Belinda

by Rhoda Broughton

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Fiction, Victorian, 19th Century, Classics, British Literature

460 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1883

About the author

Rhoda Broughton was a popular British (Welsh) novelist and short story writer.

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read that I picked up (appropriately) in an Oxford charity shop. Belinda Churchill is a relatable protagonist who seems persistently unable to send out the right signals to men she is interested in, coming off as cold and standoffish. Whilst on holiday in Dresden with her sister and grandmother, she falls in love with a young ‘Oxbridge’ student, David Rivers, a tutee of her sister’s current fiancée (one in a long line of predecessors), the crusty and disagreeable Professor Forth. When Rivers is unexpectedly called back to England, Belinda questions whether she should wait for him, or give up the idea of marrying for love in favour of a drier match of duty.

The main selling point of the novel is its vivid characters: the miserly Professor Forth, bundled in every one of his layers as he complains about the lack of assistants to dictate his stale research to; the Churchills’ blowsy neighbour Miss Watson, who invites herself to every social occasion and likes to think herself in the know; the line of identical, interchangeable Oxbridge boys; and the stars of the show, Sarah’s pugs Punch and Slutty (the latter google assures me had a different meaning in 1880, but it still made me laugh every time), whose sibling rivalry I could happily read an entire series about.

The first third of the novel was a stand out triumph for me. The awkward flirting between Belinda and David, neither able to interpret the other’s advances, is warm and funny as they bluster around the German countryside attempting to escape Professor Forth’s earshot. I found Broughton uncannily prescient of the later D.H. Laurence in her incisive and touching exploration of the things humans do and do not understand about one another, played out against a suitably dramatic natural landscape. A sense of this returns in the last section of the novel, where the characters arguing on their hike in the Lake District mirror the lovers on the glacier trail in Laurence’s short story The Captain’s Doll.

The middle section, whilst readable, I found slower in pace. I know she is confined by 1880s behaviours, but Belinda’s inability to even send a letter to David and let him know her feelings began to grind after 50 odd pages of her agonising over it. I was looking forward to the portion of the novel set in ‘Oxbridge’ (more a thinly veiled Oxford than Cambridge) as I live there, as did Broughton, but I found the static storyline of Belinda’s marriage to Forth overtook the satire of academia I was expecting from the blurb, and the evocative description of Dresden does not give way to a similarly atmospheric equivalent for the university town. However, I did enjoy Broughton’s clear attempt to demonstrate her intellectual equivalence with the real inhabitants of masculine Oxbridge, satirising Mark Pattison, foregrounding intelligent female characters, and peppering the book with poetry and classical references. I’ve been watching/reading a lot of Dexter’s Inspector Morse recently and it’s refreshing to get a dry, witty, female take on Oxbridge!

TLDR: a funny, touching romance which can be a bit slow but is redeemed by its characters. Especially the pugs. Read it for the pugs.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review: https://theblankgarden.com/2019/10/16...

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Pattison must have really pissed off the intellectual women of Victorian England. First, he is used as the model for Casaubon in George Eliot's Middlemarch, then Broughton uses him for Professor Forth in this novel. Here again, a young woman marries for all the wrong reason, suffers, but ultimately gains widowhood in time to marry someone closer to her own age. The plot is very similar to Elizabeth von Arnim's novels, of which this was likely an influence, although watching Belinda make the wrong choices is a bit painful.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - a plot that mainly hangs on two people's inability to express their feelings, which I found very annoying, but on the other hand phrases such as 'she was as insensitive as an emu'. The dog characters are charming, too - more convincing than the humans.

[Helen]

This Virago Modern Classic is a marvellous book. By turns funny and sad, it tells the story of Belinda Churchill. Whilst on a visit to Dresden, she meets David Rivers. The two fall in love, but Belinda is unable to communicate her feelings to David, who interprets her reticence as coldness.

Recalled to England on the sudden death of his father, David sends Belinda a brief letter, but doesn’t contact her again. Distraught and miserable, Belinda little cares what happens to her now, and decides to devote herself to the life of the mind. She decides to marry her sister Sarah’s ex-fiancé (one of many), the elderly and humourless academic Professor Forth (based upon Mark Pattison, who was also the model for George Eliot’s Casaubon).

Married for just three days, she receives a long letter from David and realises the full weight of her mistake. When they meet again, Belinda realises she has never stopped loving David – but she is now a married woman, and so of course there is nothing to be done. Or is there?

This is a very fizzy, witty novel, with a host of memorable minor characters, including the interfering Miss Watson). Belinda is a charming heroine who refuses to be ground down by her dried-up stick of a husband who sets her to work as his secretary. Love does eventually triumph, but in an unexpected way.