A selfish scholar uses his daughter as an assistant, neglecting her happiness.
For Lucas Malet (the pseudonym of Mary St. Leger Kingsley Harrison), see Novel 28.
It has “finish and delicacy of workmanship”; it “does not aim very high; but it is such a perfect piece of execution, and works out with so fine a touch all that it does aim at, that it would require us to go back to Miss Austen to find anything that better deserved the praise of fine form, fine grouping, fine colouring, humorous delineation, and precision of design.” Spectator, June 9, 1888
“A study of characters rather than a plot, and exhibits considerable graphic faculty. The author sees her personages clearly, and sets them vividly before us.” It is “not only a good piece of work, but has the note of distinction.” Academy, July 7, 1888
An alternative view:
It “opens extremely well, and the reader’s disappointment is all the greater when he finds it gradually dwindle into a tale in the manner of Mr. [Henry] James” with “no story” and “extremely uninteresting” characters. Athenaeum, June 16, 1888
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