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      “No doubt, Theaetetus; I know many orderly people who are quite tired of the Bible, but it is nevertheless a genuine treasury of gold. No, let us have healthy incident, fresh narrative, and true actors — not puttering puppets — on the stage of our ideal novel. Better the prolix Richardson, who at least was true to his intention of representing life and manners, and fell not into masquerading them like the hypocritical divinity that presides over the destiny of the remodelled modern novel. For if the minutiae of daily life are drawn out with tedious exactness, the character of Pamela, for sweet grace and noble dignity in perilous, unexpected situations, stands without a rival in the ranks of fiction; while her shy prudence and native wisdom, her unschooled tact and Christian fidelity to principle, give a rare luster to her beauty and make her worthy of emulation in private life.”

from chapter 14, Seventh “Examination” — Lack of Incident in the Novel
ex Eliza B. Swan, The Opal Queen. By Eliza B. Swan, Author of “Once a Year; or, the Doctor’s Puzzle.” (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1892) : 378
archive.org : link
same (U California) copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
 

Eliza B. Swan (- 1905?).

Find little that can be depended upon. Her Once a Year appeared in 1881, same publisher. A teacher at Woodward High School, Cincinnati, Ohio 1851-53, 1855-59 (source); instructor of Classics at the Mt Auburn Young Ladies’ Institute (in Cincinnati, Ohio; more specifically, instructor of composition, physiology, Latin, rhetoric and history (at Mt Auburn Young Lady's Institute; source)source); possibly graduate of Wesleyan Female College (Cincinnati); and have later lived in/around Oakland, Maryland (source); seems to have been involved in temperance work.

—

The Opal Queen, by Eliza B. Swan, is a story with an unusual amount of quaint originality. Its heroes and heroines move in those circles of wealth and high art-culture which make the shifting scenes of life so fair to look upon. The strongest character touches in the book lie in those of the Opal Queen herself, — whose rare spirit never loses its beauty, even when the golden setting of wealth is rudely torn away, but like the famed jewel whose name she bears, reveals even richer depths of loveliness than before. Detached from the story, but synchronously belonging to it is an entertaining history of the “Monboddo” school of art.

ex “Our Library Table,” in The Union Signal (WCTU, Chicago, Illinois, April 7, 1892)
archive.org : link
 

18 May 2026