"Joan Haste"
This is one of Haggard’s Victorian domestic melodramas.
Joan Haste is the daughter of Jane Lacon, and an unknown father. She has been brought up by her aunt, Mrs Gillingwater, who with her ineffectual husband, John, runs the "Crown and Mitre", in the village of Bradmouth, near Ipswich. George Levinger, about whom there is some mystery, is in some manner or other Joan’s guardian, and has paid for her education – which has ill-suited her to live as a village girl, as she feels herself to be a lady.
Apart from Mr Levinger, and his daughter Emma, at Monk’s Gate, the other principles are the Graves family, of Rosham Hall. Sir Reginald Graves, Bt, is elderly, and has left the running of the estate to his eldest son, Reginald. Reginald is killed in a riding accident, and they summon the younger son, Henry, home. Henry, who is 33, is a Royal Navy captain (or so he is styled – though he has only just got his first command – a gunboat – after 18 years service, including many years as a lieutenant).
In obedience to the wishes of his father, his mother Lady Graves, and sister Ellen, Henry resigns from the navy, and takes the estate in hand. Unfortunately, because of the agricultural depression, and the mismanagement of his brother, the estate is heavily mortgaged – and they cannot afford to pay the interest, let alone the principal.
Only one thing can save the family from ruin, that Captain Henry marry an heiress. Fortunately there is one available, Emma Levinger, whose father holds the mortgages, and who is herself said to be half in love with Henry – though he can barely remember her. Ellen is doing her bit by forcing the very rich but rather vulgar Edward Milward to marry her.
Henry is unhappy about marrying for money, but reluctantly admits that he is attracted to Emma. Unfortunately, fate steps in. On the way to visit the Levinger’s at Monk’s Lodge Henry passes the ruins of Ramborough Abbey, where he sees Joan Haste. Offering to help her take some baby birds from the ruined church tower, he manages to fall, causing a serious break of the leg. He is taken to the "Crown and Mitre" for treatment, and ends up staying there for several months, as the injury proves life-threatening. He is nursed by Joan, who falls in love with him, and he is inclined to reciprocate. Indeed, they before more attached than is good for either of them.
Sir Reginald dies, after having told Henry that it was his duty to marry Emma Levinger. But Henry tells his father that this is impossible, because he is under a duty to marry Joan Haste. Sir Reginald is appalled, firstly because this will mean the financial ruin of the family and bankruptcy, and secondly because Joan is no one.
Joan however decides that for the good of Henry – now Sir Henry, and to escape the gossip which is circulating, she will leave Bradmouth. She refuses to marry him, as this would mean his social and financial ruin. With the financial backing of Mr Levinger, she moves to London, where she boards with a dressmaker, Mrs Bird, and her family, working as an assistant in the clothing department of a store. Being a Victorian melodrama, Joan has a brain fever, but recovers.
In order to ensure that Sir Henry will marry Emma Levinger – who he would happily marry if it wasn’t for Joan – Joan agrees to marry the half-mad, but rich Samuel Rock, who is said to be the richest man in Bradmouth, and who has pestered Joan for years. She arranges that Sir Henry is lead to believe that she has renounced him, and bargains with Samuel Rock that she will be able to stay a few months in London. This was so that she could quietly have the baby she was expecting, without anyone at Bradmouth knowing anything about it.
Sir Henry and Emma marry, as do Ellen and Edward Milward. Joan’s baby is born, and soon dies.
Joan returns to Bradmouth so that Samuel Rock can enter into possession, and because Mr Levinger, her quasi-guardian, has asked her to see him. Levinger, who is dying, tells her that she is his daughter, and that he had married her mother. It is Emma who is illegitimate, since he was already married when he married her mother, the daughter of a rich fisherman. He didn’t know this at the time, since Joan’s mother, Jane, had deliberately led him to believe that she was dead – and she died in earnest shortly after returning to Bradmouth with her daughter, Joan.
It was because of the problem of Emma’s parentage that Mr Levinger was keen to see her married to the respectable, if impecunious, Graves family. Levinger isn’t even his real name, was is known to Sir Reginald, and he was actually an Honourable, but had been casheered from a guards regiment for gambling, and has buried himself in the small village to start afresh.
Joan doesn’t want Emma to know the truth, but she arranges a secret meeting with Sir Henry, where she tells him everything – though its too late to do anything about it. Joan now discovers that the intensely jealous Samuel has gone completely round the bend – like his grandfather before him – and is going to kill Sir Henry. He goes out into the hills to waylay him. Joan follows, disguised as Sir Henry. He shoots Joan, thinking it is Sir Henry, but discovers his mistake, and runs off into the countryside like the maniac that he is. Sir Henry, passing him, barely recognises the farmer (his first thought was of the legend of the Ramborough goblin), and discovers Joan’s body. She, of course, survives long enough to make him promise not to tell Emma anything about him and her.
The novel is almost, but not quite, unreadable for a modern reader, due to its melodramatic elements. But there are a few parts of interest, and the characterisation is stronger than some of his works. Interesting, as is often the case, it is the female characters who stand out as better developed – the flawed Joan, the single-minded Ellen, the innocent Emma, and the kindly Mrs Bird. There is also the scheming Mrs Gillingwater, who ends up in gaol for causing grievous bodily harm to John Gillingwater. Sir Henry is erring but dominated by a sense of duty – it's just he was faced with conflicting duties. Edward Milward is shallow and weak, Sir Reginald determined and patrician, Levinger scheming but not ill-intentioned. Samuel Rock is something of a caricature, and would not be out of place in a Dickins story.
The only light note is in the character of the local youth Willie Hood, who crops up at critical moments (such as to get help for the injured Captain Graves), and who has ambitions. Perhaps, like Macawbar, something will turn up.
Compared with the other Victorian melodramas Haggard wrote "Joan Haste" isn't necessarily the least successful. But he deserves to be remembered for his "romances", as his more science fiction or supernatural stories were then called. His straight fiction is bound by conventions which limited his sense of imagination, and kept him from exercising this fully.