THE GREAT COMPOSERS. Edited, with Introduction, by Mrs. William Sharp.
———
The Series is issued in two styles of Binding—Red Cloth, Cut Edges; and Dark Blue Cloth, Uncut Edges. Either Style, Price One Shilling.
———
THE HEATHER ON FIRE.
By MATHILDE BLIND. Price 1s.
“A subject of our own time fertile in what is pathetic and awe-inspiring, and free from any taint of the vulgar and conventional.... Positive subject-matter, the emotion which inheres in actual life, the very smile and the very tear and heart-pang, are, after all, precious to poetry, and we have them here. ‘The Heather on Fire’ may possibly prove something of a new departure, and one that was certainly not superfluous.... Even apart from the fascination of its subject-matter, the poem is developed with spirit and energy, with a feeling for homely truth of character and treatment, and with a generally pervasive sense of beauty.”—Athenæum.
“Miss Blind has chosen for her new poem one of those terrible Highland clearances which stain the history of Scotch landlordism. Though her tale is a fiction, it is too well founded on fact.... It may be said generally of the poem that the most difficult scenes are those in which Miss Blind succeeds best; and on the whole we are inclined to think that its greatest and most surprising success is the picture of the poor old soldier, Rory, driven mad by the burning of his wife.”—Academy.
“A subject which has painfully pre-occupied public opinion is, in the poem entitled ‘The Heather on Fire,’ treated with characteristic power by Miss Blind.... Both as a narrative and descriptive poem, ‘The Heather on Fire’ is equally remarkable.”—Morning Post.
“A poem remarkable for beauty of expression and pathos of incidents will be found in ‘The Heather on Fire.’ Exquisitely delicate are the touches with which the progress of this tale of true love is delineated up to its consummation amid the simple rejoicings of the neighbourhood; and the flight of years of married life and daily toil, as numerous as those of their courtship, is told in stanzas full of music and soul.... This tale is one which, unless we are mistaken, may so affect public feeling as to be an effectual bar to similar human clearings in future.”—Leeds Mercury.