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Cometh up as a Flower; An Autobiography

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Rhoda Broughton was a queen of the circulating libraries in the late nineteenth century. This, her second novel (1867), was wildly controversial.

The Times praised its realistic love passages, fresh and racy style and quaint humor. The Athenaeum reviewer condemned its "mixture of slang and sensuality." Mrs. Oliphant, reviewing for Blackwood's, called the novel "disgusting." The Spectator admired the "exuberant mental life of the heroine."

But readers devoured it, and the book's immense popularity made Broughton's fortune. As a twenty-first-century reader, I could hardly believe my good luck in discovering such an original and accomplished writer.

As the story unfolds, the beautiful and passionate young heroine, Eleanor Lestrange, is under tremendous pressure to marry a man she doesn't love. The man she does love is a handsome dragoon without a sixpence.

However it's not the plot that makes this story so deeply satisfying. Rather it's Nell's quirky and forthright character and the rich emotional content of the narrative. Nell's touching love for her father, her struggles with her "she-devil" of a sister and her poignant repartee with her lover are masterfully presented. Equally engaging are Nell's unconventional reflections on morality, nature, society, death and religion.

Cometh Up as a Flower is a fictional autobiography, a literary form familiar to us from Jane Eyre. It's also a story of spiritual awakening, but this is so subtle a subplot that modern readers may not notice it. Broughton is dealing with profound social and moral themes here, but they never diminish the pleasure of the reader, who is swept along by the vivacious prose and mesmerized by the sheer force of Nell's unmaidenly personality.

I loved every minute of this book. Profuse thanks go to Broadview for publishing it, along with the excellent scholarly introduction and appendices. I would welcome additional Broadview reprints of Broughton's novels.