Clouds and Sunshine

It is the London Season! Come into the country! It is hot, and dusty, and muddy here; and this opening of all the drains, which is to bridle all the disorders by and by, poisons us dead meanwhile, O Board of Health! Come into the country! In Oxfordshire, about two miles from the Thames, and on the skirts of the beech forest that lies between Wallingford and Hendley, stands an irregular farmhouse; it looks like two houses forced to pass for one; for one part of it is all gables, and tile, and chimney-corners, and antiquity; the other is square, slated, and of the newest cut outside and in. The whole occupies one entire side of its own farmyard, being separated from the straw only by a small Rubicon of gravel and a green railing; though at its back, out of the general view, is a pretty garden. In this farmhouse and its neighborhood the events of my humble story passed, a very few years ago...

About the Author :
Charles Reade (1814 - 1884) was an English novelist and dramatist, best known for The Cloister and the Hearth. In 1861 Reade published what would become his most famous work, based on a few lines by the medieval humanist Erasmus about the life of his parents. The novel began life as a serial in Once a Week in 1859 under the title "A Good Fight," but when Reade disagreed with the proprietors of the magazine over some of the contentious subject matter (principally the unmarried pregnancy of the heroine), he abruptly curtailed the serialization with a false happy ending, Reade continued to work on the novel, and published it in 1861, thoroughly revised and extended, as "The Cloister and the Hearth." It became recognized as one of the most successful historical novels. Returning from the 15th century to modern English life, he next produced Hard Cash (originally published as Very Hard Cash, 1863), in which he highlighted the abuses of private lunatic asylums. Three more such novels followed: Foul Play (1869), in which he exposed the iniquities of ship-knackers and paved the way for the labors of Samuel Plimsoll; Put Yourself in His Place (1870), in which he dealt with trade unions and A Woman-Hater (1877), in which he continued his commentary on trade unions while also tackling the topic of women doctors.