Robert Orange by John Oliver Hobbes (1900)

This is the sequel to the author's previous novel The School for Saints, and forms the last part of the life story of a fictional Disraeli-era MP. It is also a notably conservative Catholic piece, and a long way from the author's start in literature as a wit of the early 1890s. In this second part we are primarily in London, where Orange and his beloved Brigit have returned after their continent-wide explorations and intrigues of the previous book. The story is mainly concerned with the eponymous lead man and a group of his intimates, as they realise that they each either love someone else, or are betrothed where they shouldn't be. They are all investigating their options at the prime of life and where they should be led by them. Unfortunately I think too much of the book is taken up with these wonderings - it has a static feeling for long periods. But against that can be laid the author's still aphorismic style - she has a great facility for drawing up and out of a particularity she has created in the plot, and discussing it in poetic and philosophic terms, honing in on a rich and complete statement of exactly what counts in the matter. More's the pity that this aptitude is not directed into humour as it formerly was. The only other concern would be that two of the main characters end up, almost unconvincingly, in holy orders. Orange becomes a monsignor and deserts British politics altogether, and Sara de Treverell, who loved him knowing she couldn't have him because his heart was Brigit's, gets herself to a nunnery. Meanwhile Brigit's very odd course through this history is completed as an accomplished stage actress! Perhaps I'm really trying to say that I don't quite believe in the psychology. It's still a quietly elegant book.