The Spoils of Poynton (London: William Heinemann, 1897)/Advertisements
The Times.—'Mr. James's stories are a continued protest against superficial workmanship and slovenly style. He is an enthusiast who has devoted himself to keeping alive the sacred fire of genuine literature; and he has his
reward in a circle of constant admirers, whose sympathy encourages him to persevere.'
The Daily News.—'Mr. Henry James is the Meissonier of literary art. In his new volume, we find all the exquisiteness, the precision of touch, that are his characteristic qualities. It is a curiously fascinating volume.'
The Scotsman.—'All the tales are good examples of Mr. James's peculiar art of painting in the softest possible shades of feeling. They have distinction, talent, literature. They cannot but please one who is fond of the gentler
forms of imaginative writing.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'His style is well-nigh perfect, and there are phrases which reveal in admirable combination the skill of the practised craftsman, and the inspiration of the born writer.'
The National Observer.—'The delicate art of Mr. Henry James has rarely been seen to more advantage than in these stories.'
The St. James's Gazette.—'All four stories are delightful for admirable workmanship, for nicety and precision of presentation, and The Way It Came is beyond question a masterpiece.'
The Literary World.—'Admirers of Mr. Henry James will be glad to have this collection of polished stories. There is a fine finish about all his work: no signs of hurry or carelessness disfigure the most insignificant paragraph. Embarrassments is as good as anything he has written. As the work of a sincere and brilliantly clever writer it is welcome.
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'With the exception of The Scapegoat, this is unquestionably the finest and most dramatic of Mr. Hall Caine's novels . . . The Manxman goes very straight to the roots of human passion and emotion. It is a remarkable book, throbbing with human interest.'
The Guardian.—'A story of exceptional power and thorough originality. The greater portion of it is like a Greek tragic drama, in the intensity of its interest, and the depth of its overshadowing gloom. . . . But this tragedy is merely a telling background for a series of brilliant sketches of men and manners, of old-world customs, and forgotten ways of speech which still linger in the Isle of Man.'
The Standard.—'A singularly powerful and picturesque piece of work, extraordinarily dramatic. . . . Taken altogether, The Manxman cannot fail to enhance Mr. Hall Caine's reputation. It is a most powerful book.'
The Morning Post.—'If possible, Mr. Hall Caine's work, The Manxman, is more marked by passion, power, and brilliant local colouring than its predecessors. . . . It has a grandeur as well as strength, and the picturesque features and customs of a delightful country are vividly painted.'
The World.—'Over and above the absorbing interest of the story, which never flags, the book is full of strength, of vivid character sketches, and powerful word-painting, all told with a force and knowledge of local colour.'
The Queen.—'The Manxman is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable books of the century. It will be read and re-read, and take its place in the literary inheritance of the English-speaking nations.'
The St James's Gazette.—'The Manxman is a contribution to literature, and the most fastidious critic would give in exchange for it a wilderness of that deciduous trash which our publishers call fiction. . . . It is not possible to part from The Manxman with anything but a warm tribute of approval.'—Edmund Gosse.
The Christian World.—'There is a great fascination in being present, as it were, at the birth of a classic; and a classic undoubtedly The Manxman is ... He who reads The Manxman feels that he is reading a book which will be read and re-read by very many thousands with human tears and human laughter.'
Mr. T. P. O'Connor, in the 'Sun.'—'This is a very fine and great story—one of the finest and greatest of our time. . . . Mr. Hall Caine reaches heights which are attained only by the greatest masters of fiction. . . . I think of the great French writer, Stendhal, at the same moment as the great English writer. . . . In short, you feel what Mr. Howells said of Tolstoi, "This is not like life; it is life." . . . He belongs to that small minority of the Great Elect of Literature.'
The Scotsman.—'It is not too much to say that it is the most powerful story that has been written in the present generation. . . . The love of Pete, his simple-mindedness, his sufferings when he has lost Kate, are painted with a master-hand. . . . It is a work of genius.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
Mr. Gladstone.—'The Bondman is a work of which I recognise the freshness, vigour, and sustained interest, no less than its integrity of aim.'
The Times.—'It is impossible to deny originality and rude power to this saga, impossible not to admire its forceful directness, and the colossal grandeur of its leading characters.'
The Academy.—'The language of The Bondman is full of nervous, graphic, and poetical English; its interest never flags, and its situations and descriptions are magnificent. It is a splendid novel.'
The Speaker.—'This is the best book that Mr. Hall Caine has yet written, and it reaches a level to which fiction very rarely attains. . . . We are, in fact, so loth to let such good work be degraded by the title of "novel" that we are almost tempted to consider its claim to rank as a prose epic.'
The Scotsman.—'Mr. Hall Caine has in this work placed himself beyond the front rank of the novelists of the day. He has produced a story which, for the ingenuity of its plot, for its literary excellence, for its delineations of human passions, and for its intensely powerful dramatic scenes, is distinctly ahead of all the fictional literature of our time, and fit to rank with the most powerful fictional writing of the past century.'
The Athenæum.—'Crowded with incidents.'
The Observer.—'Many of the descriptions are picturesque and powerful. . . . As fine in their way as anything in modern literature.'
The Liverpool Mercury.—'A story which will be read, not by his contemporaries alone, but by later generations, so long as its chief features—high emotion, deep passion, exquisite poetry, and true pathos—have power to delight and to touch the heart.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'It is the product of a strenuous and sustained imaginative effort far beyond the power of any every-day story-teller.'
The Scots Observer.—'In none of his previous works has he approached the splendour of idealism which flows through The Bondman.'
The Manchester Guardian.—'A remarkable story, painted with vigour and brilliant effect.'
The St James's Gazette.—'A striking and highly dramatic piece of fiction.'
The Literary World.—'The book abounds in pages of great force and beauty, and there is a touch of almost Homeric power in its massive and grand simplicity,'
The Liverpool Post.—'Graphic, dramatic, pathetic, heroic, full of detail, crowded with incident and inspired by a noble purpose. '
The Yorkshire Post.—'A book of lasting interest.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
Mr. Gladstone writes:—'I congratulate you upon The Scapegoat as a work of art, and especially upon the noble and skilfully drawn character of Israel.'
Mr. Walter Besant, in 'The Author.'—'Nearly every year there stands out a head and shoulders above its companions one work which promises to make the year memorable. This year a promise of lasting vitality is distinctly made by Mr. Hall Caine's Scapegoat. It is a great book, great in conception and in execution; a strong book, strong in situation and in character; and a human book, human in its pathos, its terror, and its passion.'
The Times.—'In our judgment it excels in dramatic force all the Author's previous efforts. For grace and touching pathos Naomi is a character which any romancist in the world might be proud to have created, and the tale of her parents' despair and hopes, and of her own development, confers upon The Scapegoat a distinction which is matchless of its kind.'
The Guardian.—'Mr. Hall Caine is undoubtedly master of a style which is peculiarly his own. He is in a way a Rembrandt among novelists. His figures, striking and powerful rather than beautiful, stand out, with the ruggedness of their features developed and accentuated, from a background of the deepest gloom. . . . Every sentence contains a thought, and every word of it is balanced and arranged to accumulate the intensity of its force.'
The Athenæum.—'It is a delightful story to read.'
The Academy.—'Israel ben Oliel is the third of a series of the most profoundly conceived characters in modern fiction.'
The Saturday Review.—'This is the best novel which Mr. Caine has yet produced.'
The Literary World.—'The lifelike renderings of the varied situations, the gradual changes in a noble character, hardened and lowered by the world's cruel usage, and returning at last to its original grandeur, can only be fully appreciated by a perusal of the book as a whole.'
The Anti-Jacobin.—'It is, in truth, a romance of fine poetic quality. Israel Ben Oliel, the central figure of the tale, is sculptured rather than drawn: a character of grand outline. A nobler piece of prose than the death of Ruth we have seldom met with.'
The Scotsman.—'The new story will rank with Mr. Hall Caine's previous productions. Nay, it will in some respects rank above them. It will take its place by the side of the Hebrew histories in the Apocrypha. It is nobly and manfully written. It stirs the blood and kindles the imagination.'
The Scottish Leader.—'The Scapegoat is a masterpiece.'
Truth.—'Mr. Hall Caine has been winning his way slowly, but surely, and securely, I think also, to fame. You must by all means read his absorbing Moorish romance, The Scapegoat.'
The Jewish World.—'Only one who had studied Moses could have drawn that grand portrait of Israel ben Oliel.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Athenæum.—'It is so full of interest, and the characters are so eccentrically humorous yet true, that one feels inclined to pardon all its faults, and give oneself up to unreserved enjoyment of it. . . . The twins Angelica and Diavolo, young barbarians, utterly devoid of all respect, conventionality, or decency, are among the most delightful and amusing children in fiction.'
The Academy.—'The adventures of Diavolo and Angelica—the "heavenly twins"—are delightfully funny. No more original children were ever put into a book. Their audacity, unmanageableness, and genius for mischief—in none of which qualities, as they are here shown, is there any taint of vice—are refreshing; and it is impossible not to follow, with very keen interest, the progress of these youngsters.'
The Daily Telegraph.—'Everybody ought to read it, for it is an inexhaustible source of refreshing and highly stimulating entertainment.'
The World.—'There is much powerful and some beautiful writing in this strange book.'
The Westminster Gazette.—'Sarah Grand . . . has put enough observation, humour, and thought into this book to furnish forth half-a-dozen ordinary novels.'
Punch.—'The Twins themselves are a creation: the epithet "Heavenly" for these two mischievous little fiends is admirable.'
The Queen.—'There is a touch of real genius in The Heavenly Twins.'
The Guardian.—'Exceptionally brilliant in dialogue, and dealing with modern society life, this book has a purpose to draw out and emancipate women.'
The Lady.—'Apart from its more serious interest, the book should take high rank on its literary merits alone. Its pages are brimful of good things, and more than one passage, notably the episode of "The Boy and the Tenor," is a poem complete in itself, and worthy of separate publication.'
The Manchester Examiner.—'As surely as Tess of the D'Urbervilles swept all before it last year, so surely has Sarah Grand's Heavenly Twins provoked the greatest attention and comment this season. It is a most daringly original work. . . . Sarah Grand is a notable Woman's Righter, but her book is the one asked for at Mudie's, suburban, and seaside libraries, and discussed at every hotel table in the kingdom. The episode of the "Tenor and the Boy" is of rare beauty, and is singularly delicate and at the same time un-English in treatment.'
The New York Critic.—'It is written in an epigrammatic style, and, besides its cleverness, has the great charm of freshness, enthusiasm, and poetic feeling.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Morning Post.—'Sarah Grand's Ideala. . . . A clever book in itself, is especially interesting when read in the light of her later works. Standing alone, it is remarkable as the outcome of an earnest mind seeking in good faith the solution of a difficult and ever present problem. . . . Ideala is original and somewhat daring. . . . The story is in many ways delightful and thought-suggesting.'
The Literary World.—'When Sarah Grand came before the public in 1888 with Ideala, she consciously and firmly laid her finger on one of the keynotes of the age. . . . We welcome an edition that will place this minute and careful study of an interesting question within reach of a wider circle of readers.'
The Liverpool Mercury.—'The book is a wonderful one—an evangel for the fair sex, and at once an inspiration and a comforting companion, to which thoughtful womanhood will recur again and again.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'Ideala has attained the honour of a fifth edition. . . . The stir created by The Heavenly Twins, the more recent work by the same authoress, Madame Sarah Grand, would justify this step. Ideala can, however, stand on its own merits.'
The Yorkshire Post.—'As a psychological study the book cannot fail to be of interest to many readers.'
The Birmingham Gazette.—'Madame Sarah Grand thoroughly deserves her success. Ideala, the heroine, is a splendid conception, and her opinions are noble. . . . The book is not one to be forgotten.'
The Woman's Herald.—'One naturally wishes to know something of the woman for whose sake Lord Downe remained a bachelor. It must be confessed that at first Ideala is a little disappointing. She is strikingly original. ... As the story advances one forgets these peculiarities, and can find little but sympathy and admiration for the many noble qualities of a very complex character.'
The Englishman.—'Madame Sarah Grand's work is far from being a common work. Ideala is a clever young woman of great capabilities and noble purposes. . . . The orginality of the book does not lie in the plot, but in the authoress's power to see and to describe the finer shades of a character which is erratic and impetuous, but above all things truly womanly.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Daily Telegraph.—'Six stories by the gifted writer who still chooses to be known to the public at large by the pseudonym of "Sarah Grand." In regard to them it is sufficient to say that they display all the qualities, stylistic, humorous, and pathetic, that have placed the author of Ideala and The Heavenly Twins in the very front rank of contemporary novelists.'
The Globe.—'Brief studies of character, sympathetic, and suggesting that "Sarah Grand" can do something more than startle by her unconventionality and boldness.'
The Ladies' Pictorial.—'If the volume does not achieve even greater popularity than Sarah Grand's former works, it will be a proof that fashion, and not intrinsic merit, has a great deal to do with the success of a book.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'All are eminently entertaining.'
The Spectator.—'Insight into, and general sympathy with widely differing phases of humanity, coupled with power to reproduce what is seen, with vivid distinct strokes, that rivet the attention, are qualifications for work of the kind contained in Our Manifold Nature which Sarah Grand evidently possesses in a high degree. . . . All these studies, male and female alike, are marked by humour, pathos, fidelity to life, and power to recognise in human nature the frequent recurrence of some apparently incongruous and remote trait, which, when at last it becomes visible, helps to a comprehension of what might otherwise be inexplicable.'
The Speaker.—'In Our Manifold Nature Sarah Grand is seen at her best. How good that is can only be known by those who read for themselves this admirable little volume. In freshness of conception and originality of treatment these stories are delightful, full of force and piquancy, whilst the studies of character are carried out with equal firmness and delicacy.'
The Guardian.—'Our Manifold Nature is a clever book. Sarah Grand has the power of touching common things, which, if it fails to make them "rise to touch the spheres," renders them exceedingly interesting.'
The Morning Post.—'Unstinted praise is deserved by the Irish story, "Boomellen," a tale remarkable both for power and pathos.'
The Court Journal.—'Our Manifold Nature is simply full of good things, and it is essentially a book to buy as well as to read.'
The Birmingham Gazette.—'Mrs. Grand has genuine power. She analyses keenly. . . . Her humour is good, and her delineation of character one of her strongest points. The book is one to be read, studied, and acted upon.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'This is a novel of sensation. But the episodes and incidents, although thrilling enough, are consistently subordinated to sensationalism of character. . . . There is just enough of the coral reef and the palm groves, of cerulean sky and pellucid water, to indicate rather than to present the local colouring. Yet when he dashes in a sketch it is done to perfection. . . . We see the scene vividly unrolled before us.'
The Daily Telegraph.—'The story is full of strong scenes, depicted with a somewhat lavish use of violet pigments, such as, perhaps, the stirring situations demand. Here and there, however, are purple patches, in which Mr. Stevenson shows all his cunning literary art—the description of the coral island, for instance. . . . Some intensely graphic and dramatic pages delineate the struggle which causes, and a final scene . . . concludes this strange fragment from the wild life of the South Sea.'
The St. James's Gazette.—'The book takes your imagination and attention captive from the first chapter—nay, from the first paragraph—and it does not set them free till the last word has been read.'
The Standard.—'Mr. Stevenson gives such vitality to his characters, and so clear an outlook upon the strange quarter of the world to which he takes us, that when we reach the end of the story, we come back to civilisation with a start of surprise, and a moment's difficulty in realising that we have not been actually away from it.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'We are swept along without a pause on the current of the animated and vigorous narrative. Each incident and adventure is told with that incomparable keenness of vision which is Mr. Stevenson's greatest charm as a story-teller.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'It is brilliantly invented, and it is not less brilliantly told. There is not a dull sentence in the whole run of it. And the style is fresh, alert, full of surprises in fact, is very good latter-day Stevenson indeed.'
The World.—'It is amazingly clever, full of that extraordinary knowledge of human nature which makes certain creations of Mr. Stevenson's pen far more real to us than persons we have met in the flesh. Grisly the book undoubtedly is, with a strength and a vigour of description hardly to be matched in the language. ... But it is just because the book is so extraordinarily good that it ought to be better, ought to be more of a serious whole than a mere brilliant display of fireworks, though each firework display has more genius in it than is to be found in ninety-nine out of every hundred books supposed to contain that rare quality.'
The Morning Post.—'Boldly conceived, probing some of the darkest depths of the human soul, the tale has a vigour and breadth of touch which have been surpassed in none of Mr. Stevenson's previous works. . . . We do not, of course, know how much Mr. Osbourne has contributed to the tale, but there is no chapter in it which any author need be unwilling to acknowledge, or which is wanting in vivid interest.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
Morning Post.—'The merits of the book are great. Its range of observation is wide; its sketches of character are frequently admirably drawn. . . . It is extremely refreshing, after a surfeit of recent fiction of the prevalent type, to welcome a really clever work by a writer who is certainly not hampered by conventional prejudice.'
The Queen.—'It is impossible to deny the greatness of a book like The Master, a veritable human document, in which the characters do exactly as they would in life. . . . I venture to say that Matt himself is one of the most striking and original characters in our fiction, and I have not the least doubt that The Master will always be reckoned one of our classics.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'It is a powerful and masterly piece of work. . . Quite the best novel of the year.'
Literary World.—'In The Master, Mr. Zangwill has eclipsed all his previous work. This strong and striking story of patience and passion, of sorrow and success, of art, ambition, and vain gauds, is genuinely powerful in its tragedy, and picturesque in its completeness. . . . The work, thoroughly wholesome in tone, is of sterling merit, and strikes a truly tragic chord, which leaves a deep impression upon the mind.'
Jewish World.—'For a novel to be a work that shall live, and not merely please the passing taste of a section of the public, it must palpitate with the truth of human experience and human feeling. . . . Such a novel is The Master, Mr. Zangwill's latest, and assuredly one of his best works. Interest in the story is sustained from beginning to end. From the first page to the last we get a series of vivid pictures that make us feel, as well as understand, not only the personality and environment of his characters, but the motives that compel, like fate, their words and actions.'
Leeds Mercury.—'The Master is impassioned and powerful, and, in our judgment, is vastly superior to Children of the Ghetto. From the first page to the last the book is quick with life, and not less quick surprises. . . . The impression which the book leaves is deep and distinct, and the power, from start to finish, of such a delineation of life is unmistakable.'
Liverpool Mercury.—'The accomplished author of Children of the Ghetto has given us in The Master a book written with marvellous skill, and characterised by vivid imaginative power. It is not a volume to be taken up and despatched in a leisure evening, but one to be studied and enjoyed in many an hour of quiet, or to be read aloud in the family circle, when the toils of the day have given place to retirement and peace.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'From whatever point of view we regard it, it is a remarkable book.'
The Athenæum.—'The chief interest of the book lies in the wonderful description of the Whitechapel Jews. The vividness and force with which Mr. Zangwill brings before us the strange and uncouth characters with which he has peopled his book are truly admirable. . . . Admirers of Mr. Zangwill's fecund wit will not fail to find flashes of it in these pages.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'Altogether we are not aware of any such minute, graphic, and seemingly faithful picture of the Israel of nineteenth century London. . . . The book has taken hold of us.'
The Spectator.—'Esther Ansell, Raphael Leon, Mrs. Henry Goldsmith, Reb Shemuel, and the rest, are living creations.'
The Speaker.—'A strong and remarkable book.'
The National Observer.—'To ignore this book is not to know the East End Jew.'
The Guardian.—'A novel such as only our own day could produce. A masterly study of a complicated psychological problem in which every factor is handled with such astonishing dexterity and intelligence that again and again we are tempted to think a really good book has come into our hands.'
The Graphic.—'Absolutely fascinating. Teaches how closely akin are laughter and tears. '
Black and White.—'A moving panorama of Jewish life, full of truth, full of sympathy, vivid in the setting forth, and occasionally most brilliant. Such a book as this has the germs of a dozen novels. A book to read, to keep, to ponder over, to remember.'
W. Archer in 'The World.'—'The most powerful and fascinating book I have read for many a long day.'
Land and Water.—'The most wonderful multi-coloured and brilliant description. Dickens has never drawn characters of more abiding individuality. An exceeding beautiful chapter is the honeymoon of the Hyams. Charles Kingsley in one of his books makes for something of the same sort. But his idea is not half so tender and faithful, nor his handling anything like so delicate and natural.'
Andrew Lang in 'Longman's Magazine.'—'Almost every kind of reader will find Children of the Ghetto interesting.'
T. P. O'Connor in 'The Weekly Sun.'—'Apart altogether from its great artistic merits, from its clear portraits, its subtle and skilful analysis of character, its pathos and its humour, this book has, in my mind, an immense interest as a record of a generation that has passed and of struggles that are yet going on.'
The Manchester Guardian.—'The best Jewish novel ever written.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
Grotesques and Fantasies
By I. ZANGWILL
With over Ninety Illustrations by Phil May and Others
In One. Volume, price 6s.
The Athenæum.—'Several of Mr. Zangwill's contemporary Ghetto characters have already become almost classical; but in The King of Schnorrers he goes back to the Jewish community of the eighteenth century for the hero of his principal story; and he is indeed a stupendous hero . . . anyhow, he is well named the king of beggars. The illustrations, by Phil May, add greatly to the attraction of the book.'
The Saturday Review.—'Mr. Zangwill has created a new figure in fiction, and a new type of humour. The entire series of adventures is a triumphant progress. . . . Humour of a rich and active character pervades the delightful history of Manasses. Mr. Zangwill's book is altogether very good reading. It is also very cleverly illustrated by Phil May and other artists.'
The Literary World.—'Of Mr. Zangwill's versatility there is ample proof in this new volume of stories. . . . More noticeable and welcome to us, as well as more characteristic of the author, are the fresh additions he has made to his long series of studies of Jewish life.'
The St. James's Gazette.—'The King of Schnorrers is a very fascinating story. Mr. Zangwill returns to the Ghetto, and gives us a quaint old-world picture as a most appropriate setting for his picturesque hero, the beggar-king. . . . Good as the story of the arch-schnorrer is, there is perhaps an even better "Yiddish" tale in this book. This is "Flutter-Duck." . . . Let us call attention to the excellence, as mere realistic vivid description, of the picture of the room and atmosphere and conditions in which Flutter-Duck and her circle dwelt; there is something of Dickens in this. '
The Daily Telegraph.—'The King of Schnorrers, like Children of the Ghetto, depicts the habits and characteristics of Israel in London with painstaking elaborateness and apparent verisimilitude. The King of Schnorrers is a character-sketch which deals with the manners and customs of native and foreign Jews as they "lived and had their being" in the London of a century and a quarter ago.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'It is a beautiful story. The King of Schnorrers is that great rarity—an entirely new thing, that is as good as it is new.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'On the whole, the book does justice to Mr. Zangwill's rapidly-growing reputation, and the character of Manasseh ought to live.'
The World.—'The exuberant and even occasionally overpowering humour of Mr. Zangwill is at his highest mark in his new volume, The King of Schnorrers.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Cambridge (University) Review.—'That the book will have readers in a future generation we do not doubt, for there is much in it that is of lasting merit. '
The Graphic.—'It might be worth the while of some industrious and capable person with plenty of leisure to reproduce in a volume of reasonable size the epigrams and other good things witty and serious which The Premier and the Painter contains. There are plenty of them, and many are worth noting and remembering.'
St. James's Gazette.—'The satire hits all round with much impartiality; while one striking situation succeeds another till the reader is altogether dazzled. The story is full of life and "go" and brightness, and will well repay perusal.'
The Athenæum.—'In spite of its close print and its five hundred pages The Premier and the Painter is not very difficult to read. To speak of it, however, is difficult. It is the sort of book that demands yet defies quotation for one thing; and for another it is the sort of book the description of which as "very clever" is at once inevitable and inadequate. In some ways it is original enough to be a law unto itself, and withal as attractive in its whimsical, wrong-headed way, as at times it is tantalising, bewildering, even tedious. The theme is politics and politicians, and the treatment, while for the most part satirical and prosaic, is often touched with sentiment, and sometimes even with a fantastic kind of poetry. The several episodes of the story are wildly fanciful in themselves and are clumsily connected; but the streak of humorous cynicism which shows through all of them is both curious and pleasing. Again, it has to be claimed for the author that as is shown to admiration by his presentation of the excellent Mrs. Dawe and her cookshop he is capable, when he pleases, of insight and observation of a high order, and therewith of a masterly sobriety of tone. But he cannot be depended upon for the length of a single page; he seeks his effects and his material when and where he pleases. In some respects his method is not, perhaps, altogether unlike Lord Beaconsfield's. To our thinking, however, he is strong enough to go alone, and to go far.'
The World.—'Undeniably clever, though with a somewhat mixed and eccentric cleverness.'
The Morning Post.—'The story is described as a "fantastic romance," and, indeed, fantasy reigns supreme from the first to the last of its pages. It relates the history of our time with humour and well-aimed sarcasm. All the most prominent characters of the day, whether political or otherwise, come in for notice. The identity of the leading politicians is but thinly veiled, while many celebrities appear in propriâ personâ. Both the "Premier" and "Painter" now and again find themselves in the most critical situations. Certainly this is not a story that he who runs may read, but it is cleverly original, and often lightened by bright flashes of wit.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'He is a remarkably even writer. And this novel is almost as good a medium as any other for studying the delicacy and dexterity of his workmanship.'
The National Observer.—'Interesting and well written, as all Mr. Norris's stories are.'
The Morning Post.—'The fidelity of his portraiture is remarkable, and it has rarely appeared to so much advantage as in this brilliant novel.'
The Saturday Review.—'The Countess Radna, which its author not unjustly describes as "an unpretending tale," avoids, by the grace of its style and the pleasant accuracy of its characterisation, any suspicion of boredom.'
The Daily News.—'The Countess Radna contains many of the qualities that make a story by this writer welcome to the critic. It is caustic in style, the character drawing is clear, the talk natural; the pages are strewn with good things worth quoting.'
The Speaker.—'In style, skill in construction, and general "go," it is worth a dozen ordinary novels.'
The Academy.—'As a whole, the book is decidedly well written, while it is undeniably interesting. It is bright and wholesome: the work in fact of a gentleman and a man who knows the world about which he writes.'
Black and White.—'The novel, like all Mr. Norris's work is an excessively clever piece of work, and the author never for a moment allows his grasp of his plot and his characters to slacken.'
The Gentlewoman.—'Mr. Norris is a practised hand at his craft. He can write bright dialogue and clear English, too.
The Literary World.—'His last novel, The Countess Radna, is an excellent sample of his style. The plot is simple enough. But the story holds the attention and insists upon being read; and it is scarcely possible to say anything more favourable of a work of fiction.'
The Scotsman.—'The story, in which there is more than a spice of modern life romance, is an excellent study of the problem of mixed marriage. The book is one of good healthy reading, and reveals a fine broad view of life and human nature.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'This is an unusually fresh and well-written story. The tone is thoroughly healthy; and Mr. Norris, without being in the least old-fashioned, manages to get along without the aid of pessimism, psychology, naturalism, or what is known as frank treatment of the relations between the sexes.'
The Westminster Gazette.—'Mr. Norris writes throughout with much liveliness and force, saying now and then something that is worth remembering. And he sketches his minor characters with a firm touch.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Speaker.—'A Victim of Good Luck is one of those breezy stories of his in which the reader finds himself moving in good society, among men or women who are neither better nor worse than average humanity, but who always show good manners and good breeding. . . . Suffice it to say that the story is as readable as any we have yet had from the same pen.'
The Daily Telegraph.—'A Victim of Good Luck is one of the brightest novels of the year, which cannot but enhance its gifted author's well-deserved fame and popularity.'
The World.—'Here is Mr. Norris in his best form again, giving us an impossible story with such imperturbable composure, such quiet humour, easy polish, and irresistible persuasiveness, that he makes us read A Victim of Good Luck right through with eager interest and unflagging amusement without being aware, until we regretfully reach the end, that it is just a farcical comedy in two delightful volumes.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'It has not a dull page from first to last. Any one with normal health and taste can read a book like this with real pleasure.'
The Globe.—'Mr. W. E. Norris is a writer who always keeps us on good terms with ourselves. We can pick up or lay down his books at will, but they are so pleasant in style and equable in tone that we do not usually lay them down till we have mastered them; A Victim of Good Luck is a more agreeable novel than most of this author's.'
The Westminster Gazette.—'A Victim of Good Luck is in Mr. Norris's best vein, which means that it is urbane, delicate, lively, and flavoured with a high quality of refined humour. Altogether a most refreshing book, and we take it as a pleasant reminder that Mr. Norris is still very near his highwater mark. '
The Spectator.—'Mr. Norris displays to the full his general command of narrative expedients which are at once happily invented and yet quite natural which seem to belong to their place in the book, just as a keystone belongs to its place in the arch. . . . The brightest and cleverest book which Mr. Norris has given us since he wrote The Rogue.'
The Saturday Review.—'Novels which are neither dull, unwholesome, morbid, nor disagreeable, are so rare in these days, that A Victim of Good Luck . . . ought to find a place in a book-box filled for the most part with light literature. . . . We think it will increase the reputation of an already very popular author.'
The Scotsman.—'A Victim of Good Luck, like others of this author's books, depends little on incident and much on the conception and drawing of character, on clever yet natural conversation, and on the working out, with masterly ease, of a novel problem of right and inclination. '
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Pall Mall Budget.—'For this week the only novel worth mentioning is Mrs. Steel's The Potter's Thumb. Her admirable From the Five Rivers, since it dealt with native Indian life, was naturally compared with Mr. Kipling's stories. In The Potter's Thumb the charm which came from the freshness of them still remains. Almost every character is convincing, and some of them excellent to a degree. '
The Globe.—'This is a brilliant story—a story that fascinates, tingling with life, steeped in sympathy with all that is best and saddest.'
The Manchester Guardian.—'The impression left upon one after reading The Potter's Thumb is that a new literary artist, of very great and unusual gifts, has arisen. . . . In short, Mrs. Steel must be congratulated upon having achieved a very genuine and amply deserved success.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'A clever story which, in many respects, brings India very near to its readers. The novel is certainly one interesting alike to the Anglo-Indian and to those untravelled travellers who make their only voyages in novelists' romantic company.'
The Scotsman.—'It is a capital story, full of variety and movement, which brings with great vividness before the reader one of the phases of Anglo-Indian life. Mrs. Steel writes forcibly and sympathetically, and much of the charm of the picture which she draws lies in the force with which she brings out the contrast between the Asiatic and European world. The Potter's Thumb is very good reading, with its mingling of the tragedy and comedy of life. Its evil woman par excellence . . . is a finished study.'
The Westminster Gazette.—'A very powerful and tragic story. Mrs. Steel gives us again, but with greater elaboration than before, one of those strong, vivid, and subtle pictures of Indian life which we have learnt to expect from her. To a reader who has not been in India her books seem to get deeper below the native crust, and to have more of the instinct for the Oriental than almost anything that has been written in this time.'
The Leeds Mercury.—'The Potter's Thumb is a powerful story of the mystical kind, and one which makes an instant appeal to the imagination of the reader. . . . There is an intensity of vision in this story which is as remarkable as it is rare, and the book, in its vivid and fascinating revelations of life, and some of its limitations, is at once brilliant and, in the deepest and therefore least demonstrative sense, impassioned.'
The National Observer.—'A romance of East and West, in which the glamour, intrigue, and superstition of India are cunningly interwoven and artfully contrasted with the bright and changeable aspects of modern European society. "Love stories," as Mr. Andrew Lang once observed, "are best done by women"; and Mrs. Steel's treatment of Rose Tweedie's love affair with Lewis Gordon is a brilliant instance in point. So sane and delightful an episode is rare in fiction now-a-days.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'Time was when these sketches of native Punjabi society would have been considered a curiosity in literature. They are sufficiently remarkable, even in these days, when interest in the "dumb millions" of India is thoroughly alive, and writers, great and small, vie in ministering to it. They are the more notable as being the work of a woman. Mrs. Steel has evidently been brought into close contact with the domestic life of all classes, Hindu and Mahomedan, in city and village, and has steeped herself in their customs and superstitions. . . . Mrs. Steel's book is of exceptional merit and freshness.'
Vanity Fair.—'Stories of the Punjaub—evidently the work of one who has an intimate knowledge of, and a kindly sympathy for, its people. It is to be hoped that this is not the last book of Indian stories that Mrs. Steel will give us. '
The Spectator.—'Merit, graphic force, and excellent local colouring are conspicuous in Mrs. Steel's From the Five Rivers, and the short stories of which the volume is composed are evidently the work of a lady who knows what she is writing about.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'This is a collection of sketches of Hindu life, full for the most part of brilliant colouring and cleverly wrought in dialect. The writer evidently knows her subject, and she writes about it with unusual skill.'
The North British Daily Mail.—'In at least two of the sketches in Mrs. Steel's book we have a thoroughly descriptive delineation of life in Indian, or rather, Hindoo, villages. "Ganesh Chunel" is little short of a masterpiece, and the same might be said of "Shah Sujah's Mouse." In both we are made the spectator of the conditions of existence in rural India. The stories are told with an art that conceals the art of story-telling.'
The Athenæum.—'They possess this great merit, that they reflect the habits, modes of life, and ideas of the middle and lower classes of the population of Northern India better than do systematic and more pretentious works.'
The Leeds Mercury.—'By no means a book to neglect. . . . It is written with brains. . . . Mrs. Steel understands the life which she describes, and she has sufficient literary art to describe it uncommonly well. These short stories of Indian life are, in fact, quite above the average of stories long or short. . . . There is originality, insight, sympathy, and a certain dramatic instinct in the portrayal of character about the book.'
The Globe.—'She puts before us the natives of our Empire in the East as they live and move and speak, with their pitiful superstitions, their strange fancies, their melancholy ignorance of what poses with us for knowledge and civilisation, their doubt of the new ways, the new laws, the new people. "Shah Sujah's Mouse," the gem of the collection—a touching tale of unreasoning fidelity towards an English "Sinny Baba"—is a tiny bit of perfect writing.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Standard.—'The Last Sentence is a remarkable story; it abounds with dramatic situations, the interest never for a moment flags, and the characters are well drawn and consistent.'
The Saturday Review.—'There is a great deal as well as a great variety of incident in the story, and more than twenty years are apportioned to it; but it never seems over-crowded, nor has it the appearance of several stories rolled into one. The Last Sentence is a remarkable novel, and the more so because its strong situations are produced without recourse to the grosser forms of immorality. '
The Daily Telegraph.—'One of the most powerful and adroitly-worked-out plots embodied in any modern work of fiction runs through The Last Sentence. . . . This terrible tale of retribution is told with well-sustained force and picturesqueness, and abounds in light as well as shade.'
The Morning Post.—'Maxwell Gray has the advantage of manner that is both cultured and picturesque, and while avoiding even the appearance of the melodramatic, makes coming events cast a shadow before them so as to excite and entertain expectation. . . . It required the imagination of an artist to select the kind of Nemesis which finally overtakes this successful evil-doer, and which affords an affecting climax to a rather fascinating tale. '
The Glasgow Herald.—'This is a very strong story. . . . It contains much rich colouring, some striking situations, and plenty of thoroughly living characters. The interest is of a varied kind, and, though the hero is an aristocrat, the pictures of human life are by no means confined to the upper circles.'
The Leeds Mercury.—'It shows a command of the resources of the novelist's art which is by no means common, and it has other qualities which lift it far above the average level of the circulating library. It is written with a literary grace and a moral insight which are seldom at fault, and from first to last it is pervaded with deep human interest. '
The Queen.—'Maxwell Gray has a certain charm and delicacy of style. She has mastered the subtleties of a particular type of weak character until she may be almost called its prophet.'
The Lady's Pictorial.—'The book is a clever and powerful one. . . . Cynthia Marlowe will live in our memories as a sweet and noble woman; one of whom it is a pleasure to think of beside some of the 'emancipated ' heroines so common in the fiction of the day.'
The Manchester Courier.—'The author of The Silence of Dean Maitland gives to the reading world another sound and magnificent work. . . . In both these works Maxwell Gray has taken "Nemesis" as his grand motif. In each work there sits behind the hero that atra cura which poisons the wholesome draught of human joy. In each is present the corroding blight that comes of evil done and not discovered.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Athenæum.—'There is no one but Mr. Kipling who can make his readers taste and smell, as well as see and hear, the East; and in this book (if we except the description of Tarvin's adventures in the deserted city of Gunvaur, which is perhaps less clear-cut than usual) he has surely surpassed himself. In his faculty for getting inside the Eastern mind and showing its queer workings Mr. Kipling stands alone.'
The Academy.—'The Naulahka contains passages of great merit. There are descriptions scattered through its pages which no one but Mr. Kipling could have written. . . Whoever reads this novel will find much of it hard to forget . . . and the story of the exodus from the hospital will rank among the best passages in modern fiction.'
The Times.—'A happy idea, well adapted to utilize the respective experience of the joint authors. . . . An excellent story. . . . The dramatic train of incident, the climax of which is certainly the interview between Sitabhai and Tarvin, the alternate crudeness and ferocity of the girl-queen, the susceptibility of the full-blooded American, hardly kept in subjection by his alertness and keen eye to business, the anxious eunuch waiting in the distance with the horses, and fretting as the stars grow paler and paler, the cough of the tiger slinking home at the dawn after a fruitless night's hunt—the whole forms a scene not easily effaced from the memory.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'An entrancing story beyond doubt. . . . The design is admirable to bring into violent contrast and opposition the widely differing forces of the Old World and the New and while, of course, it could have been done without the use of Americanese, yet that gives a wonderful freshness and realism to the story. The design is a bold one, and it has been boldly carried out. . . . The interest is not only sustained throughout, it is at times breathless. . . . The Maharajah, the rival queens, the pomp and peril of Rhatore, are clearly Mr. Kipling's own, and some of the Indian chapters are in his best style.'
The Speaker.—'In the presentation of Rhatore there is something of the old Kiplingesque glamour; it is to the pages of Mr. Kipling that one must go for the strange people and incidents of the royal household at Rhatore. .... It is enough to say that the plotting of that most beautiful and most wicked gipsy, Sitabhai is interesting; that Sitabhai is well created; and that the chapter which describes her secret meeting with Tarvin is probably the finest and the most impressive in the book.'
The Bookman.—'The real interest of the book is in the life behind the curtains of the Maharajah's palace. The child Kunwar, his mother, the forsaken Zulu queen, the gipsy with her wicked arts, are pictures of Indian life, which even Mr. Kipling has not surpassed.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Speaker.—'In his first book, Mr. Bailey-Martin, Mr. White gave us a remarkable picture of the sordidness of life in a suburban household. In the present volume he rises to a higher social level, and treats of rising members of Parliament, of political leaders, and even of Prime Ministers. . . . The sketches of types are both forcible and true.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'None can travel over his brightly-written pages without being gladdened by the little flashes of epigram which light up the scene for us, or stirred by the shrewdness and worldly wisdom which he has put into the mouths of his characters. One of the charms of the book lies in the conviction that its author knows the world, and is full of a broad, full knowledge, and therefore sympathy with the foibles, passions, and sins with which it abounds. . . . It is a sermon preached on the old Æschylian text, that the evil doer must always suffer. The book is a drama of biting intensity, a tragedy of inflexible purpose and relentless result.'
The Daily News.—'Will appeal to many tastes. There is intrigue enough in it for those who love a story of the ordinary kind, and the political part is perhaps rather more attractive in its sparkle and variety of incident than the real thing itself.'
The Daily Telegraph..—'Corruption more than fulfils the brilliant promise of Mr. Bailey-Martin. . . . As its title indicates, it deals with the political and social cankers of the day, which it lays bare with a fearless and unerring touch.'
The Standard.—'The scenes in the South of France are particularly well done; without any attempt at local colour Mr. White has caught the atmosphere skilfully, and there are one or two clever touches of which he appears unconscious. Taking the book as a whole, it is written with ease and knowledge, and has about it nothing of the amateur.'
The Graphic.—'A very able piece of work.'
Black and White.—'The risqué situation is wrought with brilliance and subtilty. . . . Mrs. Mannering recalls Becky Sharp; and Carew is a typical man of the day. . . . Mr. Percy White assuredly takes rank with the foremost of the society writers.'
The Globe.—'A graphic picture of social life.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'The characters are well conceived and cleverly portrayed; the dialogue is crisp and sparkling. There is not a dull moment in the volume.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'Mr. White has written an audacious book.'
The Athenæum.—'Mr. White, with the aid of the necessary qualities—dry humour and delicate irony—succeeds nearly all the time. . . . The character is one exceedingly difficult to portray. . . . Mr. White has resisted the temptation to force and exaggerate the note, and this is probably the secret of his success.'
The Speaker.—'There is cleverness enough in Mr. Bailey-Martin to furnish forth a dozen novels. . . . It shows not only a remarkable knowledge of contemporary life, but a keen insight into character, and a considerable degree of literary power.'
The Daily Telegraph.—'The book teems with smart sayings and graphic characterisations, and cannot fail to make a mark among the cleverest novels of the year.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'The book must be pronounced a well-nigh unqualified triumph.'
The Literary World.—'Mr. Bailey-Martin is one of those books whose opportune arrival serves to reconcile the critic to his task. . . . Bright, fresh, vigorous in action, and told with a wealth of incident and humour.'
The New Budget, in a criticism on Mr. Percy White as a novelist, says:—'In my opinion, you are by far the cleverest of the younger—or shall I say, youngest?—generation of writers, with the exception, perhaps, of Mr. Street. . . . Your prose possesses in a high degree what I may call the lyrical note. At times you write like a poet rather than a writer of prose. . . . You serve in no school, and imitate no man. . . . In Mr. Bailey-Martin, though you write with an affectation of wholly dispassionate observation of your snob and his set, there is underlying that attitude a measureless contempt for your hero (if I may call him so) and his friends, which bites like an acid.'
The National Observer.—'Admirably clever, and deserving to be read by those who are bored with the average novel.'
The Bookman.—'One of the cleverest novels we have seen for many a day. . . . Take away from the average man a little of his affectation, and all his responsibilities; add some impudence, and the production of a Bailey-Martin is highly probable. We congratulate Mr. White on the vigour and vitality of his novel.'
The Scotsman.—'When it is remembered that this story is told by Mr. Bailey-Martin himself, and with a great air of verisimilitude, it will be seen how able the book is as a piece of literature. . . . It will interest and entertain every one who takes it up.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'All the stories are told by a man whose heart and soul are in his profession of literature.'
The Morning Post.—'The discriminating will not fail to recognise in the tales composing this volume workmanship of a very high order and a wealth of imaginative fancy that is, in a measure, a revelation.'
The Athenæum.—'The appearance of Terminations will in no way shake the general belief in Mr. Henry James's accomplished touch and command of material. On the contrary, it confirms conclusions long since foregone, and will increase the respect of his readers. . . . With such passages of trenchant wit and sparkling observation, surely in his best manner, Mr. James ought to be as satisfied as his readers cannot fail to be.'
The Daily News.—'Mr. James is a critic of life rather than a maker of stories; his appeal is more to the intellect than to the imagination. Terminations is a collection of four stories written with that choiceness and conciseness of phrase that distinguishes the work of the literary artist. . . . The Altar of the Dead is more mystic and imaginative. Mr. James finds phrases that express incomparably well the more spiritual longings of our nature, and this story is full of tender suggestiveness.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'What strikes one, in fact, in every corner of Mr. James's work is his inordinate cleverness. These four tales are so clever, that one can only raise one's hands in admiration. The insight, the sympathy with character, the extraordinary observation, and the neat and dexterous phrasing—these qualities are everywhere visible.'
The Scotsman.—'All the stories are peculiar and full of a rare interest.'
The Manchester Guardian.—'. . . But with The Altar of the Dead it is far otherwise. To attempt to criticise a creation so exquisite, so instinct with the finest and purest human feeling, so penetrated with the fastidious distinction of a sensitive spirit, would indeed be superfluous, if not impertinent. On its own lines, we know of no more beautiful, truer prose poem in the English language, and to have written it is to have formulated a claim to recollection which we do not think will be lightly set aside.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The National Observer.—'Clever characterisation, natural dialogue, moral sanity, and keen observation and knowledge of the world. . . . The minor characters are as diverse as they are numerous, and there is not a lay figure in the book.'
The Daily News.—'Herbert Vanlennert is good throughout. The analysis of the hero's character is excellent. The story is crowded with minor characters, all clearly individualised and seen in nice relation to their surroundings. There is much power of observation, much knowledge of life and art displayed throughout.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'A piece of life and a work of art. . . . Mr. Keary's men and women are solid all through. He is as honest in his presentation of life as Mr. Gissing, but he is more pointed and wittier; he is less witty than Mr. Meredith, but he is more responsible. . . . Mr. Keary's work stands out as a very brilliant piece of honest, knowledgable, wise artistry. We say it deliberately, that there are very few novels of our time that bear so unmistakably the grip of the master-hand as Herbert Vanlennert.'
The St. James's Gazette.—'A novel like this helps us at once to understand, to judge, and to enjoy life; and that is to say that he has written a novel of the kind that only the great novelists write. From time to time there comes a new novel marked by a kind and degree of excellence that compels praise of an emphatic kind. There need be no hesitation about deciding that Herbert Vanlennert is such a book.'
The Review of Reviews.—'In Herbert Vanlennert indeed is a whole little world of living people—friends and acquaintances whom it is not easy to forget.'
The Sketch.—'Full of cleverness and a legitimate realism. Of two of the most strongly marked and skilfully drawn characters, one is Maynard, the artist of genius; the other, a striking contrast to Maynard, is Bernard, who passes a serene existence in the study of metaphysics. Very charming and interesting are Mr. Keary's bright and vivid descriptions of English country life and scenery in Derbyshire.'
St. Paul's.—'The book contains much clever writing, and is in many respects a strong one.'
Black and White.—'There is abundance of skilfully drawn characters and brilliantly sketched incidents, which, once read, cannot be forgotten.'
The Scotsman.—'Mr. Keary, even when he is treading on delicate ground, writes with circumspection and cleverness.'
The Bradford Observer.—'It is a fine piece of art, and should touch its readers to fine issues.'
The Manchester Courier.—'The book is most interesting, and embodies a great deal of careful work, besides some very plain speaking.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Literary World.—'The novel is marked by great strength, which is always under subjection to the author's gift of restraint, so that we are made to feel the intensity all the more. Pathos and humour (in the true sense) go together through these chapters; and for such qualities as earnestness, insight, moral courage, and thoughtfulness, The Years that the Locust hath Eaten stands out prominently among noteworthy books of the time.'
The Daily News.—'Bears out to the full the promise given by Joanna Traill, Spinster. The author has a genuine sense of humour and an eye for character, and if she bids us weep at the tragedy of life and death, she makes us smile by her pleasant handling of human foible and eccentricities.'
The Standard.—'A worthy successor to Joanna Traill, Spinster. It is quite as powerful. It has insight and sympathy and pathos, humour, and some shrewd understanding of human nature scattered up and down its pages. Moreover, there is beauty in the story and idealism. . . . Told with a humour, a grace, a simplicity, that ought to give the story a long reign. . . . The charm of the book is undeniable; it is one that only a clever woman, full of the best instincts of her sex, could have written.'
The Review of Reviews.—'It has all the charm and simplicity of treatment which gave its predecessor (Joanna Traill, Spinster) its vogue.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'The book should not be missed by a fastidious novel-reader.'
The Court Journal.—'The moral of the book is excellent; the style strong and bold.'
The Scotsman.—'The story is well told, and a vein of humour serves to bring the pathos into higher relief.'
The Manchester Guardian.—'It is sincere and conscientious, and it shows appreciation of the value of reticence.'
The Manchester Courier.—'The book is full of delicate touches of characterisation, and is written with considerable sense of style.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'Worked out with great skill and success. . . . The story is powerfully told.'
The Liverpool Mercury.—'The story is told with sympathy and pathos, and the concluding chapters are touching in the extreme.'
The Birmingham Gazette.—'A sad story beautifully written, containing pure thoughts and abundant food for reflection upon the misery which exists in the world at the present day. The tale is particularly pathetic, but it is true in character. It will be read with interest.'
The Leeds Mercury.—'Full of powerful situations.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Speaker.—'Mrs. Lynn Linton commands the respect of her readers and critics. Her new story, In Haste and at Leisure, is as powerful a piece of writing as any that we owe to her pen.'
The St. James's Budget.—'A thorough mistress of English, Mrs. Lynn Linton uses the weapons of knowledge and ridicule, of sarcasm and logic, with powerful effect; the shallow pretences of the "New Woman" are ruthlessly torn aside.'
The Literary World.—'Whatever its exaggerations may be, In Haste and at Leisure remains a notable achievement. It has given us pleasure, and we can recommend it with confidence.'
The Court Journal.—'The book is a long but brilliant homily and series of object-lessons against the folly and immorality of the modern craze of the most advanced women, who rail against men, marriage, and maternity. The book is immensely powerful, and intensely interesting.'
The Daily Graphic.—'It is an interesting story, while it is the most tremendous all-round cannonade to which the fair emancipated have been subjected.'
The World.—'It is clever, and well written.'
The Graphic.—'It is thoroughly interesting, and it is full of passages that almost irresistibly tempt quotation.'
The St. James's Gazette.—'It is a novel that ought to be, and will be, widely read and enjoyed.'
The Globe.—'It is impossible not to recognise and acknowledge its great literary merit.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'In Haste and at Leisure is a striking and even brilliant novel.'
The Manchester Courier.—'In this cruelly scientific analyses of the "New Woman," Mrs. Lynn Linton writes with all the bitterness of Dean Swift. The book is one of remarkable power.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Saturday Review.—'Every page of it is worth reading. The author sets herself to write a fascinating book, and, in our opinion, has undoubtedly succeeded. '
The World.—'There are good things in this novel; excellent character-drawing, some forcibly realistic chapters in the life of a common soldier.'
The Daily News.—'The story is skilfully constructed, and will certainly add to Miss Robinson's reputation.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'Miss Robinson writes but little, and writes that little carefully. . . . Herein also is Miss Robinson true to life, and not false to art.'
The Realm.—'The story is powerfully written. It is worth reading.'
The Standard.—'All the vicissitudes of Treganna's career are interesting, and are vividly told.'
The Lady.—'A story of exceptional power and absorbing interest, earnest, forcible, intensely human, and of high literary merit.'
The Observer.—'The book is very ably written, and it is well worth reading. '
The Globe.—'There are in this book much power of observation, a relentless truthfulness, and a recognition of the value of detail. It should enchain the attention of the most callous reader.'
The Sunday Times.—'A remarkably clever sketch of a man's life and character. . . . The literary workmanship is good without being laboured. . . . We wish it the appreciation, not only of those who can distinguish good literature, but of those who prefer the good from the bad.'
Black and White.—'An original plot vigorously treated.'
The Daily Graphic.—'The whole story of the relations between Joseph Treganna and Fanny Star is very human, and handled with a breadth and understanding which very few women novelists of the day could hope to rival, while the gradual abandonment by the man of the outposts whereon he has planted his colours is admirable in its inevitableness.'
Woman.—'A superb novel, strong and full of life, packed with observation and humour of the deep subcutaneous sort.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'Miss Dixon shows herself no ineffective satirist of the shams and snobbishness of society.'
The Academy.—'No one who reads The Story of a Modern Woman will be likely to gainsay the excellence of its writing, and the genuine talent shown by Miss Dixon.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'A subtle study, written by a woman, about a woman, and from the point of view of a distinctly clever and modern woman herself. . . . Miss Dixon has scored a great success in the treatment of her novel.'
Vanity Fair.—'The main thread of the story is powerful and pathetic; but there are lighter touches, wit and humour, and here and there what seem like shadows of people we have seen and known. ... In a word, a book to buy, to read, and to enjoy.'
Black and White.—'The social sketches, with which this little story of modern, literary, fashionable, and Bohemian London is full, are very cleverly touched in.'
The Graphic.—'Miss Ella Hepworth Dixon has inherited no small share of her father's literary gifts, and she adds to it a faculty of observation, and a constructive and narrative skill, which are of considerable promise.'
The National Observer.—'She writes well, and shows not a little power of drawing character, and even of constructing a story.'
The Sketch.—'Miss Dixon's style excels in delicate vignettes, full of suggestion, and marked, above all, by that artistic restraint which is such an agreeable contrast to the fluency of the average woman-novel. '
St. James's Gazette.—'Miss Hepworth Dixon knows how to write. . . . She can say what she wants to say in a sound, clear style, which (especially in the descriptive passages) is occasionally very felicitous and expressive. Altogether, A Modern Woman is a work which will better repay reading than most of the novels of the season.'
Illustrated London News.—'A story of which so much can truthfully be said is a contribution to art as well as to the circulating library, a conjunction which, in these days of British fiction, is surprising.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Athenæum.—'The characters are exceptionally distinct, the movement is brisk, and the dialogue is natural and convincing.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'Joanna Conway is on distinctly new lines, and it has given us pleasure to follow her spicy, attractive personality through all the phases of her carefully, finely-depicted evolution.'
The National Observer.—'A remarkably life-like picture of English society. The author is a keen observer. The writing is above the average.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'An excellent novel. Joanna Conway is one of the most attractive figures in recent fiction. It is no small tribute to the author's skill that this simple country girl, without beauty or accomplishments, is from first to last so winning a personality. The book is full of excellent observation.'
Black and White.—'Some pleasant hours may be passed in following the fortunes of Joanna, the charming heroine of M. Hamilton's A Self-Denying Ordinance. The book is well written, and holds the attention from start to finish. The characters are true to life.'
The Methodist Times.—'The story retains its interest throughout. It contains some vividly-drawn delineations of character.'
Woman.—'Contains the finest, surest, subtlest character drawing that England has had from a new writer for years and years past.'
Public Opinion.—'A well written and fascinating novel. It is a clever sketch of life in its different phases. . . . "Every personage strikes one as being richly endowed with individuality."'
The Manchester Courier.—'A decided success. There are such women as Joanna Conway in the world, though, unfortunately, not so many as are required; but there are few writers of the present day who can do justice to such a character, so poetical, and yet so practical. . . . There is humour in the book: the scene is chiefly in Ireland, and who can truly write of Ireland without humour? but the greatest charm is in the wonderful tenderness, in the womanly chivalry which renders so true the title of a self-denying ordinance.
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'Ably conceived, and ably-written stories. . . . Mr. Frank Harris has proved himself at once a subtle and effective writer of fiction.'
The National Observer.—'Mr. Harris's work leaves on the mind a vivid impression. All the stories in the volume are well written and admirably constructed.'
The Academy.—'Page after page glows with masterly invention, tender pathos, excellent wit: attributes belonging to the magicians of fiction. Its cleverness is often near akin to absolute genius; the dexterity of the writer evokes not only surprises, but rare pleasure.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'The characters are clearly defined and combined with great skill; they breathe genuineness and truth. There is force and pathos, too, in the story of Bancroft and Loo Conklin.'
The Review of Reviews.—'There is a force and a charm, a vividness and an originality about these tales which give them a high, if not the highest, place in the literature of that kind which has been produced in the last few years. Not only is there a genius in the presentation of the human types which are described, but they display a closeness of observation and a keenness of insight into the heart of things which only those who have studied western civilisation in the making can appreciate.'
The Westminster Gazette.—'The stories are masterpieces. They grip like life. And they live with one after, as living realities.'
The Sketch.—'There is good workmanship in Mr. Harris's volume, shown not merely in the vigorous story-telling. The inner idea in the tales is carefully wrought, and it will find a response among all readers who love sincerity.'
The Bookman.—'Elder Conklin is a masterly picture of heroism and paternal love, of rare intensity and refinement, co-existing with capacities for hideous selfishness and cruelty.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'Mr. Harris's excellent stories may be heartily recommended to all.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'In a sense this novel is belated, being a straggler from the procession of books more or less directly concerned with the New Woman. This is a pity, for it is perhaps the best of the novels that have vindicated or mocked at that tiresome female. . . . Still it may be allowed that here we meet with less cant, less rancour, less prurience, less affectation of omniscience, more genuine philosophy, and a more careful style and more real literary power than in any other novel of the same school.'
The Athenæum.—'The character-drawing is distinctly good. All the personages stand out well defined with strongly marked individualities.'
The Morning Post.—'Clytie is made undeniably sympathetic, while the author's pictures of Bohemian life are bright and graphic.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'The merit of the book lies in the description of the life of Clytie Davenant (the heroine) as an artist in London, of her friendship with Kent, her wooing by Thornton Hammerdyke, and the struggles of her married life. All this is portrayed, not in the grand style, but soberly, truthfully, and on the whole effectively.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'This clever and somewhat audacious story. . . . We congratulate W. J. Locke, and shall be surprised if the reception accorded to his book is not such as to cause him to congratulate himself.'
The Review of Reviews.—'Here is a tale of women's life in London in the present year, of varied societies, of a husband's brutality, and of a woman's fidelity, told with restraint, power, and originality. It is certainly one of the novels which mark a beginner out for attention.'
Vanity Fair.—'After a long course of flaccid, nerveless books that seem to have no raison d'être, it is refreshing to find a well-written novel whose characters seem "hewn from life," and act as men and women really act.'
The Scotsman.—'The story never drags, and can be read from end to end. It seems to be a first work, and in its strength and vigour gives good promise for the future. The workmanship is careful and conscientious, while the characterisation is broad, human, and natural'
The Manchester Guardian.—'In depicting the friendship between Clytie and Kent the author shows both power and subtlety, and may fairly claim to have given us something new, for the portrayal of such a relationship between a man and a woman standing on an equal intellectual level has not been successfully attempted before.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Saturday Review.—'The powerfully dramatic scene in the dancing-rooms at Cairo would alone make the book worth reading. The humour, too, peculiar to himself is not lacking in Mr. Hichens's novel. It is undoubtedly an artistic success.'
The Guardian.—'There is no possible doubt as to the cleverness of the book. The scenes are exceeding powerful.'
The Graphic.—'The story embodies a study of remarkable subtlety and power, and the style is not only vivid and picturesque, but in those passages of mixed emotion and reflection, which strike what is, perhaps, the characteristic note of late nineteenth century prose literature, is touched with something of a poetic charm.'
The Standard.—'The setting of the book is vivid, and the effect of silence well imagined, so that the strange little drama goes on, and the reader watches it with an interest that does not suffer him to consider its absurdity.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'It treats an original idea with no little skill, and it is written with a distinction which gives Mr. Hichens a conspicuous place amongst the younger story-tellers who are really studious of English diction. . . . It is marked out with an imaginative resource which has a welcome note of literature.'
The Daily Graphic.—'A profoundly impressive study in psychology. The descriptions of the shadier side of Egyptian life are fresh and vivid; indeed, Mr. Hichens has a rare power of stimulating the reader's imagination until it fills in what no one can write, and thus helps to create a vivid picture.'
The Scotsman.—'It is no doubt a remarkable book. If it has almost none of the humour of its predecessor (The Green Carnation), it is written with the same brilliancy of style, and the same skill is shown in the drawing of accessories. Mr. Hichens's three characters never fail to be interesting. They are presented with very considerable power, while the background of Egyptian life and scenery is drawn with a sure hand.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Spectator.—'Several of his types are painted in with a fine combination of breadth of effect and wealth of significant detail. . . . Certainly a book which has not merely cleverness, but real vitality.'
The Speaker.—'A novel of such remarkable merit, and written with such easy mastery of style. From first to last this striking and powerful story maintains a high level of excellence, betokening no 'prentice hand. It is a story teeming with humour and pathos, instinct with the irony of human fate, and quick to apprehend the subtle twists and inconsistencies of human character. Above all, it is deliciously original . . . and told with great spirit, humour, and dramatic vigour. A vivid picture of a side of life upon which little light has been cast by our novelists since Dickens laid down his pen.'
The Morning Post.—'On the whole realistic; this presentment of Holland in London has certain impressionist touches that are decidedly effective. . . . All the tragedy of the book centres in the figure of Peter van Eijk, a creation which says much for the author's imaginative powers.'
The Daily Telegraph.—'A singular little novel, which has so undeniable a power of its own.' (Mr. W. L. Courtney.)
The Globe.—'The literary treatment is fresh and impressive. . . . The author shows skill in all its characterisations, his mastery of Dutch idiosyncrasy being obviously complete.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'One does not care to put the book down till the last page is turned.'
The Westminster Gazette.—'Vivid in portraiture, vivacious in manner. . . . The combination of close observation and grim sardonic humour gives the book a decided charm. . . . The pathetic figure of Peter is drawn with a tenderness which indefinitely enlarges our impression of the author's dramatic possibilities.'
The Weekly Sun.—'Has the great merit of introducing us to a new world. . . . What a delightful creation Mrs. de Griendt is. Indeed, I should personally have been glad if we had had more of her. Whenever she appears on the stage she fills it with her presence, and you can see her, hear her, watch her with fascination and incessant interest. ... I think the reader will agree with me that I have not exaggerated the literary merit of this exquisitely-described scene.' (T. P. O'Connor, M.P.)
The Review of Reviews.—'You will enjoy reading it.'
The Glasgow Herald.—'A striking and amusing novel. . . . The author has a pleasant gift of humour, and has shown distinct originality.'
The Aberdeen Daily Free Press.—'In the publication of this and kindred works, Mr. Heinemann is doing much to maintain the freshness and vigour of our English fiction. . . . He has seldom provided a pleasanter and yet more bracing work than the Drama now before us. ... As a mere story it will carry delight to even the most unthinking.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Times.—'Since Mrs. Gaskell wrote her Mary Barton we have seen no more interesting novel on the condition of the working classes. Mr. Tirebuck is thoroughly master of his subject. . . . A vivid and impressive narrative of the great coal strike of a couple of years ago.'
The Literary World.—'Every reader anxious to hear of a work that is full of brains and vigour may unhesitatingly enter Miss Grace of All Souls' upon his list of books worthy to be perused. . . . Mr. Tirebuck, not content with providing "Grace" for our admiration, has made another claim upon our love by presenting us to Nance Ockleshaw. For her sake alone Miss Grace of All Souls' should be read, and we hope that the novel will make its way into many a home, there to be considered with all the care that is due to it.'
The World.—'The most remarkable contribution made by fiction to the history of the working classes since Mary Barton, and it has a wider range and import of deeper gravity. It appeals directly to the thoughtful among readers, those who care to learn, on the object-lesson plan, the facts and aspects of life among the multitudes, with whom they are brought into actual contact. The girl who is its central figure is an original and very attractive character.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'An uncommonly well-told story, interesting from first to last. Mr. Tirebuck has drawn a truly delightful character in the miner's wife; indeed, the whole family might well have been sketched straight from the life. It is difficult to make a work of fiction at once instructive and entertaining, but Mr. Tirebuck has done it in Miss Grace of All Souls'.'
The Pall Mall Gazette.—'An admirable piece of work. Here is realism in its proper proportions: the rude, harsh, Methody life of the northern miner engraved in all its essentials. Mr. Tirebuck manages to illustrate the conditions of miners' lives for us with complete fidelity. Not a touch of the humour, the pathos, the tragedy, the grime, the sin, and the ideals is lacking. . . . Mr. Tirebuck has done his work to perfection. The story is not a moral tract, but a work of art of great significance.'
The British Weekly.—'Mr. Tirebuck is a practised and powerful novelist, and in this story he has taken us right inside the heart of the poor. His description of the collier's wife is wonderful work.'
The Manchester Guardian.—'As a picture of working men and women, instinct as it is with knowledge, sympathy, passion, and conviction, we have seldom, if ever, read anything so good.'
The Manchester Courier.—'The character of Miss Grace reminds the reader of the heroine of Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho!.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.
The Athenæum.—'Told with a force and directness that hold the reader's attention throughout. . . . A stirring and interesting novel.'
The Academy.—'As a study of character, the work is admirable.'
The Saturday Review.—'A finely conceived study. The book is true without being sordid—realistic in the better meaning of the word; and we have read it with the greatest interest and some stirrings of emotion.'
The National Observer.—'The strong and true spirit of the husband gives an ennobling study of humanity worth many plots. Miss Sergeant has risen to her earlier level in this book, a fine study of character, and it is only just to say that it is also strong in detail.'
The World.—'A work to which the much-used adjective "beautiful" may be applied with full intention and strict justice.'
The Daily Chronicle.—'Miss Sergeant has given her best matter, treated in her best manner.'
The Daily News.—'A moving story. In the delineation of the softening of the man's spirit, and of the mental struggles by which he reaches to forgiveness of his wife, Miss Sergeant shows a fine imagination. This is the best book of Miss Sergeant's that has come under our notice for some time.'
The Globe.—'Miss Sergeant follows her hero with a rare grasp of descriptive detail. The concluding chapters of the book reach a high level of pathos, dignity, and convincing humanity.'
Black and White.—'Gideon Blake is a fine creation; and the record of his devotion to the unworthy Emmy, and his attempted expiation of her sins, is forcibly wrought. The closing tragedy, simply treated, is impressive.'
The Literary World.—'The story is well put together, and has points of more than passing interest and importance.'
The Scotsman.—'It is in the development of the great theme of a man's undying constancy to his erring partner, and his eventual forgiveness of her offence, that the author rises to a height of true dramatic power seldom attained in the modern novel. On its merits the story is worthy of a high place in contemporary fiction.'
Birmingham Daily Post.—'The character of Gideon Blake, the intense and strong-minded husband of the fragile Emmy, is a fine creation, based on the harder types of moral grandeur.'
Bradford Observer.—'The tale is sincerely and touchingly written. Its characters are veritable flesh and blood.'
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, W.C.