[*] “It is by all odds the greatest novel of recent years.”
| + + + | Pub. Opin. 39: 796. D. 16, ‘05. 490w. |
[*] “We have touched only the main theme, which like the whole story, is worked out in a manner to stamp the writer a genius, and give her name a place in the history of American literature.”
| + + + | R. of Rs. 32: 757. D. ‘05. 380w. |
“Her reputation will certainly not suffer any decline by the publication of her new novel.”
| + + | Spec. 95: 657. O. 28, ‘05. 660w. |
Wharton, Edith Newbold (Jones). Italian backgrounds; il. by E. C. Peixotto. [**]$2.50. Scribner.
Mrs. Wharton says, “As with the study of Italian pictures, so it is with Italy herself. The country is divided not in partes tres, but in two; a foreground and a background. The foreground is the property of the guidebook and of its product, the mechanical sightseers; the background, that of the dawdler, the dreamer, and the serious student of Italy.” The nine chapters are—An Alpine posting inn, A midsummer week’s dream, The sanctuaries of the Pennine Alps, What the hermits saw, A Tuscan shrine, Sub umbra liliorum. March in Italy, Picturesque Milan, and Italian backgrounds: then there are twelve illustrations reproduced from Peixotto pictures.
“The book is written with genuine knowledge, with large and generous sympathy, and in excellent English.”
| + + | Acad. 68: 798. Ag. 5, ‘05. 1220w. |