"The strength of the story lies in portrayal of the aspirations,
disciplinary efforts, trials, and triumphs of the man who is a born
writer, and who by long and painful experiences learns the good that is
in him and the way in which to give it effectual expression. Taken for
all in all it is one of the most pleasing of all his productions in
fiction, and it affords a view of certain phases of American, or perhaps
we should say of New York, life that have not hitherto been treated with
anything like the same adequacy and felicity."--_Boston Beacon._