“A work of remarkable power which displays a force of description and a dramatic completeness we have seldom seen surpassed. The interest of the narrative intensifies itself to the deepest pathos. The closing scene is in the highest degree tragic, and the whole management of the story exhibits unquestionable genius and originality.”—The Daily News.

“I was having a delightful conversation with a clever Indian officer, and listening to his reminiscences of being sent out to serve in China with Gordon. He gave me an account of how he tried to keep the regimental library together under difficulties, and how ‘East Lynne’ was sent to them from England. Gordon got hold of it, and was fascinated. He used to come riding from a distance, at some risk, to get hold of the volumes as they were to be had.”—Extract from a Letter.

“‘The Channings’ will probably be read over and over again, and it can never be read too often.”—The AthenÆum.

“The boldness, originality, and social scrutiny displayed in this work remind the reader of Adam Bede. It would be difficult to place beside the death of Edgar Halliburton anything in fiction comparable with its profound pathos and simplicity. It is long since the novel-reading world has had reason so thoroughly to congratulate itself upon the appearance of a new work as in the instance of ‘Mrs. Halliburton’s Troubles.’ It is a fine work; a great and artistic picture.”—The Morning Post.

“‘The Shadow of Ashlydyat’ is very clever, and keeps up the constant interest of the reader. It has a slight supernatural tinge, which gives the romantic touch to the story which Sir Walter Scott so often used with even greater effect; but it is not explained away at the end, as Sir Walter Scott’s supernatural touches generally, and inartistically, were.”—The Spectator.

“One of Mrs. Henry Wood’s best novels.”—The Star.

“Mme. Henry Wood est fort cÉlÈbre en Angleterre, et ses romans—trÈs moraux et trÈs bien Écrits—sont dans toutes les mains et revivent dans toutes les mÉmoires. Le serment de lady AdelaÏde donneront À nos lecteurs une idÉe trÈs suffisante du talent si ÉlevÉ de mistress Henry Wood.”—Instruction Publique.

“In all respects worthy of the hand that wrote ‘The Channings’ and ‘East Lynne.’ There is no lack of excitement to wile the reader on, and from the first to the last a well-planned story is sustained with admirable spirit and in a masterly style.”—The Daily News.

“‘Verner’s Pride’ is a first-rate novel in its breadth of outline and brilliancy of description. Its exciting events, its spirited scenes, and its vivid details, all contribute to its triumph. The interest this work awakens, and the admiration it excites in the minds of its readers, must infallibly tend to the renown of the writer, while they herald the welcome reception of the work wherever skill in construction of no ordinary kind, or a ready appreciation of character, which few possess, can arouse attention or win regard.”—The Sun.

“Mrs. Wood has certainly an art of novel-writing which no rival possesses in the same degree and kind. It is not, we fancy, a common experience for anyone to leave one of these novels unfinished.”—The Spectator.

“The power to draw minutely and carefully each character with characteristic individuality in word and action is Mrs. Wood’s especial gift. This endows her pages with a vitality which carries the reader to the end, and leaves him with the feeling that the veil which in real life separates man from man has been raised, and that he has for once seen and known certain people as intimately as if he had been their guardian angel. This is a great fascination.”—The AthenÆum.

“The story is admirably told.”—The Spectator.

“Mrs. Wood fulfils all the requisites of a good novelist: she interests people in her books, makes them anxious about the characters, and furnishes an intricate and carefully woven plot.”—The Morning Post.

“Mrs. Henry Wood certainly possesses in a wholly exceptional degree the power of uniting the most startling incident of supernatural influence with a certain probability and naturalness which compels the most critical and sceptical reader, having once begun, to go on reading.... He finds himself conciliated by some bit of quiet picture, some accent of poetic tenderness, some sweet domestic touch telling of a heart exercised in the rarer experiences; and as he proceeds he wonders more and more at the manner in which the mystery, the criminality, the plotting, and the murdering reconciles itself with a quiet sense of the justice of things; and a great moral lesson is, after all, found to lie in the heart of all the turmoil and exciting scene-shifting. It is this which has earned for Mrs. Wood so high a place among popular novelists, and secured her admittance to homes from which the sensational novelists so-called are excluded.”—The Nonconformist.

“A good novel.”—The Spectator.

“Mrs. Wood has spared no pains to accumulate the materials for a curiously thrilling story.”—The Saturday Review.

“The name of Mrs. Henry Wood has been familiar to novel-readers for many years, and her fame widens and strengthens with the increase in the number of her books.”—The Morning Post.

“Now that the rights of capital and labour are being fully inquired into, Mrs. Wood’s story of ‘A Life’s Secret’ is particularly opportune and interesting. It is based upon a plot that awakens curiosity and keeps it alive throughout. The hero and heroine are marked with individuality, the love-passages are finely drawn, and the story developed with judgment.”—The Civil Service Gazette.

“When we say that a plot displays Mrs. Wood’s well-known skill in construction, our readers will quite understand that their attention will be enchained by it from the first page to the last.”—The Weekly Dispatch.

“We cannot read a page of this work without discovering a graphic force of delineation which it would not be easy to surpass.”—The Daily News.

“The decided novelty and ingenuity of the plot of ‘Within the Maze’ renders it, in our eyes, one of Mrs. Henry Wood’s best novels. It is excellently developed, and the interest hardly flags for a moment.”—The Graphic.

“A book by Mrs. Wood is sure to be a good one, and no one who opens ‘The Master of Greylands’ in anticipation of an intellectual treat will be disappointed. The keen analysis of character, and the admirable management of the plot, alike attest the clever novelist.”—John Bull.

“We regard these stories as almost perfect of their kind.”—The Spectator.

“Fresh, lively, vigorous, and full of clever dialogue, they will meet with a ready welcome.”—The Standard.

“Mrs. Wood’s stories bear the impress of her versatile talent and well-known skill in turning to account the commonplaces of daily life as well as the popular superstitions of the multitude.”—The Literary World.

“Mrs. Wood’s pleasant style and vivid imagination were never more pleasantly manifested.”—John Bull.

“The whole situation of the book is clever, and the plot is well managed.”—Academy.

“Edina’s character is beautifully drawn.”—The Literary World.

“All the Pomeroys are very cleverly individualised, and the way in which the mystery is worked up, including its one horribly tragic incident, is really beyond all praise.”—The Morning Post.

“The author has given proof of a rarer dramatic instinct than we had suspected among our living writers of fiction. It is not possible by means of extracts to convey any adequate sense of the humour, the pathos, the dramatic power and graphic description of this book.”—The Nonconformist.

“We always open one of Mrs. Wood’s novels with pleasure, because we are sure of being amused and interested.”—The Times.

“Lisez-le; l’Émotion que vous sentirez peu À peu monter À votre coeur est saine et fortifiante. Lisez-le; c’est un livre honnÊte sorti d’une plume honnÊte et vous pourrez le laisser traÎner sur la table.”—Le Signal (Paris).