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Diana Tempest
" 'Diana Tempest' is a book to be read. It is more-it is a book to be kept and read again, for its characters will not pass into limbo with this year's fashions. It will stand in the front ranks of fiction for some time to come." - "St. James's Gazette"
When Mr. Tempest dies, the family fortune and estate pass to his son, John, whom everyone except John himself knows to be illegitimate. Colonel Tempest, his spendthrift son Archie, and his beautiful daughter Diana find themselves cut off, and Colonel Tempest is bitterly resentful.
One night, in a drunken stupor, he agrees to a bet, by which he will pay 10,000 if he should ever succeed to the Tempest estate. By the time he realizes that the effect of this wager was to place a bounty on John's head, it is too late-and attempts begin to be made on John's life! Meanwhile, Diana, strong and independent, has declared that she will never marry . . . but as she becomes closer with her cousin, her sentiments start to waver. And when John learns of his own illegitimacy, what will happen to his burgeoning relationship with Diana and his claim to the Tempest fortune?
First published in 1893, "Diana Tempest" was one of Mary Cholmondeley's most popular novels. Part sensation novel, part romance, part 'New Woman' novel, "Diana Tempest" remains a thrilling story. This new Valancourt Books edition, which rescues this long out-of-print classic from obscurity, features a new introduction and notes by Cholmondeley expert Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton."
When Mr. Tempest dies, the family fortune and estate pass to his son, John, whom everyone except John himself knows to be illegitimate. Colonel Tempest, his spendthrift son Archie, and his beautiful daughter Diana find themselves cut off, and Colonel Tempest is bitterly resentful.
One night, in a drunken stupor, he agrees to a bet, by which he will pay 10,000 if he should ever succeed to the Tempest estate. By the time he realizes that the effect of this wager was to place a bounty on John's head, it is too late-and attempts begin to be made on John's life! Meanwhile, Diana, strong and independent, has declared that she will never marry . . . but as she becomes closer with her cousin, her sentiments start to waver. And when John learns of his own illegitimacy, what will happen to his burgeoning relationship with Diana and his claim to the Tempest fortune?
First published in 1893, "Diana Tempest" was one of Mary Cholmondeley's most popular novels. Part sensation novel, part romance, part 'New Woman' novel, "Diana Tempest" remains a thrilling story. This new Valancourt Books edition, which rescues this long out-of-print classic from obscurity, features a new introduction and notes by Cholmondeley expert Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton."
305 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1893
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211 people want to read
About the author
Mary Cholmondeley
101 books16 followersMary Cholmondeley was an English novelist.
The daughter of the vicar at St Luke's Church in the village of Hodnet, Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, where she was born, Cholmondeley spent much of the first thirty years of her life taking care of her sickly mother.
Selected writings
* The Danvers Jewels (1886)
* Sir Charles Danvers (1889)
* Let Loose (1890)
* Diana Tempest (1893)
* Devotee: An Episode in the Life of a Butterfly (1897)
* Red Pottage (1899)
* Prisoners (1906)
* The Lowest Rung (1908)
* Moth and Rust (1912)
* After All (1913)
* Notwithstanding (1913)
* Under One Roof (1917)
The daughter of the vicar at St Luke's Church in the village of Hodnet, Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, where she was born, Cholmondeley spent much of the first thirty years of her life taking care of her sickly mother.
Selected writings
* The Danvers Jewels (1886)
* Sir Charles Danvers (1889)
* Let Loose (1890)
* Diana Tempest (1893)
* Devotee: An Episode in the Life of a Butterfly (1897)
* Red Pottage (1899)
* Prisoners (1906)
* The Lowest Rung (1908)
* Moth and Rust (1912)
* After All (1913)
* Notwithstanding (1913)
* Under One Roof (1917)
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 20, 2022
Diana Tempest is a part sensation, part romance, and part 'new woman' Victorian novel that deals primarily with the themes of illegitimacy, inheritance, greed, and love. Wealth can bring you both friends and enemies. And those "enemies" are no strangers. They are the ones you know the best.
Although the titular character, Diana Tempest, is the one who holds the threads together in the story, it mostly revolves around one John Tempest of Overleigh, whose name and right to the inheritance to Overleigh are questioned. His "uncle", Colonel Tempest, was the first to raise doubts since John is the obstacle to his inheriting the vast wealth. But the law says otherwise and protects John. Colonel is one not to accept defeat. In his anger and intoxication, his greedy state of mind makes him enter into the most abominable "bet" in his life.
This is a clear-cut Victorian novel, with a hero, an unusual heroine, and quite a number of villains, their villainy differing in degrees. John is our hero. He is a strong character with noble qualities. Although his resemblance lacks the Tempest's build and beauty, his character and qualities surpass those shallow and vindictive qualities of the Tempest, making him an admirable Tempest, one who would make a marked difference in that ancient lineage. Diana, our heroine, is an unusual Victorian heroine. She has a mind of her own. Although she bows to the conventions, her thoughts and actions exercise a freedom that is uncommon to the women of upper-class society. She is bold and outspoken making her somewhat of a daunting character for her suitors. Since the story is part romance, it's not surprising that the author has decided to build it around the hero and heroine, the two most formidable characters. Their romance is grounded and is decisive in forming John's future.
One may wonder why the story was titled "Diana Tempest" when the story is centered around John Tempest. The main reason for this, I think, is to give the author's voice to the story. Mary Cholmondeley was obviously not satisfied with the women's position in her time. Women had to get married or they had to be provided for by a generous relative to secure their financial independence. There were not enough avenues for a woman to make a living of her own. The awkward position the women were placed in by society was not to the liking of the author. Also, Diana is an outspoken woman. Women who had a mind of their own and were bold enough to honestly express themselves were prejudiced by society while the two-faced women whose superficial charm hid their coarse and immoral conduct were thought of as "angels". Mary Cholmondeley wanted to expose this social hypocrisy. She questions the damage this does to the sacred institutions of marriage and to the moral upbringing of the children.
This is my first read of this lesser-known Victorian author, and I was rather pleased in finding her. I liked her thematic exposition, her formation of well-grounded characters, and above all, her beautiful rich prose that paints a charming picture of the story. Having read many different Victorian novels, it is sometimes difficult to give one its due. But I can honestly say here that I did enjoy this interesting Victorian novel.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
Although the titular character, Diana Tempest, is the one who holds the threads together in the story, it mostly revolves around one John Tempest of Overleigh, whose name and right to the inheritance to Overleigh are questioned. His "uncle", Colonel Tempest, was the first to raise doubts since John is the obstacle to his inheriting the vast wealth. But the law says otherwise and protects John. Colonel is one not to accept defeat. In his anger and intoxication, his greedy state of mind makes him enter into the most abominable "bet" in his life.
This is a clear-cut Victorian novel, with a hero, an unusual heroine, and quite a number of villains, their villainy differing in degrees. John is our hero. He is a strong character with noble qualities. Although his resemblance lacks the Tempest's build and beauty, his character and qualities surpass those shallow and vindictive qualities of the Tempest, making him an admirable Tempest, one who would make a marked difference in that ancient lineage. Diana, our heroine, is an unusual Victorian heroine. She has a mind of her own. Although she bows to the conventions, her thoughts and actions exercise a freedom that is uncommon to the women of upper-class society. She is bold and outspoken making her somewhat of a daunting character for her suitors. Since the story is part romance, it's not surprising that the author has decided to build it around the hero and heroine, the two most formidable characters. Their romance is grounded and is decisive in forming John's future.
One may wonder why the story was titled "Diana Tempest" when the story is centered around John Tempest. The main reason for this, I think, is to give the author's voice to the story. Mary Cholmondeley was obviously not satisfied with the women's position in her time. Women had to get married or they had to be provided for by a generous relative to secure their financial independence. There were not enough avenues for a woman to make a living of her own. The awkward position the women were placed in by society was not to the liking of the author. Also, Diana is an outspoken woman. Women who had a mind of their own and were bold enough to honestly express themselves were prejudiced by society while the two-faced women whose superficial charm hid their coarse and immoral conduct were thought of as "angels". Mary Cholmondeley wanted to expose this social hypocrisy. She questions the damage this does to the sacred institutions of marriage and to the moral upbringing of the children.
This is my first read of this lesser-known Victorian author, and I was rather pleased in finding her. I liked her thematic exposition, her formation of well-grounded characters, and above all, her beautiful rich prose that paints a charming picture of the story. Having read many different Victorian novels, it is sometimes difficult to give one its due. But I can honestly say here that I did enjoy this interesting Victorian novel.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
October 30, 2018
The Tempest family estate was long-established, it was exceedingly rich, and it had passed from father to son through many generations; but late in the nineteenth century there were complications. Those complications and what they led to are set out in this marvelous story, which has elements of the sensation novel and elements of a ‘new woman novel, mixed with a dash of family saga and romance.
It begins with an estrangement between two brothers, which was quite understandable, given that the younger brother ran away with the elder brother’s fiancee. Their marriage was not a happy one and the lady died young leaving as son, Archie, who would grow up in his father’s care and become a reckless spendthrift just like him; and a beautiful daughter, Diana, who was taken away by her grieving grandmother, who wanted to make sure that she had a happier life than her unfortunate mother. It has to be said that she did a wonderful job, and Diana grew into a beautiful, accomplished and compassionate young woman.
The characters of the two women are drawn so very well; they had such depth, they had such life, and the relationship between them, the loved and the understanding, was conveyed quite beautifully.
Their conversations were a joy to read.
‘ “You would make a good wife, Di, but I sometimes think you will never marry,” said Mrs. Courtenay, sadly. She felt the heat.
“Well, granny, I won’t say I feel sure I shall never marry, because all girls say that, and it generally means nothing. But still that is what I feel without saying it. Do you remember poor old Aunt Belle when she was dying, and how nothing pleased her, and how she said at last: ‘I want—I want—I don’t know what I want’? Well, when I come to think of it, I really don’t know what I want. I know what I don’t want. I don’t want a kind, indulgent husband, and a large income, and good horses, and pretty little frilled children with their mother’s eyes, that one shows to people and is proud of. It is all very nice. I am glad when I see other people happy like that. I should like to see you pleased; but for myself—really—I think I should find them rather in the way. I dare say I might make a good wife, as you say. I believe I could be rather a cheerful companion, and affectionate if it was not exacted of me. But somehow all that does not hit the mark. The men who have cared for me have never seemed to like me for myself, or to understand the something behind the chatter and the fun which is the real part of me—which, if I married one of them, would never be brought into play, and would die of starvation. The only kind of marriage I have ever had a chance of seems to me like a sort of suicide—seems as if it would be one’s best self that would be killed, while the other self, the well-dressed, society-loving, ball-going, easy-going self, would be all that was left of me, and would dance upon my grave.”
Mrs. Courtenay was silent. She never ridiculed any thought, however crude and young, if it were genuine. She was one of the few people who knew whether Di was in fun or in earnest, and she knew she was in earnest now.’
Di and Mrs. Courtenay were far from wealthy, but they appreciated that they had enough to meet their needs and for Di to go out in the world if they were sensible and lived simply. Colonel Tempest and Archie were less happy with their lots, and any money that came into their hands would be frittered away. The Colonel was bitterly resentful because he knew that when his brother died, the family fortune and estate pass to his son, John, whom everyone except John himself knows to be illegitimate. He visited his brother as he lay dying but it was to no avail.
John Tempest had a difficult start in life. His mother died when he was an infant, his putative father retired and took no interest in him, and so he was a solitary child whose only friends were servants and teachers, who were kind but always had to be deferential. In consequence he grew up to be a man who was set in his ways and opinions; solitary and yet desperately in need of the good opinion and high regard of others.
The poignancy of the telling of John’s story, the understanding of how his circumstances made him the man he became, and the complexity of his characterisation were quite brilliantly done.
When John meets Di he is smitten; and though Diana, strong and independent, has declared that she will never marry her sentiments start to waver. but as she becomes closer with her cousin.
Their marriage would ensure that future heirs were true Tempests, but there is a problem that is shared with the reader at the very start of the story.
One night, in a drunken stupor, Colonel Tempest agrees to a bet, by which he will pay £10,000 if he should ever succeed to the Tempest estate. By the time he realizes that the effect of this wager was to place a bounty on John’s head, it is too late. He is unable to trace everyone who has an interest in the matter, he lacks the means to pay off those he can trace, and serious attempts are made on John’s life.
One of those attempts leads to John discovering his illegitimacy, and that leads to him taking serious action of his own ….
I was swept through this books because Mary Cholmondeley plotted her story so cleverly and because her telling of that story was so very vivid, making my heart rise and fall so many times as I followed the fortunes of John and Di.
The set pieces were glorious – especially the ice fair – and I loved the way that the big house and the natural world were portrayed.
The supporting cast is not quite so well drawn and the subplots are not as well told as the central story. That did no real harm to the telling of the tale; but I was aware that the author had refined her craft by the time she published her masterpiece – ‘Red Pottage’ – at the turn of the century. There are themes and devices here that readers of that book will recognise. She uses them well here but better in that book; but while there are similarities they are very different stories, and I think that each book stands up and is well worth reading on its own merits.
One of this books greatest strengths is its youthful energy and fervour.
There is passionate advocacy of a woman’s right to set the course of her own life; and a very clear light is shone on the unhappy consequences of marriages contracted for reasons other than real love. There is righteous anger at social injustice, at moral weakness, and most of all at men – and women – who stand in the way of what the author has the wisdom and foresight to advocate.
I had an idea how the story would be resolved I really didn’t know how it would get there until it did.
That story, the characters I met and what the author had to say will stay with me.
It begins with an estrangement between two brothers, which was quite understandable, given that the younger brother ran away with the elder brother’s fiancee. Their marriage was not a happy one and the lady died young leaving as son, Archie, who would grow up in his father’s care and become a reckless spendthrift just like him; and a beautiful daughter, Diana, who was taken away by her grieving grandmother, who wanted to make sure that she had a happier life than her unfortunate mother. It has to be said that she did a wonderful job, and Diana grew into a beautiful, accomplished and compassionate young woman.
The characters of the two women are drawn so very well; they had such depth, they had such life, and the relationship between them, the loved and the understanding, was conveyed quite beautifully.
Their conversations were a joy to read.
‘ “You would make a good wife, Di, but I sometimes think you will never marry,” said Mrs. Courtenay, sadly. She felt the heat.
“Well, granny, I won’t say I feel sure I shall never marry, because all girls say that, and it generally means nothing. But still that is what I feel without saying it. Do you remember poor old Aunt Belle when she was dying, and how nothing pleased her, and how she said at last: ‘I want—I want—I don’t know what I want’? Well, when I come to think of it, I really don’t know what I want. I know what I don’t want. I don’t want a kind, indulgent husband, and a large income, and good horses, and pretty little frilled children with their mother’s eyes, that one shows to people and is proud of. It is all very nice. I am glad when I see other people happy like that. I should like to see you pleased; but for myself—really—I think I should find them rather in the way. I dare say I might make a good wife, as you say. I believe I could be rather a cheerful companion, and affectionate if it was not exacted of me. But somehow all that does not hit the mark. The men who have cared for me have never seemed to like me for myself, or to understand the something behind the chatter and the fun which is the real part of me—which, if I married one of them, would never be brought into play, and would die of starvation. The only kind of marriage I have ever had a chance of seems to me like a sort of suicide—seems as if it would be one’s best self that would be killed, while the other self, the well-dressed, society-loving, ball-going, easy-going self, would be all that was left of me, and would dance upon my grave.”
Mrs. Courtenay was silent. She never ridiculed any thought, however crude and young, if it were genuine. She was one of the few people who knew whether Di was in fun or in earnest, and she knew she was in earnest now.’
Di and Mrs. Courtenay were far from wealthy, but they appreciated that they had enough to meet their needs and for Di to go out in the world if they were sensible and lived simply. Colonel Tempest and Archie were less happy with their lots, and any money that came into their hands would be frittered away. The Colonel was bitterly resentful because he knew that when his brother died, the family fortune and estate pass to his son, John, whom everyone except John himself knows to be illegitimate. He visited his brother as he lay dying but it was to no avail.
John Tempest had a difficult start in life. His mother died when he was an infant, his putative father retired and took no interest in him, and so he was a solitary child whose only friends were servants and teachers, who were kind but always had to be deferential. In consequence he grew up to be a man who was set in his ways and opinions; solitary and yet desperately in need of the good opinion and high regard of others.
The poignancy of the telling of John’s story, the understanding of how his circumstances made him the man he became, and the complexity of his characterisation were quite brilliantly done.
When John meets Di he is smitten; and though Diana, strong and independent, has declared that she will never marry her sentiments start to waver. but as she becomes closer with her cousin.
Their marriage would ensure that future heirs were true Tempests, but there is a problem that is shared with the reader at the very start of the story.
One night, in a drunken stupor, Colonel Tempest agrees to a bet, by which he will pay £10,000 if he should ever succeed to the Tempest estate. By the time he realizes that the effect of this wager was to place a bounty on John’s head, it is too late. He is unable to trace everyone who has an interest in the matter, he lacks the means to pay off those he can trace, and serious attempts are made on John’s life.
One of those attempts leads to John discovering his illegitimacy, and that leads to him taking serious action of his own ….
I was swept through this books because Mary Cholmondeley plotted her story so cleverly and because her telling of that story was so very vivid, making my heart rise and fall so many times as I followed the fortunes of John and Di.
The set pieces were glorious – especially the ice fair – and I loved the way that the big house and the natural world were portrayed.
The supporting cast is not quite so well drawn and the subplots are not as well told as the central story. That did no real harm to the telling of the tale; but I was aware that the author had refined her craft by the time she published her masterpiece – ‘Red Pottage’ – at the turn of the century. There are themes and devices here that readers of that book will recognise. She uses them well here but better in that book; but while there are similarities they are very different stories, and I think that each book stands up and is well worth reading on its own merits.
One of this books greatest strengths is its youthful energy and fervour.
There is passionate advocacy of a woman’s right to set the course of her own life; and a very clear light is shone on the unhappy consequences of marriages contracted for reasons other than real love. There is righteous anger at social injustice, at moral weakness, and most of all at men – and women – who stand in the way of what the author has the wisdom and foresight to advocate.
I had an idea how the story would be resolved I really didn’t know how it would get there until it did.
That story, the characters I met and what the author had to say will stay with me.
Read
December 13, 2017An enormously enjoyable late Victorian novel. It's a terrific sensation novel with New Woman elements and a nice romance. The plot is satisfyingly twisty with skulduggery, illegitimacy and murder in high society, and although the payoff is somewhat telegraphed, the author milks it to its immensely satisfying full.
What I like most about it though is the intense, savage, relentless attack on male selfishness, which seems incredibly timely. Colonel Tempest is self-centred, abusive, and contemptibly weak, while constantly trying to blame his wrongs on women. He's an 1893 MRA and Cholmondeley skewers him brutally, along with various others. (Women are not exempt: this is a pretty savage book on a variety of moral failings, including religious extremism, hypocrisy, and self indulgence of all kinds.) In particular we are left in no doubt of the horrors of being yoked to a man in a loveless marriage. Diana is advised to be grateful that her love affair has been ended before she married the guy because "a death even of what is dearest to us...is as nothing to the death in life of an existence which is always dragging about a corpse." That's...not the popular perception of the victorian view of marriage.
A terrific sensation novel, and a fantastic example of why the BBC should stop adapting Dickens-Austen-Dickens and branch out because this would make brilliant TV. Off to get more.
Note because it's niggling at me: There is this really weird line where John, the super rich hero, is wandering around his massive Elizabethan mansion looking at his stuff, and casually picks up a brass slave collar and reflects it must have chafed. And that's it, he moves on. Is this a reflection on where his wealth came from? A quiet analogy, in a book very much about women's lack of freedom to act and the power of money? Just a bit of local colour for no reason that the author didn't think about? I can't tell.
What I like most about it though is the intense, savage, relentless attack on male selfishness, which seems incredibly timely. Colonel Tempest is self-centred, abusive, and contemptibly weak, while constantly trying to blame his wrongs on women. He's an 1893 MRA and Cholmondeley skewers him brutally, along with various others. (Women are not exempt: this is a pretty savage book on a variety of moral failings, including religious extremism, hypocrisy, and self indulgence of all kinds.) In particular we are left in no doubt of the horrors of being yoked to a man in a loveless marriage. Diana is advised to be grateful that her love affair has been ended before she married the guy because "a death even of what is dearest to us...is as nothing to the death in life of an existence which is always dragging about a corpse." That's...not the popular perception of the victorian view of marriage.
A terrific sensation novel, and a fantastic example of why the BBC should stop adapting Dickens-Austen-Dickens and branch out because this would make brilliant TV. Off to get more.
Note because it's niggling at me: There is this really weird line where John, the super rich hero, is wandering around his massive Elizabethan mansion looking at his stuff, and casually picks up a brass slave collar and reflects it must have chafed. And that's it, he moves on. Is this a reflection on where his wealth came from? A quiet analogy, in a book very much about women's lack of freedom to act and the power of money? Just a bit of local colour for no reason that the author didn't think about? I can't tell.
December 5, 2019
I read this on the recommendation of a fictional character.
Let me explain. In the book Gilded Cage there’s a brief mention that the main character is reading a book called Diana Tempest. Given that the main character is fiercely intelligent and independent, ruthless, completely comfortable with her (bi)sexuality, with a take-no-prisoners style of private detecting, I figured that anything she would read during her downtime had to be good.
And it is!
Cholmondeley takes a sledgehammer to Victorian society, going after everyone she feels deserves it, punching up as she tongue-in-check agrees that these poor, poor, so abused white upper class British men have it just so hard!, and also punching sideways as she takes issue with women marrying just for money.
I loved how she said out loud what everyone was thinking about how miserable the men of the time could make the state of marriage – but it seemed just mean to take issue with someone taking one of the very few paths open to a chance at having financial security. And, jeez, not one, but TWO women who married into the story’s convoluted family tree die in childbirth with a smile on her face, happy to escape a horrid marriage.
The Tempest men are The Worst.
We also get the World’s Slowest Assassin, as one character is stalked for two decades. So, a slow chase, but that does give the story more stakes and tension throughout than the usual Will she marry? and Who will it be? that it generally comes down to in these type of books.
Given the amount of snarkiness aimed at the privileged, the story feels quite modern at times, even as we get the usual Victorian dramatics of throwing oneself on a chaise lounge and sighing deeply over chaste love affairs.
Highly recommended as an excellent example of both typical late Victorian society as well as how a lot of ideas that would come to fruition in the 20th century (like the right for women to work and the ability to obtain a divorce without something like a royal decree) were already simmering in the 19th.
November 17, 2022
Of the novels I've read with the Victorians Group here on Goodreads over the last 2 and a half years, this is my favorite. I'll be after her better-known work Red Pottage soon.
Diana Tempest is a sensation novel written in 1893. The story primarily takes place in Yorkshire. We learn that Colonel Tempest stole his bother Jack's fiancee Di away from him 14 years ago. She then died during the birth of her second child, also named Diana, who was then shuttled off to the permanent care of her grandmother. Now Jack is dying, and the tremendous estate of the Castle Overleigh will be inherited by his son John. Colonel Tempest believes that John was an illegitimate son, and that the estate should rightly pass to him, and his young son Archie is gradually takes on the same bitterness toward John. There are others who quietly share that belief, but John himself assumes that he is the automatic heir. As time goes by, a shady multi-person wager is arranged that puts John's life in danger. Meanwhile, a strong attraction is developing between Diana and John.
I was surprised at the number of violent incidents. Chalmondeley wrote Diana Tempest in the sensation novel genre. While Chalmondeley describes the attacks in past tense or somewhat remotely, so that they don't carry the graphic details of modern novels, their inclusion was an interesting and positive addition to the story that one expected.
When Lord Frederick Fane takes young John aside and warns him that he's seen all too many young men waste their best years following some pie-in-the-sky inner vision of truth, it reminded me so much of Komarovsky talking to the young Zhivago.
I loved the scene in which a very sick and weak John hears that Di is visiting upstairs and makes the arduous climb. He is about to faint when they sit down to tea:
"... she was back again beside him, only a voice now, voice among the lilies, which appeared and disappeared at intervals. ... the voice spoke gently and cheerfully from time to time. It was like a wonderful dream in a golden dusk."
Chalmondeley dwells on the way young people's lives are thrown into disarray by love:
"He went into the study and sat down there, staring at the shelves of embodied thought and speculation and aspiration with which at one time he had been content to live, which, now that he had begun to live, seemed entirely beside the mark."
And,
"Who has not experienced, almost with a sense of traitorship to his own nature, how the noblest influences at work upon it may be caught up into the loom of an all-absorbing personal passion, adding a new beauty and dignity to the fabric, but nevertheless changing for the time the pattern of the life?"
There is a fantastic scene at Overleigh when John throws an "ice carnival". It brought back a great memory of skating on a frozen pond in St. Louis as a teenager. At the Overleigh grounds lights and multiple bonfires have been set up. About two thousand people crowd the lake. The old castle is visible in the high background like it's floating on mist. This would be a wonderful movie scene.
Diana Tempest is a sensation novel written in 1893. The story primarily takes place in Yorkshire. We learn that Colonel Tempest stole his bother Jack's fiancee Di away from him 14 years ago. She then died during the birth of her second child, also named Diana, who was then shuttled off to the permanent care of her grandmother. Now Jack is dying, and the tremendous estate of the Castle Overleigh will be inherited by his son John. Colonel Tempest believes that John was an illegitimate son, and that the estate should rightly pass to him, and his young son Archie is gradually takes on the same bitterness toward John. There are others who quietly share that belief, but John himself assumes that he is the automatic heir. As time goes by, a shady multi-person wager is arranged that puts John's life in danger. Meanwhile, a strong attraction is developing between Diana and John.
I was surprised at the number of violent incidents. Chalmondeley wrote Diana Tempest in the sensation novel genre. While Chalmondeley describes the attacks in past tense or somewhat remotely, so that they don't carry the graphic details of modern novels, their inclusion was an interesting and positive addition to the story that one expected.
When Lord Frederick Fane takes young John aside and warns him that he's seen all too many young men waste their best years following some pie-in-the-sky inner vision of truth, it reminded me so much of Komarovsky talking to the young Zhivago.
I loved the scene in which a very sick and weak John hears that Di is visiting upstairs and makes the arduous climb. He is about to faint when they sit down to tea:
"... she was back again beside him, only a voice now, voice among the lilies, which appeared and disappeared at intervals. ... the voice spoke gently and cheerfully from time to time. It was like a wonderful dream in a golden dusk."
Chalmondeley dwells on the way young people's lives are thrown into disarray by love:
"He went into the study and sat down there, staring at the shelves of embodied thought and speculation and aspiration with which at one time he had been content to live, which, now that he had begun to live, seemed entirely beside the mark."
And,
"Who has not experienced, almost with a sense of traitorship to his own nature, how the noblest influences at work upon it may be caught up into the loom of an all-absorbing personal passion, adding a new beauty and dignity to the fabric, but nevertheless changing for the time the pattern of the life?"
There is a fantastic scene at Overleigh when John throws an "ice carnival". It brought back a great memory of skating on a frozen pond in St. Louis as a teenager. At the Overleigh grounds lights and multiple bonfires have been set up. About two thousand people crowd the lake. The old castle is visible in the high background like it's floating on mist. This would be a wonderful movie scene.
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July 25, 2024why am i crying in the club over this one
November 13, 2022
Familiar Victorian ingredients - family secrets, inheritance, romance, murder, a castle ... The proud, dark, powerful hero - ugly this time round - and the very blond, beautiful heroine. You think you know the genre?
I thought so. And then I was surprised how well-written this is. Mary Cholmondeley sets her delightfully sharp pen to her characters, to hypocrisy, selfishness and narrow-mindedness. The independent, introvert hero - honourable, truthful, powerful (of course!) - inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-reliant" man, is set against an equally independent, unconventional, strong heroine who loses her last illusions about the institution of marriage early on. The third main character is a study in narcissism driven to its sombre limits. They are surrounded by a well-developed set of supporting characters, seen with one loving and one satirical eye.
There are scenes I returned to and re-read for the sheer pleasure of the subtlety with which things remain unsaid. Again and again I was reminded that this book was published near the turn of the century, where it oscillates between the periods, between Victorian morals and modern style.
A peculiar, undervalued gem.
I thought so. And then I was surprised how well-written this is. Mary Cholmondeley sets her delightfully sharp pen to her characters, to hypocrisy, selfishness and narrow-mindedness. The independent, introvert hero - honourable, truthful, powerful (of course!) - inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-reliant" man, is set against an equally independent, unconventional, strong heroine who loses her last illusions about the institution of marriage early on. The third main character is a study in narcissism driven to its sombre limits. They are surrounded by a well-developed set of supporting characters, seen with one loving and one satirical eye.
There are scenes I returned to and re-read for the sheer pleasure of the subtlety with which things remain unsaid. Again and again I was reminded that this book was published near the turn of the century, where it oscillates between the periods, between Victorian morals and modern style.
A peculiar, undervalued gem.
January 23, 2016
Credo che in fondo quel che più mi incanta, in questa letteratura vecchia più di un secolo, sia il ritmo, il passo con cui ti conduce dentro una storia, con una 'leisure' dimenticata ai giorni nostri, quando anche le sinfonie vengono ridotte a dieci minuti, i dipinti a poche linee abbozzate e i romanzi a non più di cento pagine da leggere di corsa. Ma il ritmo di un racconto dell'ottocento ti dà tutto il tempo che ti serve per familiarizzare con i personaggi e con il loro ambiente e per farli entrare nel tuo mondo nelle pause tra un capitolo e l'altro, facendoti conseguire il risultato che rende davvero preziosa la lettura, quello di poter moltiplicare per dieci, cento volte la tua unica vita. E sempre più mi stupisco di scoprire tardivamente e per caso queste grandi autrici dimenticate, che meriterebbero un posto di riguardo negli scaffali delle nostre librerie – spesso ingombri del più assoluto, rigoroso nulla.
October 26, 2023
La cuantiosa herencia de los Tempest es recibida por el que todos consideran un hijo ilegítimo del jefe de la familia. El despecho lleva al hermano superficial y derrochador de éste a hacer una apuesta fatal sobre la vida de su sobrino. Una gran escritora británica con una perceptiva mirada sobre la sociedad de la época.
April 17, 2018
Very Jane Austen. The writing was lovely and evocation of time and place. Plot creaky and could see where it is was going from the beginning. Worth reading. Interesting to observe English class system from the safety of 21 century.
September 25, 2025
Another well done Mary Chopmondeley novel, while still Victorian in sensibilities, there is a certain frankness in the way she writes that feels surprisingly refreshing. I will say all of her books I've read all feel like they end very abruptly.
February 12, 2023
Qué maravilla 😍😍😍🤩🤩🤩
January 2, 2024
Es una novela de la época victoriana que se lee muy bien, con una intriga que mantiene el interés hasta el final.
April 13, 2017
See my review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/...
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/...
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