British Library, Day Thirteen

Whole lot of Catholic novels going on today.  There was also a cranky Protestant review of a Catholic novel.

• Mrs. Frank Pettitt, Nunn's Court: A Tale of Church Restoration (J. Masters, 1872).  High Church novel.  Despite the title, there is a serious lack of church restoration until about the last twenty pages.  In any event, young John Trydville Treville, who has strong Christian convictions but not much in the way of eloquence or wit, discovers that the slum Nunn's Court is part of the Trydville estate (this is a vaguely Bleak House-ish Tom All Alone's situation).  Over the next several years, John, his grandmother, and their friends restore Nunn's Court to Christianity, despite momentary depradations brought on by icky evangelicals.  Shortly after the church is restored and John is affianced to young Agnes Murray, he dies (for no particularly obvious reason, plot-wise), leaving Agnes to carry on after him in somewhat Heir of Redclyffe-ish fashion, albeit without marriage or child.  The novel is inspired by Anglo-Catholic missionary work in urban slum areas.  BODY COUNT: One.
• "Uncle Henry," Ouina, the Heathen. A Story of Savage Life (Washbourne, 1892).  Catholic novel.  Ouina, a young African woman, feels a moment of pity for a woman about to be sacrificed, and as a result, Christ speaks to her directly (despite the woman never having heard of Christ and/or Christians).  She rescues the woman and continues to have direct communications from Christ; however, a rival rightly accuses her of setting the woman free, and so she is sentenced to the same death.  Fortunately, Christ erects a force field around Ouina that protects her from wild animals; when her brother, who rescues her, accidentally stabs her when she prevents him from killing a kinsman, both of the men die somehow and she survives.  Caught by a slaver, she meets another woman, Fanasto, and Fanasto too gets to hear from Christ.  They're finally purchased and freed by a Catholic priest, who baptizes them.  Several miracles later, Ouina is martyred, her old rival (now become a warrior queen) dies, and Fanasto escapes.  Unlike many of the other Catholic novels I've been reading recently, the novel isn't shy about spectacularly miraculous interventions (the force field, hearing Christ's voice directly) or mystical visions.  There's considerable emphasis on the importance of baptism. BODY COUNT: Five (Ouina, her rival, two criminals, and a slave-dealer).
• Kathleen O'Meara (a.k.a. Grace Ramsay), The Old House at Picardy (Bentley, 1887).  Catholic novel.  Young Diane Coryval, a Parisian art student, has aspirations, but she is also in love with her old playfellow, Rene.  After the death of Diane's mother, Rene proposes, but his gold-digging father finagles a separation, and Diane goes off to live with her aunt Noemi Brac in Leval.  Eventually, believing that Rene has married, Diane marries her much-older cousin Rupert, under the impression that he knew about Rene (he didn't).  This goes well until Rene comes back, unmarried and, understandably, displeased.  After many temptations, Diane gets Rene to leave Leval, but not until Rupert spots him kissing Diane goodbye.  This...has bad results.  Eventually, after much suffering, Diane and Rupert reconcile, not least because Rene apparently dies in a storm; however, some years later, after Diane has donated a chunk of Rupert's money to good works, Rene pops up again (inexplicably), and they get ready to live happily ever after.  The novel emphasizes the necessity of suffering in shaping a truly religious character and the importance of both acts of contrition and forgiveness.  BODY COUNT: Four.
• Frances Noble, The Temptation of Norah Leecroft (Catholic Truth Society, 1896).  Catholic governess novel with some intriguing similarities to Jane Eyre.  Norah, an orphan, has lived happily with her aunt (an ex-servant and inverted Mrs. Reed) and the nuns (an inverted Mr. Brocklehurst), but now goes off to make a living as a governess to the unbelieving Amersley family.  She soon falls in love with Gerald Amersley (a stern quasi-Rochester), despite his anti-Catholicism, and he with her; eventually, he proposes marriage.  She's such a great contrast to his first wife (an obnoxious woman, if not quite Bertha Mason).  They're soon to be married until she points out that she must be married by a priest and he must agree to raise their children as Catholics--otherwise, no dice.  No dice, indeed, and so she leaves the house and goes off to live with the nice Catholic Lanes (filling in for the Rivers family), where young Captain Lane (a would-be priest turned soldier) proposes; she says no.  Eventually, Gerald converts, she marries him, and Captain Lane treks off to be a priest (see St. John Rivers).  An even more explicit emphasis on the necessity of suffering in this life to be saved in the next, as well as on the dangers of mixed relationships.  BODY COUNT: Zero.