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Doctor Cupid
Reproduction of the Doctor Cupid by Rhoda Broughton
298 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1886
About the author
Rhoda Broughton
223 books15 followersRhoda Broughton was a popular British (Welsh) novelist and short story writer.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 27, 2015
Margaret 'Peggy' Lambton is a twenty-two year old young wonan, tall and handsome, guardian of her seventeen year old sister Prue in their little country house with a fine garden and a collection of animals, including a parrot and a tame fox.
Into her secluded life comes John Talbot, a figure who she initially scorns as a known adulterer who plays court to another man's wife. This wife, Lady Betty Harborough, is a vivacious but crude flirt. John Talbot is 'the man who Lady Betty always takes about with her', but he is about to regret this affiliation as he falls in love with Peggy.
Rhoda Broughton was a much-read and respected author who was considered fairly racy for her time. Her heroine here is, however, a woman of the upmost proprietary. In fact it's hard for a contemporary reader not to think of her as rather a joyless stick-in-the-mud, denying herself and her younger sister Prue even the most innocent of pleasures. She seems scandalized at Prue's behaviour when she spends some time at Lady Betty's:
"they sat up smoking till all hours of the night, and ran in and out of each other's rooms; and the ladies put things in the men's beds-"
I think you agree, this hardly represents a Bacchanal.
The conversation is at times intelligent, but more often than not insipid, even sappy. Also, the oddly archaic manor in which Broughton's characters form their rhetorical questions (i.e. "Could not you", " Do not you", "Was not you" etc) is unnecessary jarring and seems from an older, stuffier time, even if it is grammatically correct.
The story is so thin I can hardly believe that Broughton stretched it out to just over 400 pages. Her attempts to generate some tension into her romance were feeble at first, then frankly irritating.
Also, I have absolutely no idea why she called the novel Doctor Cupid.
Into her secluded life comes John Talbot, a figure who she initially scorns as a known adulterer who plays court to another man's wife. This wife, Lady Betty Harborough, is a vivacious but crude flirt. John Talbot is 'the man who Lady Betty always takes about with her', but he is about to regret this affiliation as he falls in love with Peggy.
Rhoda Broughton was a much-read and respected author who was considered fairly racy for her time. Her heroine here is, however, a woman of the upmost proprietary. In fact it's hard for a contemporary reader not to think of her as rather a joyless stick-in-the-mud, denying herself and her younger sister Prue even the most innocent of pleasures. She seems scandalized at Prue's behaviour when she spends some time at Lady Betty's:
"they sat up smoking till all hours of the night, and ran in and out of each other's rooms; and the ladies put things in the men's beds-"
I think you agree, this hardly represents a Bacchanal.
The conversation is at times intelligent, but more often than not insipid, even sappy. Also, the oddly archaic manor in which Broughton's characters form their rhetorical questions (i.e. "Could not you", " Do not you", "Was not you" etc) is unnecessary jarring and seems from an older, stuffier time, even if it is grammatically correct.
The story is so thin I can hardly believe that Broughton stretched it out to just over 400 pages. Her attempts to generate some tension into her romance were feeble at first, then frankly irritating.
Also, I have absolutely no idea why she called the novel Doctor Cupid.
November 15, 2012
The title sounds like a 1950s pop song, but the book is a love story first published in 1886. Its plot echoes that of Sense and Sensibility: an older practical sister and romantic younger one are in love with men who are, respectively, promised elsewhere and worryingly flighty.
The book contains a fair amount of sentimentality and tear-jerkery - including one unexpected heart-stopping moment - but it also has wit, perspicacity, a believable heroine and an accomplished, easily flowing style. And lots of descriptions of gardens. If you like Trollope/Mrs Gaskell/Meredith, you might well enjoy this. I did. Now off to Openlibrary.org to download some of her other books.
The book contains a fair amount of sentimentality and tear-jerkery - including one unexpected heart-stopping moment - but it also has wit, perspicacity, a believable heroine and an accomplished, easily flowing style. And lots of descriptions of gardens. If you like Trollope/Mrs Gaskell/Meredith, you might well enjoy this. I did. Now off to Openlibrary.org to download some of her other books.
July 17, 2024
I had low hopes for this, as the author was described as a "darling of the circulating libraries", and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is ra ther wordy, and the romantic scenes are rather sentimental. But, .... well, the final lines surely reveal a rather acid view of at least one of her creations!
Also, the heroine is brave and intelligent, the supporting characters have depth, and a love of nature permeates the story.
Broughton's asides are quite amusing, as when neighbouring children continuously interrupt a man's attempt at beguiling the heroine, and "although a lover of children, he began to develop a fellow-feeling for Herod".
Also, the heroine is brave and intelligent, the supporting characters have depth, and a love of nature permeates the story.
Broughton's asides are quite amusing, as when neighbouring children continuously interrupt a man's attempt at beguiling the heroine, and "although a lover of children, he began to develop a fellow-feeling for Herod".
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews