Nancy by Rhoda Broughton (Richard Bentley and Son, 1893)

 

I came across a reference to Rhoda Broughton in a novel I recently read -- or perhaps it was the biography of Beverly Nichols?  It was mentioned as being seen on a character's book shelf and was, I believe, an indication of their being middle-brow.  So I ordered two of her books -- Nancy and Not Wisely but Too Well.

Although this book has problems with pacing and sustainability, I enjoyed reading it and thought it was interesting and engaging, and often quite witty and biting.  

Nancy is a 19-year-old girl who lives with her wealthy curmudgeonly father, her kind but ineffectual mother, Barbara and Ton-ton, her older and younger sisters, and Algy, Pratt, and Bobby, her three charming and high-spirited brothers.  Her father's childhood friend Sir Roger Tempest visits the family and he and Nancy fall surprisingly in love.  They marry, honeymoon in Dresden, where they meet Frank Musgrave, a young  neighbor of Roger's who Nancy finds exasperating but strangely attractive.  She flirts with him by constantly sparring, not comprehending the mixed message she is sending.

Once back in England, Nancy and Roger return to his house and  are visited by the beautiful and angelic Barbara.  For  mercenary reasons Nancy attempts to instigate a romance between Barbara and Frank, but her intentions misfire and only succeed  in making Frank fall more deeply in love with her.  Meanwhile, Sir Roger goes to Antigua for eight months to restore proper business procedures at his sugarcane plantation, which had been (mis)managed by a scoundrel.

Nancy is 400 pages and the plot, which concerns the estrangement between Nancy and Sir Roger, does not make much sense and becomes tiresome.  But Nancy is an unusual character, and her present-tense, first-person narrative voice is charming.  The pithy and witty dialogue often put me in mind of Ivy Compton Burnett, while at other times the distinct shadow of Jane Austen falls across these pages.