Unkist, Unkind!: A Romance

by Violet Hunt

Some of her readers will perhaps regret the absence of her customary brilliancy of epigram and satire, but if "Unkist, Unkind!" is less superficially attractive than its sparkling forerunners, it possesses more artistic merit. It is more solidly constructed, and the plot is worked out with an amount of care which Miss Hunt has not always displayed. The story is strikingly dramatic. and the whole atmosphere of the book is weird and uncanny, dealing as it does with strong contending passions, love, jealousy, and revenge, all set in a background of wizardry and antique mummeries. This strange story of mystery and witchcraft is related by one of the actors in the tragedy itself, Miss Janet Freeman, who plays therein the humble and yet important role of paid companion to the beautiful Lady Darcie. The latter is one of those Society butterflies whom Miss Violet Hunt specially excels in portraying. Frivolous to the core, shallow and egotistic, yet supremely bewitching in her delicate prettiness, Lady Darcie is at once the delight and the torment of her passionate-natured young husband, Sir Philip, and the opening chapter of "Unkist, Unkind!" reveals the wedded pair in the midst of a stormy altercation, marked by jealous rage on the part of the husband and by insolent defiance on that of the wife. Lady Darcie gains her own way in the dispute, and the scene is shifted to the wilds of Northumberland, whither she has repaired on a visit -- the subject of the conjugal quarrel -- to her cousin's country house....
--The Speaker, the Liberal Review, Volume 16

366 pages, Paperback

Published April 6, 2018

About the author

Isobel Violet Hunt was a British author and literary hostess. She was an active feminist. She covered several literary forms, including short stories, novels, memoirs, and biographies.