“A turgid dark tale ending in madness and death.”
– Ind. 61: 1160. N. 15, ’06. 80w.
“For all the strain it may put upon our belief, has in it much of its author’s sense of natural beauty and fine sense of sincerity of purpose, and a sympathy with the poor and the oppressed that is not exceeded by any living novelist.”
+ – Lond. Times. 5: 45. F. 9, ’06. 580w.
“‘The portreeve,’ far nearer the Hardy level than he has ever reached before, is undoubtedly the best work Mr. Phillpotts has done so far.”
+ + N. Y. Times. 11: 192. Mr. 31, ’06. 1160w.
“Mr. Phillpotts has never sketched the loveliness and majesty of the Dartmoor country with a surer hand. The motive is one of the most repellent within reach of the novelist, and is worked out with unsparing boldness.”
+ – Outlook. 82: 756. Mr. 31, ’06. 230w.
“It is a grim, hopeless tragedy woven out of the hard lives and plain, simple speech of the Dartmoor people.”
+ – Pub. Opin. 40: 249. F. 24, ’06. 390w. + R. of Rs. 33: 756. Je. ’06. 130w.