, the locals are still deeply divided about whether he is guilty or not of the murder.

After their marriage, Lady Marcia starts learning more about her husband’s past, and she is unable to form a positive opinion about him. Feeling she has made a terrible mistake, she hears harrowing stories from the locals, and is nearly convinced of her doom when she stumbles upon the old dalesman, Ebenezer Raleigh, and learns it was his son who was found dead in Wold Hall. His crazed ramblings frighten her, and cast a dark shadow over any hopes of marital bliss.

Without revealing too much of the plot or spoiling the mystery, I can say that the sinister and deluded Ebenezer, eventually seeks revenge on Marcus. He decides to blow up the local mine, whilst Marcus is down overseeing the workers. During this intense episode a mysterious man appears from the past, save’s Marcus’s life, and reveals what really happened that unfortunate night at Wold Hall.

There are also many interesting sub-plots in the novel. One cannot help admiring Sweetheart (a little orphaned girl) and her protector ‘Best Beloved’ (a mysterious and reclusive relative), two fascinating characters from Marcus’s past, who ultimately win Lady Marcia’s love and respect, and help her to overcome her marriage doubts. It seems everybody has skeletons in their closets in this book, but as the story unfolds, all is eventually explained with satisfaction, and our aristocratic pair finally fall hopelessly in love with each other. As if to compensate for all the darkness and suspense which prevails throughout the book, there are a number of exceedingly happy endings, including three love matches which ultimately reach fruition – amor vincit omnia!

The Cloven Foot (1879) – M.E. Braddon

This novel is a top-notch example from the school of ‘Sensational Novels’. It really is a neglected gem! Packed with murder, bigamy, treachery and heartache, there is enough for anybody who needs a little drama in their lives.

In the beginning, the novel follows two seemingly unrelated stories, and I nearly abandoned it after chapter VI. Be this as it may, the opening is intriguing. Jasper Treverton is on his death bed and has sent for his young cousin John Treverton to visit him. John arrives at the manor, meets with Jasper’s adopted daughter Laura Malcolm, and has his interview with the squire before the old man pops his clogs. During the reading of the will, Laura is left an annuity of 6000 a year, and John is left the estate… BUT … and there is of course a bizarre clause: he must marry, Miss Laura Malcolm, within a year of the squire’s death!

We then follow the the lives of the Chicots. Mademoiselle Le Chicot is an infamous London actress causing quite a stir in the theatres. Her husband Jack is much the opposite – trapped in his failed marriage, he is the insignificant partner, known exclusively in the fashionable world, as ‘the husband of La Chicot’.

We return to John Treverton and read how he frequently visits the Manor House to see Miss Malcolm. They genuinely seem to like each other, and their relationship blossoms. Laura has a best friend called Celia with whom she shares all her secrets. Celia’s father is the local clergyman, who also has a son – a good for nothing scamp and minor poet called Edward, who frequently idles his time away at the Manor House in the company of Laura and Celia. He is dreadfully jealous of Laura’s growing bond with John Treverton, and he struggles with his unrequited feelings.

Eventually John and Laura declare their love for each other and tie the knot. Old Jasper’s will is then realised, and John, after an intense spell of melancholy, mysteriously does a runner leaving Laura totally devastated, but in full legal possession of the manor and estate.

We are now back with the La Chicots, and the glamourous Zaire Chicot is given a priceless diamond necklace by a wealthy Jewish admirer. One evening whilst she is asleep she is strangled, and her necklace is stolen. Jack is suspected of her murder, and so he goes off in search of a constable (never to return), while the whole of the boarding house is left shocked by the brutal crime.

John returns to the manor and to Laura, his wife. He vaguely describes his situation to her (not mentioning the murder of course), and they decide to get remarried in a distant parish in Cornwall where nobody will recognise them. Laura is glad that they are now properly husband and wife, but she is troubled by the fraud – she is aware that neither the estate nor and money legally belong to them (as they are contrary to Jasper’s will). She suggests to John that they should forfeit their rights, and confess the deception to the two trustees (her own father and the faithful Treverton family solicitor).

Edward, Celia’s jealous brother, already knows John’s (aka Jack Chicot’s) dark past and heads to London for further evidence. He brings a young doctor who knew the Chicots’ intimately to visit the vicarage on pretense of them being old chums. The doctor then confirms Edward’s suspicions. Realising the noose is tightening around him, John confesses all to the trustees and Laura. He denies the murder of Zaire Chicot, although the evidence seems stacked against him, his solicitor and the vicar both firmly believe his story. The solicitor with uncanny acumen has a hunch that Zaire may have been in a previous marriage before her ‘marriage’ to John, and decides they must go to Auray, France to see if there is any evidence. Happily it does indeed turn out to be the case, so John and Laura’s first marriage was legitimate after all, and the estate is safe. Edward’s jealous passion now gets the better of him, and Scotland Yard are suddenly at the manor, arresting John and taking him to London for a trial.

In a nutshell, there is a superb trial, and with John’s clever defense lawyer, Mr. Leopold, and with his former landlady Mrs. Evitt’s long overdue confession of what she saw, Treverton is finally exonerated and returns to his wife and his estate a free man.  Of course Edward sensibly decides on a life in the colonies, and the novel concludes with a tip-toppingly, rippingly jolly ‘happily ever after’ style ending.

Having read many of Braddon’s other novels, I’m deeply surprised that The Cloven Foot hasn’t remained one of her more popular books. In my humble opinion it knocks the socks off of Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) and Aurora Floyd (1863), the two books which she is mainly remembered for writing.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started