+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p299 My 13 ’20 1350w
HUTTEN ZUM STOLZENBERG, BETTINA (RIDDLE) freifrau von. Happy house. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
20–1214
Happy house the young bride called her new home, but it soon became a euphemism. Violet Walbridge slaved with her pen to give without stint to a worthless husband and a large thoughtlessly exacting family. As the quality of her novels is falling off into mere rubbish, and with it the quantity of her income, a young journalist discovers her rare character as a woman. He also falls in love with her youngest daughter but the course of his true love does not run smoothly. During his devious courtship of Grisel, his friendship for his would-be-mother-in-law becomes a rejuvenating elixir for the latter and enables her to write a real true-to-life modern story, that reinstates her in the good graces of her publishers.
“A pleasant character study of an interesting group.”
+ Booklist 16:281 My ’20
“The plot itself might well have been composed by its heroine.” M. E. Bailey
+ − Bookm 51:204 Ap ’20 400w
“In ‘Happy house,’ Baroness von Hutten has written a story which should not by rights be readable, but into which she has managed to infuse a certain amount of vitality. It is a ghost but there are moments when its gestures are sufficiently life-like, and despite its rattling bones we follow its motions.” D. L. M.