Publisher's Synopsis
A story that "concerns chiefly two women who, after trials and tribulations with their husbands, assert the hackneyed doctrine of 'their right to happiness'; the one by disappearing into temporary bliss with the man named Illsboro, who 'came'; the other by retiring to a childhood's haunt in Italy and playing good genius to a hill-town under the guidance of an Italian ministering angel (male). The moral law being inflexible, the experiments end in failure - irretrievable in one case, in the other, not too late for a return to the 'half loaves' which are humanity's portion." -"Nation"
"That talent for omission which Stevenson tells us might make Iliads of daily newspapers is most detrimentally absent from this novel. Unfortunately, and unfairly, as it happens, the lack of it takes possession of the perceptions, the feelings, and at last of the nerves. And all this pother does real injustice to a forcible and interesting story." -"Nation"
"The tone of the book is more than a little morbid - there is more of the emotional narcotic than of the moral tonic about it. Its best success is in its poetical descriptive passages and some of the more casual views of Italian peasant life." -"N. Y. Times"
"It shows the same first-hand knowledge of life and the same unhackneyed touch and leaves upon the mind the same impression of reality and sincerity as did the short stories. Its plot is carefully constructed and closely knit together and its panorama of life goes on before the reader's eyes with a large, significant movement." -"N. Y. Times"
