“A fresh and interesting view of a subject that would seem to have been exhausted of all novelty. One can but admire the cleverness with which he has made reality and fiction supplement and sustain each other while keeping the reader’s attention wholly engrossed by the very simple and pathetic love story of Nicole and Barabant. A vivid and vigorous handling of a subject that has been used to the point of threadbareness.”
| + + | N. Y. Times. 10: 133. Mr. 4, ‘05. 610w. |
“A rather unusually spirited tale. Mr. Johnson has created two or three flesh-and-blood characters, has put them into trying crises, and has made them work out their own moral salvation or ruin as they respond or fail to respond to the test. The book has life and energy.”
| + + | Outlook. 79: 246. Ja. 28, ‘05. 90w. |
“The sure touch of the confident master is lacking. There is over-emphasis, a too great insistence on the individual when the mass should have been brought into the foreground. Viewed as a whole the book is an effective piece of word painting.”
| + — | Pub. Opin. 38: 135. Ja. 26, ‘05. 710w. |
“Mr. Johnson’s story has merits of its own unborrowed from Dickens or any one else. One of them is a saving sanity of expression.”
| + + | Reader. 5: 618. Ap. ‘05. 370w. |
“Well and swiftly told, and probably of breathless interest to the unsophisticated mind.”
| + | R. of Rs. 31: 762. Je. ‘05. 30w. |