What do you think?
Rate this book
Crossriggs
"'Alex,' he said, 'you have a genius for living! You just know how to do it . . . You're alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realization of our duties, are as dead as stones!'"
Alexandra Hope lives with her unworldly, vegetarian father, her widowed sister and five nieces and nephews in the Scottish village of Crossriggs. Whilst her sister Mathilda perfectly plays that Victorian role of feminine helplessness, Alex - clever, plain with a sharp wit - refuses the first suitable man to propose, choosing spinsterhood and the support of her poverty-stricken family. But earning a living is just one difficulty to be faced - for Alexandra secretly loves a married man. First published in 1908, Crossriggs is both a delightful Austenesque tale of village life and a powerful portrait of a woman who combines the morality of her Protestant heritage with all the courage and passion of the "New Woman" of the 1890s.
Mary Findlater (1865-1963) and Jane Findlater (1866-1946) were born in Lochearnhead, the daughters of a remote Scottish manse. They became acclaimed and successful novelists whose friends and admirers included Ellen Terry, William and Henry James, Mary Cholmondeley, May Sinclair and Walter de la Mare.
Alexandra Hope lives with her unworldly, vegetarian father, her widowed sister and five nieces and nephews in the Scottish village of Crossriggs. Whilst her sister Mathilda perfectly plays that Victorian role of feminine helplessness, Alex - clever, plain with a sharp wit - refuses the first suitable man to propose, choosing spinsterhood and the support of her poverty-stricken family. But earning a living is just one difficulty to be faced - for Alexandra secretly loves a married man. First published in 1908, Crossriggs is both a delightful Austenesque tale of village life and a powerful portrait of a woman who combines the morality of her Protestant heritage with all the courage and passion of the "New Woman" of the 1890s.
Mary Findlater (1865-1963) and Jane Findlater (1866-1946) were born in Lochearnhead, the daughters of a remote Scottish manse. They became acclaimed and successful novelists whose friends and admirers included Ellen Terry, William and Henry James, Mary Cholmondeley, May Sinclair and Walter de la Mare.
380 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1908
1 person is currently reading
308 people want to read
About the author
Mary Findlater
17 books6 followersMary Williamina Findlater (1865 - 1963) was a Scottish novelist. She was a daughter of a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and the elder sister of Jane Findlater.
Findlater wrote novels and poetry both alone (Songs and Sonnets, 1895; Betty Musgrave, 1899; A Narrow Way, 1901; The Rose of Joy, 1903; and others) and together with Jane (Tales That Are Told, 1901; Beneath the Visiting Moon, 1923; etc.), with whom she lived until the latter's death in 1946. Their best-known and most widely admired collaboration is the novel Crossriggs (1908), re-issued in 1986 by Virago Press.
Findlater wrote novels and poetry both alone (Songs and Sonnets, 1895; Betty Musgrave, 1899; A Narrow Way, 1901; The Rose of Joy, 1903; and others) and together with Jane (Tales That Are Told, 1901; Beneath the Visiting Moon, 1923; etc.), with whom she lived until the latter's death in 1946. Their best-known and most widely admired collaboration is the novel Crossriggs (1908), re-issued in 1986 by Virago Press.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 28, 2017
I had lots of reasons to think I would love this book:
•It’s set in a small Scottish town, early in the 20th century.
•It’s is a collaboration between sister authors I writers working together always intrigue me.
•It’s a Virago Modern Classic, and Liz and Ali both loved it.
I did love it. I can’t say that its a great book, but it is a lovely period piece.
Alexandra Hope lives in Crossriggs with her father. He is generous to a fault, he loves to help people and to try new things but he rarely stops to consider practicalities; and so the family is rather poorer than it might be. She is bright, spirited and unconventional. Marriage doesn’t appeal to Alex, and she turned down a proposal from a rather dull man who was deemed a good catch; but that didn’t mean she didn’t worry about her family’s situation.
Her worries increase when her recently widowed sister comes home from Canada with her five young children. Alex loves her sister and adores her nieces and nephews, but she knows that she will have to find a way to keep the family afloat. Matilda is rather more conventional than her sister, but she is almost as oblivious to practicalities as her father and she blithely assumes that everything will be alright.
Alex finds that she can earn a little money by reading to the Admiral Cassilis of Foxe Hall, the family’s blind, aristocratic neighbour. She does her job very well and that leads her to other jobs that require a lovely speaking voice.
It also leads her to a friendship with Van Cassilis, the Admiral’s nephew. It quickly becomes clear Van has deeper feelings than friendship for Alex, but those feelings are not reciprocated. She knows that he is younger than her, she doesn’t think his feelings will last, and, most significantly, she has already lost her heart to another.
Alex is in love with Robert Maitland, another neighbour who has rather more money and social standing than the hopes. He is fond of her, he is her wisest counsellor and her moral compass, but as he is married Alex knows that her she can never speak of or act on her feelings.
I was inclined to like Alex. She was a wonderfully imperfect heroine; walking a fine line between idealism and realism; pride and humility; compassion and causticity; reserve and outspokenness.
There were so many characters that were so very well drawn. I’ve mentioned some of them already, I can’t mention them all, but I can’t leave out Robert Maitland’s Aunt Elizabeth – known as Aunt E.V by everyone in Crossriggs – who was a wonderful matriarchal figure, or Miss Bessie Reid, who was no longer young, who had to look after a very elderly aunt, but who still dreamed of romance.
I believed in them all, and I believed in their village community.
The Hope household was poor but it was never dull. The children were bright and entertaining, the family patriarch – who would always by known as ‘Old Hopeful’ – was a welcoming host, and there were lots of lovely outings and much fun to be had.
The Findlater sisters must have taken such care over the characters, the community and the stories that they created. I loved them all.
I particularly loved the beautiful evocation of the changing seasons.
The story was beautifully positioned between two different eras. Much of it feels wonderfully Victorian, but Alex is quite clearly a ‘New Woman’ caught up in small town life,
The influences were clear. There are definite echoes of a particular Jane Austen novel in the characters and the relationships, and there were something in the style and in the drawing of the community that told me that the sisters must have read and loved Trollope too.
The writing style seemed fluctuate, the plot was rather uneven, but because there were so many good things, because I was so caught up, I could forgive that.
The story moved slowly for a long time, but in the later chapters all of the storylines came to a head.
Alex and Van fall out, and he makes a reckless decision that will have irreversible consequences. There’s a villainess in the mix here, and I’m afraid she was the one character I couldn’t quite believe in. Maybe because she came into this world from outside …
The unhappy loss of her friend, the pressure of the work she has taken on to support her family, takes its toll on Alex. Her physical health, her emotions and her mental health all begin to fray.
There was a suggestion that another relationship could change.
I saw an obvious ending, but there were one or two twists in the tail of this story, before it came to a conclusion that I hadn’t expected but thought was completely right.
•It’s set in a small Scottish town, early in the 20th century.
•It’s is a collaboration between sister authors I writers working together always intrigue me.
•It’s a Virago Modern Classic, and Liz and Ali both loved it.
I did love it. I can’t say that its a great book, but it is a lovely period piece.
Alexandra Hope lives in Crossriggs with her father. He is generous to a fault, he loves to help people and to try new things but he rarely stops to consider practicalities; and so the family is rather poorer than it might be. She is bright, spirited and unconventional. Marriage doesn’t appeal to Alex, and she turned down a proposal from a rather dull man who was deemed a good catch; but that didn’t mean she didn’t worry about her family’s situation.
Her worries increase when her recently widowed sister comes home from Canada with her five young children. Alex loves her sister and adores her nieces and nephews, but she knows that she will have to find a way to keep the family afloat. Matilda is rather more conventional than her sister, but she is almost as oblivious to practicalities as her father and she blithely assumes that everything will be alright.
Alex finds that she can earn a little money by reading to the Admiral Cassilis of Foxe Hall, the family’s blind, aristocratic neighbour. She does her job very well and that leads her to other jobs that require a lovely speaking voice.
It also leads her to a friendship with Van Cassilis, the Admiral’s nephew. It quickly becomes clear Van has deeper feelings than friendship for Alex, but those feelings are not reciprocated. She knows that he is younger than her, she doesn’t think his feelings will last, and, most significantly, she has already lost her heart to another.
Alex is in love with Robert Maitland, another neighbour who has rather more money and social standing than the hopes. He is fond of her, he is her wisest counsellor and her moral compass, but as he is married Alex knows that her she can never speak of or act on her feelings.
I was inclined to like Alex. She was a wonderfully imperfect heroine; walking a fine line between idealism and realism; pride and humility; compassion and causticity; reserve and outspokenness.
There were so many characters that were so very well drawn. I’ve mentioned some of them already, I can’t mention them all, but I can’t leave out Robert Maitland’s Aunt Elizabeth – known as Aunt E.V by everyone in Crossriggs – who was a wonderful matriarchal figure, or Miss Bessie Reid, who was no longer young, who had to look after a very elderly aunt, but who still dreamed of romance.
I believed in them all, and I believed in their village community.
The Hope household was poor but it was never dull. The children were bright and entertaining, the family patriarch – who would always by known as ‘Old Hopeful’ – was a welcoming host, and there were lots of lovely outings and much fun to be had.
The Findlater sisters must have taken such care over the characters, the community and the stories that they created. I loved them all.
I particularly loved the beautiful evocation of the changing seasons.
The story was beautifully positioned between two different eras. Much of it feels wonderfully Victorian, but Alex is quite clearly a ‘New Woman’ caught up in small town life,
The influences were clear. There are definite echoes of a particular Jane Austen novel in the characters and the relationships, and there were something in the style and in the drawing of the community that told me that the sisters must have read and loved Trollope too.
The writing style seemed fluctuate, the plot was rather uneven, but because there were so many good things, because I was so caught up, I could forgive that.
The story moved slowly for a long time, but in the later chapters all of the storylines came to a head.
Alex and Van fall out, and he makes a reckless decision that will have irreversible consequences. There’s a villainess in the mix here, and I’m afraid she was the one character I couldn’t quite believe in. Maybe because she came into this world from outside …
The unhappy loss of her friend, the pressure of the work she has taken on to support her family, takes its toll on Alex. Her physical health, her emotions and her mental health all begin to fray.
There was a suggestion that another relationship could change.
I saw an obvious ending, but there were one or two twists in the tail of this story, before it came to a conclusion that I hadn’t expected but thought was completely right.
January 6, 2025
Another book that defies star rating. This book was an unexpected delight. The writing is so engaging, so insightful, so funny, so heart gripping. There are some wonderful characters that quickly made me love them, root for them, mourn for them. There is a lovely evocation of the natural world as well without it being heavy handed. My buddy readers, Kate and Susan, and I were chatting about how seamless the writing is for having two authors. We are having some wonderful conversations about this book. There is one particular plot thread that I wanted to end differently than it did…but it’s complex. I’m simultaneously glad it ended as it did and mad. So I’m wandering around in a bit of a fog at the moment, feeling my way to more words for this lovely, complex story. More to come!
July 8, 2017
I often roam my favorite book blogs to see what others are reading and recommending. (Just what I need, more to read, but nonetheless, I roam away.)
Both Eden Rock and Heavenali praised a somewhat obscure Scottish novel called Crossriggs.
My library didn’t have a copy, so I turned to our inter library system. My little book had to travel almost 700 miles from the library at University of California, Long Beach — which cost me nothing. (Most every library has an inter-library loan arrangement for its patrons, and may I just say bravo to our public libraries throughout the country, both big and small.) The loan did come with some stringent rules — I could only renew it once, and late fees racked up at $1 per day. So with that pressure, and after taking a moment to admire the beautiful illustration on the cover –“Lady in Grey” by Daniel MacNee, I opened this book and fell in.
The novel opens with introductions to the principal characters in the small Scottish village of Crossriggs, then the first chapter enticingly sets up the plot:
These, then, were the principal characters in our little world of Crossriggs – a world that jogged along very quietly as a rule, and where “nothing ever happened”, as the children say. Then quite suddenly, two things happened. Matilda Chalmers husband died in Canada, and we hear that she was coming home with all her children to live at Orchard House. That was the first event. The next was that the Admiral’s good-for-nothing son died abroad, and young Van Cassilis, his grandson and heir, came to Foxe Hall. Then and there happenings began.
Crossriggs was written in 1908 by by two sisters who together produced novels, poetry, short stories and non-fiction. At the beginning of their writing career, the sisters were so impoverished, their first works were scribbled and submitted on discarded sheets of grocer’s paper.
This is an old fashioned read, reminiscent of Jane Austen but without all the characters. (I always have trouble keeping Austen’s multitude of characters straight.) Because Crossriggs takes place in a small village, the characters are limited in number and more manageable for the reader.
Alexandra Hope, our main character, practically sparkles off the pages — full of happiness, love and with ambitions and ideas passed down from her vegetarian, head-in-the-clouds, idealist father…called Old Hopeful. Alex is described as rather plain, but brimming with dreams, imagination and mostly energy. A male admirer in the village describes her best:
“‘Alex,’ he said, ‘you have a genius for living! You just know how to do it . . . You’re alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realisation of our duties, are as dead as stones!’”
When Alex’s widowed sister Matilda comes home with her five children, the household is not only strained for space, but also for money. Alex adores her sister and children, and happily takes on running the now overflowing household and more than her fair share of caring for Matilda’s children. Alex acquires two jobs to bring in the necessary funds to feed and care the now expanded family. Unlike Alex, Matilda is beautiful but meek, lacking the bravery of her sister. She seemed to be always sewing something (thus the beautiful cover).
Their increased family size and the strain upon the household finances does not trouble Alex’s father , Old Hopeful — he leaves the worrying to Alex:
The ordinary limitations of poverty were nothing to a man of Old Hopeful’s temperament; “A handful with quietness! A dinner of herbs where love is! Who would want more? …What I spent I had: what I save I lost: What I gave I have.”
Old Hopeful is a loving father, and while Alex finds him frustrating, her love for him shines through:
Futile, Quixotic, absurd and unsuccessful, as she knew her father to be, she recognized that he had the right of the argument of life.
The reader can sense the authors took great pains to get everything just right – the characters, the village settings, the weather, the change of seasons — all lovingly crafted. Many of the observations are pure delight:
But the house that had once been the Manse remained much the same always — no bow-windows or iron railings there. A tall man (and the Maitlands were all tall men) had to stoop his head to enter the low doorway – an open door it had always been to rich and poor alike. The square hall was half-dark and paved with black and white flags; the sitting rooms, low-roofed and sunny, wore always the same air of happy frugality with their sun burnt hangings and simple, straight-legged furniture. There was no attempt at decoration for decoration’s sake, only an effect which was the outcome of austere refinement in the midst of plenty.
And this description of the beloved Miss Bessie’s eccentric wardrobe:
Miss Bessie’s taste was not coherent, and as time went on, this want of sequence increased. It seemed as if she could not adhere to a scheme even in braid and buttons, for her bodice would be trimmed with one kind of lace, and her wrists (those bony wrists with their plaintive jingle of bangles) with cascades of another pattern. In her headgear especially she was addicted to a little of everything – a bow of velvet, a silk ribbon, an ostrich tip, a buckle, a wing from some other fowl, and always, always, a glitter of beads.
Crossriggs is definitely a period piece and, like Trollope or Dickens, ones reading must slow to a careful pace. The sisters Findlater are excessive in their use of quotation marks. This can get confusing, as not only are conversations in quotes, but the characters thoughts are also in quotes. I found myself thinking “wait a minute did she actually say that?” “Oh no, she was just thinking it…” See how I use the quotations – confusing. Also, there’s a great many exclamation points, which again, is part and parcel of the period.
But this slow reading pace will reward the reader with some priceless observations and tidbits.
…the faint jangle of the door-bell (the Hopes’ door-bell sounded as if it had lost its voice from talking too much).
and this
“Things are so different when looked at from the outside! Of course they are, that is whey we make most of our mistakes in life.”
For me, the best part of Crossriggs was Alex, I really liked her spirit and found myself cheering her at every insurmountable turn. Towards the end, a great trip is planned…and Alex remains Alex as with this rebuttal about needing a new dress:
“Pooh!, Alex cried. Clothes! Why Matilda, there’s the world – the great round, interesting world to see!”
And who could not relate to her ability to escape into books:
…Alex sat by the fire, snatching half an hour of reading before the children all came tumbling in again. Her thoughts were very far away, for she had the happy power of forgetting the outer world altogether when she read anything that interested her.
The plot takes some twists – some expected and unexpected (there’s an accidental death that shook me for hours), but it’s the village life, the characters and the observations that truly shine in this book.
Crossriggs may not be for everyone, but I adored it. It’s a slow, quiet read and spurred by my inter-library loan deadline, I stuck with it and am very happy to have made the effort. It was sad to send this copy of Crossriggs back home to Long Beach. I’m going to find my own copy to add to my library.
See more at http://www.bookbarmy.com
Both Eden Rock and Heavenali praised a somewhat obscure Scottish novel called Crossriggs.
My library didn’t have a copy, so I turned to our inter library system. My little book had to travel almost 700 miles from the library at University of California, Long Beach — which cost me nothing. (Most every library has an inter-library loan arrangement for its patrons, and may I just say bravo to our public libraries throughout the country, both big and small.) The loan did come with some stringent rules — I could only renew it once, and late fees racked up at $1 per day. So with that pressure, and after taking a moment to admire the beautiful illustration on the cover –“Lady in Grey” by Daniel MacNee, I opened this book and fell in.
The novel opens with introductions to the principal characters in the small Scottish village of Crossriggs, then the first chapter enticingly sets up the plot:
These, then, were the principal characters in our little world of Crossriggs – a world that jogged along very quietly as a rule, and where “nothing ever happened”, as the children say. Then quite suddenly, two things happened. Matilda Chalmers husband died in Canada, and we hear that she was coming home with all her children to live at Orchard House. That was the first event. The next was that the Admiral’s good-for-nothing son died abroad, and young Van Cassilis, his grandson and heir, came to Foxe Hall. Then and there happenings began.
Crossriggs was written in 1908 by by two sisters who together produced novels, poetry, short stories and non-fiction. At the beginning of their writing career, the sisters were so impoverished, their first works were scribbled and submitted on discarded sheets of grocer’s paper.
This is an old fashioned read, reminiscent of Jane Austen but without all the characters. (I always have trouble keeping Austen’s multitude of characters straight.) Because Crossriggs takes place in a small village, the characters are limited in number and more manageable for the reader.
Alexandra Hope, our main character, practically sparkles off the pages — full of happiness, love and with ambitions and ideas passed down from her vegetarian, head-in-the-clouds, idealist father…called Old Hopeful. Alex is described as rather plain, but brimming with dreams, imagination and mostly energy. A male admirer in the village describes her best:
“‘Alex,’ he said, ‘you have a genius for living! You just know how to do it . . . You’re alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realisation of our duties, are as dead as stones!’”
When Alex’s widowed sister Matilda comes home with her five children, the household is not only strained for space, but also for money. Alex adores her sister and children, and happily takes on running the now overflowing household and more than her fair share of caring for Matilda’s children. Alex acquires two jobs to bring in the necessary funds to feed and care the now expanded family. Unlike Alex, Matilda is beautiful but meek, lacking the bravery of her sister. She seemed to be always sewing something (thus the beautiful cover).
Their increased family size and the strain upon the household finances does not trouble Alex’s father , Old Hopeful — he leaves the worrying to Alex:
The ordinary limitations of poverty were nothing to a man of Old Hopeful’s temperament; “A handful with quietness! A dinner of herbs where love is! Who would want more? …What I spent I had: what I save I lost: What I gave I have.”
Old Hopeful is a loving father, and while Alex finds him frustrating, her love for him shines through:
Futile, Quixotic, absurd and unsuccessful, as she knew her father to be, she recognized that he had the right of the argument of life.
The reader can sense the authors took great pains to get everything just right – the characters, the village settings, the weather, the change of seasons — all lovingly crafted. Many of the observations are pure delight:
But the house that had once been the Manse remained much the same always — no bow-windows or iron railings there. A tall man (and the Maitlands were all tall men) had to stoop his head to enter the low doorway – an open door it had always been to rich and poor alike. The square hall was half-dark and paved with black and white flags; the sitting rooms, low-roofed and sunny, wore always the same air of happy frugality with their sun burnt hangings and simple, straight-legged furniture. There was no attempt at decoration for decoration’s sake, only an effect which was the outcome of austere refinement in the midst of plenty.
And this description of the beloved Miss Bessie’s eccentric wardrobe:
Miss Bessie’s taste was not coherent, and as time went on, this want of sequence increased. It seemed as if she could not adhere to a scheme even in braid and buttons, for her bodice would be trimmed with one kind of lace, and her wrists (those bony wrists with their plaintive jingle of bangles) with cascades of another pattern. In her headgear especially she was addicted to a little of everything – a bow of velvet, a silk ribbon, an ostrich tip, a buckle, a wing from some other fowl, and always, always, a glitter of beads.
Crossriggs is definitely a period piece and, like Trollope or Dickens, ones reading must slow to a careful pace. The sisters Findlater are excessive in their use of quotation marks. This can get confusing, as not only are conversations in quotes, but the characters thoughts are also in quotes. I found myself thinking “wait a minute did she actually say that?” “Oh no, she was just thinking it…” See how I use the quotations – confusing. Also, there’s a great many exclamation points, which again, is part and parcel of the period.
But this slow reading pace will reward the reader with some priceless observations and tidbits.
…the faint jangle of the door-bell (the Hopes’ door-bell sounded as if it had lost its voice from talking too much).
and this
“Things are so different when looked at from the outside! Of course they are, that is whey we make most of our mistakes in life.”
For me, the best part of Crossriggs was Alex, I really liked her spirit and found myself cheering her at every insurmountable turn. Towards the end, a great trip is planned…and Alex remains Alex as with this rebuttal about needing a new dress:
“Pooh!, Alex cried. Clothes! Why Matilda, there’s the world – the great round, interesting world to see!”
And who could not relate to her ability to escape into books:
…Alex sat by the fire, snatching half an hour of reading before the children all came tumbling in again. Her thoughts were very far away, for she had the happy power of forgetting the outer world altogether when she read anything that interested her.
The plot takes some twists – some expected and unexpected (there’s an accidental death that shook me for hours), but it’s the village life, the characters and the observations that truly shine in this book.
Crossriggs may not be for everyone, but I adored it. It’s a slow, quiet read and spurred by my inter-library loan deadline, I stuck with it and am very happy to have made the effort. It was sad to send this copy of Crossriggs back home to Long Beach. I’m going to find my own copy to add to my library.
See more at http://www.bookbarmy.com
April 26, 2016
Crossriggs is one of the novels that Scottish sisters Jane and Mary Findlater collaborated on together, but they each wrote independently too.
In the tiny Scottish village of Crossriggs, Alexandra Hope lives with her unworldly father. He is an impractical, vegetarian dreamer, called Old Hopeful by the locals, she one of those wonderfully spirited, unconventional Victorian women. Crossriggs is just an hour or so by train to Edinburgh – but it might be much further – it feels like a place far removed from polite Scottish society – remote and rather narrow – but also quite comfortably small, set against a backdrop of awe-inspiring countryside.
The household at Orchard House is a very poor one, only Alex – as she is generally called – worries about the practical aspects of being so poor. Then Alex’s older sister Matilda, now widowed returns to her father’s house with her five children.
Full review : https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
In the tiny Scottish village of Crossriggs, Alexandra Hope lives with her unworldly father. He is an impractical, vegetarian dreamer, called Old Hopeful by the locals, she one of those wonderfully spirited, unconventional Victorian women. Crossriggs is just an hour or so by train to Edinburgh – but it might be much further – it feels like a place far removed from polite Scottish society – remote and rather narrow – but also quite comfortably small, set against a backdrop of awe-inspiring countryside.
The household at Orchard House is a very poor one, only Alex – as she is generally called – worries about the practical aspects of being so poor. Then Alex’s older sister Matilda, now widowed returns to her father’s house with her five children.
Full review : https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
November 19, 2019
I'm still puzzling over this one. I enjoyed it, no doubt about that. Alex is an engaging character, described as not so physically attractive, yet loved by 3 men. There are a bunch of quirky people in the story, and these play off each other well - but I can't put my finger on the reason why Alex is interesting. She just is. And though we know her thoughts on many points, there is no full disclosure. We know whom she loves, and who loves her, but it is never really spoken of - as if that part of her mind is taboo, too private. It's strange. Not strange in a bad way, but intriguing. I'd like someone else to read this and see if they can articulate things better. I'll be watching for other reviews.
June 8, 2011
The preface by Paul Binding compares this to Emma, with justification, but there are distinct echoes of Little Women, too. (I wonder if Binding just didn't see these, or didn't choose to note them: he says at the end of the preface that the heroine "becomes a little too winningly plucky, nearer to Louisa May Alcott's Jo March...than to the protagonist of a serious novel.")
Anyway, it's a tale of several families in a small Scottish town. The beginning is Cranford-esque, but when the story becomes much more dramatic later, the styles don't quite mesh. I loved the characters, though, especially witty heroine Alex, and was absorbed by the interplay among them even when it got a little melodramatic.
Anyway, it's a tale of several families in a small Scottish town. The beginning is Cranford-esque, but when the story becomes much more dramatic later, the styles don't quite mesh. I loved the characters, though, especially witty heroine Alex, and was absorbed by the interplay among them even when it got a little melodramatic.
July 1, 2020
I didn't have a clear idea of what to expect from this book, and so once I was at the halfway point, I had to keep reading because I was just so concerned about what was going to happen to poor Alex. I wasn't quite satisfied by the end, which is why my rating is not so high. It's well written, though, and really makes you feel things for the character.
August 31, 2025
A really good old fashioned story that kept you turning the pages. There was a plot that could have come straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel and some delightful characters in the village to lighten the gloom. The antics of Alex’s fruitarian father were very amusing.
March 29, 2022
A truly lovely story, with the best possible ending for the heroine. ‘Let no man despair of Mercy or Success, so long as he hath Life and Health of Soul.’
May 12, 2020
In Crossriggs, a town an easy train ride from Edinburgh, the locals have always looked up to the inhabitants of the Manse, for many years the preserve of the Maitland family. The present incumbent is not a Maitland but the people still look to Robert Maitland, who has come back to live in the town, for advice. The book, though, mainly focuses on Alexandra Hope (known as Alex) whose father Alexander is an idealistic fruitarian and a bit of a no-hoper, and seems to the reader to have no visible means of support. Through Alex the Findlaters make much of the fact of the family’s poverty (illustrated mostly as a matter of not enough food and money. But these things are relative; they have a kitchen-and-house helper in Katherine, and a drawing room.) Important to the overall story arc is the inhabitant of the local big house, Admiral Casillis, now blind. We are told that nothing much happened in Crossriggs till Alex’s sister Matilda had to return from Canada to her childhood home - with her five children - when her husband died, and the Admiral’s grandson Vanbrugh (Van) came to live with him. But even after this nothing much happens in the text for a long while.
To help support the six extra mouths Alex is of course forced to take a job, a process she finds embarrassing. She undertakes to read to Admiral Casillis every day bar Sundays, for two hours each day, mostly the newspaper. The youthful Van is struck by her and takes to visiting the Hope household on almost a daily basis. He is too young for Alex who strives to avoid confronting his regard for her. A public reading at another big house leads to Alex taking on more readings in town (Edinburgh.) In the meantime she turns down John Reid’s marriage proposal with the excuse to herself that she is too busy and has to provide for her nephews and nieces. It is Maitland, though, who bails out her father from an unwise guarantee and pays for the children’s education. She is of course in love with Robert Maitland who it seems has an equal affection for her but both cannot express it as he is already married. Her affection shows itself in an inability to control her verbal meanderings in his presence.
There are instances where the character’s language reflects the writers’ times. Van expresses dissatisfaction with his grandfather’s treatment of him. Alex replies, “‘If you had to work hard for your living, like me, you’d find you had more to think.’” His riposte is one decidedly not for those sensitive to modern properieties. “‘If I’d been allowed …. to work at anything that interests me, I’d slave like a nigger.’”
We also, twice, have another expression of prejudice. The first is when Alex says to her niece someone is, “‘-a little Jewish. She stopped.’ Sally flushed. ‘Why are Jews so nasty, Aunt Alex?’”
This is not really excused by Alex’s reply. “‘They’re not dear; far from it. An ancient race, the cleverest and noblest in the world in many ways,’” with some added excuse about Jews being an Eastern people and “fond of colour.”
Later we also had, “‘And he’s really not so -’ Matilda paused. Alex …. remarked gently - ‘Semitic, dear, is the word you want.’”
The book suffers a little from us being introduced to too many characters too early, giving the reader little chance to get to know them and hence care about their fates. However, the later appearance of the fateful Miss Orranmore gives us no doubt as to the kind of woman she is. Its main theme is of pride and conformity but like much serious literature Crossriggs treats with love - albeit obliquely and mostly unspoken - and death. Here any sex is resolutely off-stage, or at least only revealed by its usual consequence. Paul Binding’s Introduction says that the Findlaters - who wrote separately as well as together - had early success (Virginia Woolf was among their admirers) but their popularity dropped off in the 1920s. seems a very Victorian era novel. The thought, “‘You don’t suppose, do you, at your age, that the things one doesn’t speak about are the things one forgets?’” has, however, not lost any of its pertinence.
To help support the six extra mouths Alex is of course forced to take a job, a process she finds embarrassing. She undertakes to read to Admiral Casillis every day bar Sundays, for two hours each day, mostly the newspaper. The youthful Van is struck by her and takes to visiting the Hope household on almost a daily basis. He is too young for Alex who strives to avoid confronting his regard for her. A public reading at another big house leads to Alex taking on more readings in town (Edinburgh.) In the meantime she turns down John Reid’s marriage proposal with the excuse to herself that she is too busy and has to provide for her nephews and nieces. It is Maitland, though, who bails out her father from an unwise guarantee and pays for the children’s education. She is of course in love with Robert Maitland who it seems has an equal affection for her but both cannot express it as he is already married. Her affection shows itself in an inability to control her verbal meanderings in his presence.
There are instances where the character’s language reflects the writers’ times. Van expresses dissatisfaction with his grandfather’s treatment of him. Alex replies, “‘If you had to work hard for your living, like me, you’d find you had more to think.’” His riposte is one decidedly not for those sensitive to modern properieties. “‘If I’d been allowed …. to work at anything that interests me, I’d slave like a nigger.’”
We also, twice, have another expression of prejudice. The first is when Alex says to her niece someone is, “‘-a little Jewish. She stopped.’ Sally flushed. ‘Why are Jews so nasty, Aunt Alex?’”
This is not really excused by Alex’s reply. “‘They’re not dear; far from it. An ancient race, the cleverest and noblest in the world in many ways,’” with some added excuse about Jews being an Eastern people and “fond of colour.”
Later we also had, “‘And he’s really not so -’ Matilda paused. Alex …. remarked gently - ‘Semitic, dear, is the word you want.’”
The book suffers a little from us being introduced to too many characters too early, giving the reader little chance to get to know them and hence care about their fates. However, the later appearance of the fateful Miss Orranmore gives us no doubt as to the kind of woman she is. Its main theme is of pride and conformity but like much serious literature Crossriggs treats with love - albeit obliquely and mostly unspoken - and death. Here any sex is resolutely off-stage, or at least only revealed by its usual consequence. Paul Binding’s Introduction says that the Findlaters - who wrote separately as well as together - had early success (Virginia Woolf was among their admirers) but their popularity dropped off in the 1920s. seems a very Victorian era novel. The thought, “‘You don’t suppose, do you, at your age, that the things one doesn’t speak about are the things one forgets?’” has, however, not lost any of its pertinence.
February 23, 2020
" 'Alex,' he said, 'you have a genius for living! You just know how to do it ... You're alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realization of our duties, are a dead as stones!'
"Alexandra Hope lives with her unworldly, vegetarian father, her widowed sister and five nieces and nephews in the Scottish village of Crossriggs. Whilst her sister Mathilda perfectly plays that Victorian role of feminine helplessness, Alex -- clever, plain with a sharp wit -- refuses the first suitable man to propose, choosing spinsterhood and the support of her poverty-stricken family. But earning a living is just one difficulty to be faced -- for Alexandra secretly loves a married man. First published in 1908, Crossriggs is both a delightful Austenesque tale of village life and a powerful portrait of a woman who combines the morality of her Protestant heritage with all the courage and passion of the 'New Woman' of the 1890s."
~~back cover
A lovely story, and a heart-wrenching one at the same time. Alex, such a bright, loving spirit, throws herself into supporting her widowed sister and nieces and nephews, and ruins her health in the process. She denies herself the love of a young man because he is "too young" for her and because she's hopelessly in love with a man who can never be hers but who returns her passion. I found myself crossing my fingers that the wife would succumb to her heart ailment, hoping for that HEA.
"Alexandra Hope lives with her unworldly, vegetarian father, her widowed sister and five nieces and nephews in the Scottish village of Crossriggs. Whilst her sister Mathilda perfectly plays that Victorian role of feminine helplessness, Alex -- clever, plain with a sharp wit -- refuses the first suitable man to propose, choosing spinsterhood and the support of her poverty-stricken family. But earning a living is just one difficulty to be faced -- for Alexandra secretly loves a married man. First published in 1908, Crossriggs is both a delightful Austenesque tale of village life and a powerful portrait of a woman who combines the morality of her Protestant heritage with all the courage and passion of the 'New Woman' of the 1890s."
~~back cover
A lovely story, and a heart-wrenching one at the same time. Alex, such a bright, loving spirit, throws herself into supporting her widowed sister and nieces and nephews, and ruins her health in the process. She denies herself the love of a young man because he is "too young" for her and because she's hopelessly in love with a man who can never be hers but who returns her passion. I found myself crossing my fingers that the wife would succumb to her heart ailment, hoping for that HEA.
May 22, 2021
The Findlater sisters' picture of a small Scottish town has a full cast of diverse characters, each clearly set in their place in the local hierarchy; the significance of relative social positions is a preoccupation in the community and so, inevitably, influences plot.
Alex Hope is an engaging protagonist, feisty and intelligent and evidently Jo March's long-lost cousin, she even has a rich, difficult aunt. Life is not easy for Alex and she needs all her reserves of self-reliance. She is in love with a married man , and he with her it seems, but neither can openly acknowledge that. The need to support her family drives Alex to find some work and there begins a chain of events which will completely change her life.
The early chapters have a liveliness which runs out of steam in later stages of the narrative - Alex is suddnly whisked away to Liverpool and things go flat - where melodrama and several obvious plot contrivances bring about the conclusion - hence three stars.
Alex Hope is an engaging protagonist, feisty and intelligent and evidently Jo March's long-lost cousin, she even has a rich, difficult aunt. Life is not easy for Alex and she needs all her reserves of self-reliance. She is in love with a married man , and he with her it seems, but neither can openly acknowledge that. The need to support her family drives Alex to find some work and there begins a chain of events which will completely change her life.
The early chapters have a liveliness which runs out of steam in later stages of the narrative - Alex is suddnly whisked away to Liverpool and things go flat - where melodrama and several obvious plot contrivances bring about the conclusion - hence three stars.
September 28, 2024
Why or how have I never heard or read this before? It was a great read - and one I will return to reread. There was a touch of Cranford in the depiction of the village and families - although fifty years difference timewise.
Alex(andra) Horn is a winning heroine , trapped in that life of quiet desperation which is depicted in so many novels. She is , however, determined not to accept a loveless marriage as an escape from her father - and then her sister and five children who return from Canada , penniless. Her fruitarian father is a challenge but she works and loves the children . There are romantic interests - she does rather cut off her nose to spite her face - but she remains true to herself which is probably more important … and certainly more challenging.
A brilliant read .
Alex(andra) Horn is a winning heroine , trapped in that life of quiet desperation which is depicted in so many novels. She is , however, determined not to accept a loveless marriage as an escape from her father - and then her sister and five children who return from Canada , penniless. Her fruitarian father is a challenge but she works and loves the children . There are romantic interests - she does rather cut off her nose to spite her face - but she remains true to herself which is probably more important … and certainly more challenging.
A brilliant read .
Read
October 28, 2020This book is described as "Austenesque", and so it was.
I really enjoyed the change in style from the more modern books I usually read! This was first published in 1908.
It tells the tale of a woman called Alex who lives in relative poverty in a small Scottish village, with her widowed sister and her brood of 4, and her vegetarian father.
The tale is of love and loss where Alex is loved by one man, but she loves another who is unfortunately, married.
It is a simple enough tale, but it kept me absorbed right to the end.
I really enjoyed the change in style from the more modern books I usually read! This was first published in 1908.
It tells the tale of a woman called Alex who lives in relative poverty in a small Scottish village, with her widowed sister and her brood of 4, and her vegetarian father.
The tale is of love and loss where Alex is loved by one man, but she loves another who is unfortunately, married.
It is a simple enough tale, but it kept me absorbed right to the end.
May 3, 2020
Really not for me, more Eastenders set in the past. I am sure if you like chatty life novels it is well writtne, just not my cup of tea.
May 4, 2020
3.6. Listened. BBC Sounds.
June 24, 2023
Deliciosa obra costumbrista que nos lleva a Jane Austen. Descripciones minuciosas de la sociedad victoriana en diferentes ambientes. Una joya oculta para el público español.
September 26, 2024
4.5 stars!
August 12, 2016
This novel, written in 1908 by a pair of Scottish sisters, feels very much like a romantic novel at first. The heroine, Alex Hope, reminds one of Jo March, with all the pluck but without the sentiment. She’s a more angular and edgy character. All the inhabitants of Crossriggs are seen through her clear, often fond, and sometimes sarcastic eyes. Her father, nicknamed Old Hopeful, is lovable but entirely impractical, to the point of endangering his family, and so Alex takes on the job of supporting the household.
I enjoyed this novel and found myself gripped by it. There are certainly elements of romance, in that three men are in love with Alex during the course of the story. But none of them work for her, for various reasons, and the writers don’t bend their plot into a shape that will allow this to happen. No, the climax of the book comes in another way, and while it changes Alex’s life, it doesn’t change her. To the last page, though, I was expecting something different, a more typical ending.
I enjoyed this novel and found myself gripped by it. There are certainly elements of romance, in that three men are in love with Alex during the course of the story. But none of them work for her, for various reasons, and the writers don’t bend their plot into a shape that will allow this to happen. No, the climax of the book comes in another way, and while it changes Alex’s life, it doesn’t change her. To the last page, though, I was expecting something different, a more typical ending.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews