“‘The taming of Nan’ is a very different kind of story from ‘Helen of four gates.’ It is with less concentration but it is constructed upon a broader basis and the whole atmosphere of it is more human, more genial, less tense and stormy.”
+ − N Y Times 25:43 Ja 25 ’20 750w
“While Ethel Holdsworth’s second book, ‘The taming of Nan,’ is less striking and peculiar than her first [‘Helen of Four Gates’], it is more genial and shows growth and a broader knowledge of life.”
+ N Y Times 25:190 Ap 18 ’20 30w
“It is as a study of Polly’s emergence from the blurred prettiness and apparently unprotected amativeness of girlhood to real achievements in character and happiness that the book may especially commend itself to the confirmed yet still hopeful novel reader.” H. W. Boynton
+ Review 2:208 F 28 ’20 340w
“The characterisation is admirable, if slightly idealised, and the book is, as a whole, quite admirable.”
+ Sat R 130:379 N 6 ’20 90w
“The story is wanting in the continuous strength found in the preceding novel. As usual, Mrs Holdsworth reveals keen insight into human nature and does not shrink from picturing the truth however brutal or sordid. But she leans less towards crude realism than heretofore.”
+ − Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 28 ’20 600w