Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (1904)

This novel is a progression in two ways: it is written by Fowler with a collaborator (her new husband) for the first time; it is also her first novel not to have overtly Christian themes. The sense I get is that it was Felkin's idea and possibly also his first draft, which Fowler then 'improved' with her professional skills, particularly her sparkling wit. If so, it's seamless and a great success. Certainly its lack of overt Christianity would be an inducement toward reprinting nowadays, and I would say that this may even have applied back then. Were Hutchinson salivating at the idea that their 'hampered' author would finally break free of her beliefs and gain even more popularity than the significant reputation and sales she already had? The story is a tale of a fiery and difficult young aristocrat, Kate, whose father, the dufferish Lord Claverley, is rapidly losing control of their beloved family castle and estates. When a wealthy Scots relative dies, leaving Kate her estate, they wonder if all can be saved. But there is a catch: in order to inherit Kate must marry within six months. She isn't exactly amenable to the idea! Men have driven her mad in almost all instances. If she doesn't marry the money goes to other relatives, the Pettigrews, who are nasty unpleasant grasping people. Thereafter several suitors try their luck, encouraged by her parents in various stages of desperation. Living with them is Sapphira Lestrange, Lord Claverley's niece, whose father had been a louche reprobate who is not mentioned unless absolutely necessary. When he sneaks back onto the scene, Sapphira is entangled in a game of cat and mouse. Kate has finally, at the eleventh hour, accepted George Despard, a man she thought she hated even more than all the others for his seemingly insulting behaviour. He was the agent and personal assistant of the aunt who has provisionally left her her fortune. Sapphira's father, the wily and evil Aubrey Lestrange, decides that he wants a piece of the action, teams up with the Pettigrews, cons Sapphira into providing him with information, and is successful. The last minute marriage between George and Kate is prevented by foul means. Then comes an extraordinary conclusion. In the misery of the denouement, when the Claverleys believe all is lost, Despard reveals that because of vows made by he and Kate during play-acting in Scotland, vows which included them claiming each other as husband and wife, that under Scots law they are already genuinely married! Apparently as long as either or both want to claim such a state, having voiced these things among company, and been in Scotland more than three weeks, Scots law allows it. No idea whether or not this is true, or a Fowler and Felkin invention; nevertheless it simultaneously stretches credibility and lends theatrical charm to a bright and witty piece.

Commonplace Book

'...He seemed to her as good as a circulating library: with him she would never lack something to interest her - something to instruct. She had not yet learnt that when a man is as good as literature to a woman, that is friendship: but when he is as good as music to her, that is love. It is not when he has the same effect as a library that he is dangerous, but when he has the same effect as an oratorio. Until then he is a luxury rather than a necessity: and it is a mistake for any woman to tie herself for life to a mere luxury...'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter XXII)

Commonplace Book

'"...I once knew a man who, in a moment of inadvertence, married a woman with convictions."

"And what happened?"

"The poor fellow hesitated for some time between the hangman's rope and a lunatic asylum, and finally decided in favour of the lunatic asylum."

Kate laughed. "I wonder he didn't decide on that at first as the least of two evils."

"He was so afraid of meeting his wife there."'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter XXII)

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'"Claverley, I don't know what to make of that young man," she began; "it seems to me that he is very nervous and excitable, and talks a great deal of nonsense."

"Believe me, my dear Henrietta," Lord Claverley replied, "it is the fashion - quite the rage, in fact - nowadays to talk nonsense; and all the clever people of today are nervous, and what is called highly strung."

"They'd be strung still higher if I had my way," said her ladyship grimly.'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter XXI)

Commonplace Book

'"...To my mind the very expression, 'a happy marriage,' is a contradiction in terms. You might just as well talk about a square circle or a flat mountain or a sensible man."'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter XIV)

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'...At this Kate would fiercely remark that she hated men, and she would like to see the man whom she would swear to honour and obey. With a mournful shake of her head, Lady Dunbar agreed with her; men were by no means better than they should be; it was no doubt a ridiculous thing to put such a word as obey in the marriage service; no nice man would ever expect such a thing from his wife; still Kate was no doubt right in thinking that husbands as a rule were queer creatures, and the less a girl had to do with them the better.'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter XII)

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'Kate walked to the door, her head in the air. "Nothing will induce me to marry, so I tell you so once for all. I hate men, and I'm not going to have one always dangling from my chatelaine to please anybody."

"Tut, tut, my dear, you are endowed with the capacity of making any man supremely miserable. It is a pity that so much talent should be wasted."'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter VIII)

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'...she was not yet old enough to have discovered that a man's eye rather than his tongue points out the way which his heart will probably take. When a man talks to one woman and looks at another, the former need not trouble herself to scintillate: for she may rest assured that her most brilliant remarks are irretrievably foredoomed to oblivion.'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter VI)

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'But Sapphira was inclined to argue. "Quite nice men eat walnuts," she said.

"Well, all I can say is, that if they do, they won't be nice for long; for there is nothing so upsetting to the digestion as walnuts, and nothing so upsetting to the temper as the digestion. It is not the slightest use telling a man to love his wife and not be bitter against her, as long as you allow him to eat walnuts: because it isn't in human nature that he can obey you."'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter II)

Commonplace Book

'...Fortunately for herself - and still more fortunately for Lord Claverley - she was married before it became the fashion for a woman to regard her husband merely as an interesting and instructive social problem, requiring a purely intellectual solution; she belonged to that blessed generation of women who regarded their husbands in very much the same way as men of science regard the great forces of nature - as dimly comprehended powers, mighty and terrible when uncontrolled, but capable, under proper guidance and management, of being adapted to the most ordinary and domestic uses.'

from Kate of Kate Hall by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and Alfred Laurence Felkin (Chapter I)