Incalculable Diffusion

Clorinda Cathcart's Circle #3

by L.A. Hall

There are numerous stories and episodes among Clorinda Cathcart, later Lady Bexbury’s, circle of friends and acquaintances, and in her household, that might be related. These are just a few of them.

Concurrent with Volume 3 :

Letter found in a copy of Jane Marcet's 'Conversations on Chemistry'

The lightning that just missed: A fragment


Following Clorinda’s cessation of her memoirs:

A further consequence

Mellow Fruitfulness

Letter to a sister

The Double Deception

Intreat me not to leave thee

Love in the Mews

Up from the Country

Tinsel and Gold

A letter from Boston

News from New South Wales

Letter from a very contented lady


The younger generation comes of age:

The Duke's Heir's Divided Heart

A haven for a botanical widow

Ever-fixed mark


A future researcher

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2019

Reviews

[Kathleen Jowitt]

This collection of short pieces sits alongside the main Comfortable Courtesan storyline, with some events taking place in parallel with the main action and others catching up with the younger generation as they grow up. This is one for established fans of the series, but it's a delightful addition. My favourite is 'Intreat me not to leave me', which tidies up Em and Lalage's relationship in a very satisfying manner.

[Sadie Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a long hard week, and having just finished a book I was slightly disappointed by, I wanted to spend the weekend reading something comforting that I'd be sure to enjoy. So obviously, I picked Incalculable Diffusion, the third volume of Clorinda Cathcart's Circle, the companion series to the Comfortable Courtesan novels, and it was exactly what I needed.

The title, Incalculable Diffusion, is taken from the wonderful concluding sentence of Middlemarch, describing Dorothea Brooke: 'But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.' In this case, it describes Clorinda's influence on those who are perhaps a little more distant from the centre of her circle than the subjects of earlier volumes. I particularly liked a couple of stories focusing on the lives of some of the domestic servants from the series, as that's not a perspective one often sees in historical fiction, and the two concluding stories, set 10-15 years after the conclusion of the main series and depicting some of the younger characters ("the Raxdell House nursery-set") reaching adulthood.