[Gutenberg 43169] • Philippa

Philippa, romance,romance novels,romance books,urban fiction,Victorian romance,contemporary woman

Philippa. By Mrs. Molesworth. This story is not quite in the vein which we associate with Mrs. Molesworth, but it is very clever, very fantastic, and very enjoyable. Perhaps it is a rather serious tax upon one's powers of belief to realise Philippa Raynsworth trying to play the part of maid to her own sister, even in the latter's interests. Once, however, this is accepted, it is not difficult to understand the complications that arise when on the one side there is an attrac- tive young woman, and on the other there is more than one attractive young man. Philippa and Bernard Gresham are admirably contrasted. The humour that is necessary to lighten such a story as this is contributed by the dog Solomon,' which is the constant companion of Michael Gresham. The moral of the plot is unimpeachable, inasmuch as we learn that " a life of some restrictions, even possibly of a certain amount of struggle, was before her and Michael, but a life brightened and ennobled by high aims and many worthy interests outside themselves, by, above all, completest confidence and mutual sympathy." The too priggish Bernard Gresham is a good portrait,—the best, indeed, in the book.