Atherton, Gertrude Franklin. [Ancestors.] †$1.75. Harper.
7–30866.
A rising English politician suddenly finds himself put out of the race in the House of commons by coming into a peerage with its accompanying seat among the lords. A young American girl, a distant cousin, with ambitions and temperament akin to his own urges him to start life all over in her own California. “Once safe in California, the story proceeds breathlessly. Notwithstanding all the descriptions, all the lenses which have been turned on that exotic city, [San Francisco] she still is able to give a picture of untarnished freshness. The story reaches its climax in the dramatic scenes of the San Francisco earthquake.” (Nation.)
“It is long, but contains a good deal—sometimes vividly said—concerning institutions and people that should interest not merely novelreaders but also thoughtful persons in both countries.”
| + − | Ath. 1907, 2: 650. N. 23. 440w. |
“The story is made fairly tedious by endless passages of analysis and discussion, and its inordinate length is not justified by a corresponding richness of invention and imagination. Of its style there is not much to say. It exhibits rawness rather than refinement, and is almost wholly devoid of charm.” Wm. M. Payne.
| − | Dial. 43: 317. N. 16, ’07. 320w. |
“The contrast between the English and their American cousins is shrewdly drawn, sophisticated and as lacking in kindness as one may expect from an author who places wit before humor, and who is incapable of understanding the pathos of being human either in this country or in England.”
| + − | Ind. 63: 1375. D. 5, ’07. 260w. |