The Argosy

This volume of The Argosy (January-June 1883), edited by Mrs. Henry Wood, contains three serialized novels and extensive poetry and short fiction. The lead serial, "Winifred Power," depicts a proud, traditional family—the Hatherleys of Marleyford, a brewery dynasty maintaining old-fashioned furniture and rigid moral codes. Their daughter Mary is moody and resentful over an unnamed romantic disappointment, while her brother John, unmarried at over thirty and devoted to rare book collecting, maintains an impeccable exterior. Family tensions simmer as dinner guests arrive, revealing romantic history: Walter Russell, who once proposed to Mary, is present; meanwhile, family illness and potential inheritance shifts loom.

Additional serials include "Mrs. Carr's Companion" and "The Cruise of the Reserve Squadron" by Charles W. Wood. The issue also contains numerous short stories by various authors, poems by Sydney Grey and others, and illustrations by M. Ellen Edwards. Topics range from domestic drama to verse on classical themes.