| − | Nation. 84: 136. F. 7, ’07. 560w. |
“A most unusual and interesting novel. Few are the occurrences to be measured beside the sort of thing that really happens; few characters are at all like any one meets in life. Much of the action, too, is quite inexplicable. It is to the credit of Mrs. Steel’s art that as we read we believe—the incredulities come with the backward look.”
| + − | N. Y. Times. 12: 78. F. 9, ’07. 670w. |
“She comes to her task with a mind well furnished, with a habit of skilled observation, and with the wide outlook of one who has in the fullest way lived threescore years.” Louise Collier Willcox.
| + | No. Am. 184: 861. Ap. 19, ’07. 840w. | |
| + | R. of Rs. 35: 766. Je. ’07. 30w. |
“It is hard to say whether the frank improbabilities of the story—though they are heaped together in the opening pages till they look like an intentional signal—and the high-pitched (not to say melodramatic) key of much of the action, are intended to emphasise the strain of mysticism and the occult which runs through the book and to put the reader in tune with immaterial influences, or—a thing scarcely to be thought of in Mrs. Steel’s hands—are merely structural mishaps. Again, it is difficult to decide whether the frequent reflections on modern developments of social order are the prepossessions of a reformer forcing their way through the story at almost every turn, or are the main moral of which the fiction is only the vehicle.”
| + − | Sat. R. 102: 175. Ag. 11, ’06. 740w. |
“The truth is that Mrs. Steel has attempted to write a tale of Eastern mysticism in an irrelevant setting. She has moments of great power and beauty, but they serve only to accentuate the weakness of the main theme. One exception, indeed should be made, for the picture of the revival in the village is done with remarkable skill.”
| − + | Spec. 97: 205. Ag. 11, ’06. 890w. |
Steele, Francesca Maria (Fanny) (Darley Dale, pseud.). Naomi’s transgression. †$1.50. Warne.