"The Snow Storm: A Christmas Story" by Catherine Gore

Although parts of this had that overblown purple prose too many Victorian authors were fond of, the story was a lovely one, and I especially enjoyed the last few chapters.

The story concerns a small British village next to a large estate.  The estate was purchased by some newly rich people and utterly renovated by them quite recently.  They plan to have a fancy Christmas party there and have invited a lot of friends from London to make merry there with them.

The renovations involved turning an old man out of the farm which his family had tenanted for generations, and he is slowly sinking toward death with the grief of this.  But he has a very cheerful and competent niece (?) who is taking care of him now and has made his poor cottage into a snug home.

The London friends get stuck in a blizzard on their way to the estate and must take shelter where they can.  Naturally, some of them stop at this cottage of the poor, dispossessed old man.  Also naturally, a stranger also stops there who turns out not to be a stranger at all, because this is Victorian Literature and Everyone Must Be Connected Somehow.

Happily, I read enough Victorian books to be cool with that ;-)  I did enjoy the book a lot, though I freely admit to having skimmed some of the more purple parts.

Particularly Good Bits:

The poor were sanguine.  The poor are usually sanguine.  It is one of the few luxuries in which they can indulte.

...she had laughed her way through the labours of life;--guiltless of an unkind word or unfair action:--comprising her moral law in "do as you would be done by;" and her philosophy in "put your shoulder to the wheel; tomorrow's a handier help than yesterday."

If Dinah's whole life, in short, had been one of unmixed prosperity, it could scarcely have left her more thankful, or more thoroughly content.

However cheerless the prospects of the family, the sunshine of her buoyant spirits rendered them light.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Nothing objectionable here.

This is my third book read for the Literary Christmas Reading Challenge, my 59th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022, and my sixth for my fourth Classics Club list.