EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION. Pall Mall Gazette. "This is the most readable book that has come into our hands for some time. It is short, is written in a perfectly natural tone, and, being a story of domestic life in the upper middle classes, it offers opportunity for many quaint descriptions and happy remarks, which are abundantly forthcoming. There is no display of habitual reference to Lemprière or to the 'Dictionary of Quotations,' but there is about the work a great deal of good sense, good feeling, and what, for want of another word, we will call wisdom." Guardian. "One of the most natural and good-toned novels of the season." Evening Standard. "Mr Smith' will be popular everywhere, at once, and deservedly." Daily News. "It has a keen and vivid interest from beginning to end." The Academy. "It is agreeable to light upon a book with so many claims to originality as 'Mr Smith.' John Bull. "Mr Smith' has met with the most favourable of receptions. It has not only been favourably criticised, but it has been widely read. And this result is to be attributed solely to its exceptional merit. The work stands out prominently from amongst ordinary novels, owing to its freshness and originality." Echo. "A work of quite extraordinary talent, which will at once win for its author a high place among contemporary novelists." Globe. "One of the cleverest, freshest, raciest, and most original novels that we have read for some time. Sunday Times. "Mr Walford's name is unfamiliar in fiction, but it can scarcely remain so long. The man who can write a novel like Mr Smith' is bound to make a mark. A cleverer or more entertaining work of its class has seldom of late years appeared." Scotsman. 'One of the cleverest and most remarkable novels that has appeared for some time past. Altogether, 'Mr Smith' is, as we said to begin with, a remarkable book." |