"The novel is exceedingly well-written. It is full of characters and passages conceived with tenderness as well as power, and the dread visitation hovers throughout like a ghost over the scene. Without containing anything that is untrue to nature, it has passages more highly wrought than in any novel we have recently met with, descriptions of a very masterly kind, and scenes and episodes in which character is marked with subtle and admirable discrimination." MORNING POST. "The utmost simplicity of manner is combined with the most powerful effect. There is no effort, no extravagance, either of thought or word, but narrative and descriptive power of the highest order. In natural pathos, many of the scenes are unsurpassed; and every page bears witness to the moral dignity of the writer's sentiments and purpose. We have no hesitation in commending it to the notice of our readers as a work of singular truthfulness, originality, and power." MORNING CHRONICLE. "We can do no more than say that the authoress has displayed powers which are great enough to enable her to take a very lofty position amongst writers of romance. A subject which in ordinary hands would have disgusted becomes, when treated by her, capable of exciting legitimate interest, and exercising a purifying influence. The terrible curse hanging over the House of Raby moans through the story like the storm through the wreck which it has destroyed. The hereditary insanity here is like the Destiny of the Greek Drama, it hangs over the entire action, gradually developing and moulding the whole, and finally, gathering up the separate details, fuses them into one great unity for the catastrophe. 'The House of Raby' is one of the few romances of the day that will live." |