20–16158
The little house tells its own story. It is a very old and empty little house, as it stands in “Dolls’ House Square” in London, and on the nights of air-raids and bombing, it is a very frightened little house. But it is not too frightened to give shelter to others who are afraid, too, and so one night when “the little lady who needed to be loved, but did not know it,” crept in, with her two little children, they are amply protected. And presently, “the wounded officer who wanted rest,” looking for a haven from the raid sought it too in the little house. Then the officer goes off to war, and the little lady comes to live in the house. After the armistice, the officer returns, and, again in the shelter of the little house, finds the rest he craves more than ever, and “the little lady” receives the love she needs. And the little house feels that its part in the romance has not been inconsiderable.
“By making the house in question narrate the scenes its walls have witnessed. Mr Coningsby Dawson has aimed, not too successfully, at imparting a Hans Andersen atmosphere to occurrences which have not much in common with the traditional material of fairy-tale.”
+ − Ath p892 D 31 ’20 140w Booklist 17:157 Ja ’21
“A story which has a real Christmas flavor and which would warm the heart of anybody whatever is ‘The little house.’” Margaret Ashmun
+ Bookm 52:342 D ’20 120w
“The story has a charm as elusive as the appealing quality that won so many followers for Maude Adams. It is as endearing as ‘Roaming in the gloaming’ or ‘Comin’ through the rye.’ In it sentiment keeps clear of sentimentality.”
+ N Y Times p2 S 19 ’20 1000w
“‘The little house’ is really a Christmas story—and a very delightful and charming one. The fanciful manner in which the story is told by the old house in which the scenes take place is beautifully conceived and finely carried out.”