Italy furnishes the stage, and her people the actors for this study in psychology. A very unhappy Italian woman moved by the sinister fascination of an ancestor’s homicidal act of killing her lover by poison resorts to the same means to rid herself of a husband whom she loathes. “Ugo, the hapless count, his wife Cristina, the Duchess of San Felice, and Fabrizio, the guilty cousin, are all human figures.” (Ath.)
“Mr. Bagot observes keenly, but a little hastily; he is rather sharp than wise in his judgments, and his people are drawn without the subtle shades which would make them interesting in themselves.”
| + − | Acad. 72: 216. Mr. 2, ’07. 330w. |
“It is a powerful drama, and discloses Mr. Bagot at his best.”
| + + | Ath. 1907. 1: 286. Mr. 9. 210w. |
“Like Mr. Crawford, also Mr. Bagot never lets you forget that he is writing of an alien race, with habits and temperaments and language quite foreign to that of the Anglo-Saxon; and yet, at the same time, he interprets them so skilfully that the sum total of your impressions is rather that of the brotherhood of the two races than of the gulf between them.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
| + | Bookm. 26: 162. O. ’07. 590w. |
“Mr. Bagot spends so much care on the few characters whom he introduces, and offers so close an explanation of their motives, that we are prepared both for greater vigour of action and greater subtlety of speech. But he seldom drops his attitude of the grave observer pondering wide issues. In any case, however, it is an interesting book; you lay it down not infrequently, but you open it with respect.”
| + | Lond. Times. 6: 62. F. 22, ’07. 390w. |