A careful perusal of the six tales here printed reveals and emphasizes a rare talent and a power in romantic fiction which are as rare as they are acceptable.... Our native fiction can show nothing finer in its way than these beautiful Kentucky stories, which are all the better for having a Southern flavor, and picturing an ideal side of Southern life.—Hartford Courant.
The stories of this volume are fiction of high artistic value—fiction to be read and remembered as something rare, fine, and deeply touching.—Independent, N. Y.
These are beautiful sketches.... Never, perhaps, has the charm of Kentucky scenery been more vividly and invitingly illustrated than in this work, and for tenderness of touch and pathetic interest few stories can equal "Sister Dolorosa." In all the tales there is a delicious spice of romance, while the artistic taste in which they are told makes them models of good story telling.—Observer, N. Y.
Very charming stories.... "Two Gentlemen of Kentucky" is an especially delightful sketch.—N. Y. Sun.
In these stories Mr. Allen has given us some tender and touching work, which is characteristic and unhackneyed, and of which the individual flavor is most refreshing. There is, too, a power in these tales which touches the reader.—Boston Courier.
All the stories are unusual in character, scene, and treatment, and all will repay careful reading.—San Francisco Chronicle.
With the temperament and sympathies of the idealist, Mr. James Lane Allen combines the fidelity to detail usually associated only with the strict adherent of realism in art, and the result is—for the reader somewhat satiated with the outpourings of conventional story-writers—a series of entirely new and grateful sensations.—Boston Beacon.
