The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson

There is, I think, no class of men in London who do their fellow-men a greater amount of injury than those who think themselves competent to advise on matrimonial affairs. I do not mean to include in this censure the writer of matrimonial novels.

Three bachelor-friends as parodic headline + matrimonial slander opening = plot 79.

I do so love a slap,—but I almost think that they call it rape. Well, that is a sort of slap, is it not? ... 'I do believe you're in love with that woman.'

Mrs. Brown brood + Chatauay brothers + Bregli + Mat Salt + Jones wife trio distinct + Robinson subaltern = cast 86.

The wedding was a little hurried. The bridegroom gave the bride his arm and they stood cheek by jowl in the cab, and so departed for Victoria station.

19 chapters ≈ 19 slaps; no subplot ballast → pace 84.

Bregli is no doubt a very bad man, but he is a very clever one. He knows how to feather his nest in such a manner as to make the feathers fly everywhere. He is an excellent lawyer; but his excellence as a lawyer does not arise so much from his knowledge of law as from a certain close acquaintance with mankind.

Compact Trollope comic voice; bare footrun broth; Cleopatra's Needle antifreeze — prose 89.

They all had their hates, as well as their loves;—and they had their crushes. The Piccadilly boys had not as yet heard of Mrs. Brown.

London partnership trade + India-return colonial + Piccadilly debutante market = world 82.

There is, I think, no class of men in London who do their fellow-men a greater amount of injury than those who think themselves competent to advise on matrimonial affairs. I do not mean to include in this censure the writer of matrimonial novels.

Premise declared inside opener — hook 93.

The cab was smashed to pieces, but Cleopatra's Needle stood as firm as ever, or as she had stood for some three thousand years.

Novel-as-business-cycle: the firm survives the cab crashes = innov 85.

Cleopatra's Needle stood as firm as ever, or as she had stood for some three thousand years. The cab was smashed to pieces, but the marriage was not.

Cleopatra's Needle fire → Mat Salt rescue → Robinson post-India courtship → partner-network endgame = ending 82.