“His ‘Financier’ like his other stories, is readable in spite of the glaring inexpertness of the diction, the wretched quality of the puppets, and the exposed condition of the wires that pull them about to do the showman’s will.”
– + N. Y. Times. 11: 130. Mr. 3, ’06. 280w.
“A crude story.”
– Outlook. 82: 1004. Ap. 26, ’06. 20w.
“Is an honest piece of sensationalism free from the most glaring vices of its class.”
+ – Sat. R. 102: 212. Ag. 18, ’06. 150w.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson (Mrs. Stephen Townsend). [Dawn of a to-morrow.] †$1. Scribner.
A book which embodies the spirit of Christian science without the letter seems to be a sermon with the unannounced text “I if I be lifted up ... will draw all men unto me.” A king of finance just ready to “shuffle off this mortal coil” by act of suicide withdraws to the slum section of London to hide his deed in a pauper’s seclusion. Here he is found by a “little rat of the gutter,” an ugly girl of twelve years, with astonishing insight into human hearts. This child with her sure faith in God as a present unfeared reality; Jenny Montaubyn who had taught her this hope; Polly, a girl of the streets; and a hungry thief form a group who make a great capitalist take hope and desire to work out his own salvation.
“Is a simple, old-fashioned miracle-play, set forth in modern London with the sure, swift touch of a practised story-teller.” Mary Moss.