With Edged Tools

by Henry Seton Merriman

Excerpt from With Edged A Novel "Why, all delights are vain, but that most vain Which with pain purchased doth inherit pain." "Mr dear-madam-what you call heart does not come into the question at all." Sir John Meredith was sitting slightly behind Lady Cantourne, leaning towards her with a somewhat stiffened replica of his former grace. But he was not looking at her-and she knew it. They were both watching a group at the other side of the great ball-room. "Sir John Meredith on Heart," said the old lady, with a depth of significance in her voice." "And why not?" "Yes, indeed. Why not?" Sir John smiled with that well-bred cynicism which a new school has not yet succeeded in imitating. They both belonged to the old school, these two; and their worldliness, their cynicism, their conversational attitude belonged to a by-gone period. It was a cleaner period in some ways-a period devoid of slums. Ours, on the contrary, is an age of slums, wherein we all dabble to the detriment of our hands-mental, literary, and theological.

344 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Hugh Stowell Scott was an English novelist (under the pseudonym of Henry Seton Merriman).

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1862, he became an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, but then devoted himself to travel and to writing novels, many of which had great popularity. Scott visited India as a tourist in 1877-8 and set his novel Flotsam (1896) there. He was an enthusiastic traveller, many of his journeys being undertaken with his friend and fellow author Stanley J. Weyman. He was unusually modest and retiring in character. He died of appendicitis at the age of about forty at Melton, Suffolk.

Reviews

[Marguerite MacLean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Book: This is a story about two men and two women plus some other characters. Girl 1 is in love with boy 1 and they want to marry, but farther of boy says no way! So boy goes off on an adventure to make his fortune while girl 1 waits behind. While waiting girl 1 decides to flirt with boy 2. Boy 2 realizes he does not have enough money to support girl 1 and goes off to make his fortune. Boy 1 and Boy 2 end up working together with some other characters to make lots of money. Girl 2 is introduced as a side character who is kind and treats everyone nicely. One of the side characters wants to marry Girl 2, but she is not interested. The story goes on. People succeed, people die, girl 1 and girl 2 end up getting what they deserved/wanted. Boy 1 and Boy 2 end up realizing making a fortune wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

My View: I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I first bought it at the Lizzy Bordon House in Fall River Mass and because it has a picture of Lizzy Bordon on the front, I thought it was about her. It turned out it was one of the books on her book shelf when the murders happened. When I first started reading I thought it was along the lines of Jane Austin, however it was more of an adventure book. It was a fairly quick read and I must say I was pretty satisfied with the ending.

Recommend: Yes, if you enjoy a good adventure story this might fit the bill.

[Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, its a book of its time, but I quite liked it.
Due to the writing-though something I admire- it was hard at times to understand it without rereading the paragraph, and that simply is because of the difference in times.
With great adventure and drama this turned into a capturing read.
I do think I will read this book again later on this year, so that I can understand it better, I know for a fact that once I do, a lot of things will become clearer.
Something that is different from most of my reads, but a book that I suggest.