“Mrs Holding writes coldly, warily, ruthlessly. She is beyond any passionate concern in the matter. She has moments of a cosmic tolerance for Minnie. But how Minnie must have made her suffer! It is only when we get to the other shore of suffering that we can see with eyes so penetrating and so passionless.”
+ Nation 110:730 My 29 ’20 750w
“It has various minor faults. The scourge of revision has not been ruthlessly enough applied, and the style is marred here and there by a loose carelessness. What makes one indifferent to these defects is the author’s marvellous ability to record and analyze Minnie. Minnie may not be the artistic equal of Becky Sharp, but she is far nearer our common experience.” Signe Toksvig
+ − New Repub 22:357 My 12 ’20 1650w
“It is all done with an art-concealing simplicity and frankness the study of which will repay the best of our modern English ‘realists,’ though they will find it hard to analyze and still harder to imitate.” Oliver Herford
+ N Y Evening Post p3 My 1 ’20 750w
“We can recall no piece of fiction, with the exception of Sudermann’s masterful short story, ‘The purpose,’ which portrays the unmoral woman more unflinchingly than Elisabeth Sanxay Holding has done in her vivid novel.”
+ N Y Times 25:287 My 30 ’20 600w
Reviewed by F: T. Cooper
Pub W 97:1290 Ap 17 ’20 350w