Altogether a much better novel than anyone seems to give it credit for. The prison chapters are intense and powerful; the Australian material is unusual and absorbing. A major influence on Marcus Clarke's classic Australian novel "His Natural Life", which I also heartily recommend. ( )

1467 It Is Never Too Late to Mend: A Matter-of-Fact Romance, by Charles Reade (read 9 Nov 1977) On March 19, 1963, I finished reading Reade's justly famous book The Cloister and the Hearth and enjoyed it greatly. So when I saw this book at a used book sale I bought it (for 35 cents). George Fielding is a poor man in England who wants to marry Susan but cannot afford to. George's brother and John Meadows are also in love with Susan. After much on the prison conditions in England, George goes to Australia to try to make enough money to marry Susan. He writes to Susan but Meadows intercepts all his letters. Much of the book is laid in the gold fields of Australia, where George and a reformed thief are seeking gold. Meadows seeks to marry Susan telling her George has married someone in Australia. The prose seems clumsy, contrived, awfully written, the prison scenes were unfun to read. Yet, towards the end the ridiculous melodrama moves along quickly, and the book had its moments! I'd say much of the book was fairly enjoyable--at least the scenes in Australia and all after that. ( )