University of Virginia Library

Mrs. Holmes endeavors to touch the heart, to take what is pure and excellent and
hold it up to the reader in contrast with what is vile and deceptive. And in this she
excels. The fireside, we are sure, will thank her heartily for these books, and preserve
them with religious strictness, for they are entertaining as well as instructive.

The two tales in this new volume are delightful, and will be well received by the
many who have derived so much entertainment from their predecessors.

There is an air of truthfulness in her common-sense style, an absence of exaggeration
and of high coloring, which conveys a sense of repose to the mind which has fed on the
artificial stimulus of exciting novels. Her womanly gentleness wins the heart, and her
charming fancy throws a spell over the imagination.

The incidents in both these stories are such as pertain to daily experience, and on
that account they bring out more touchingly the traits of individuals in whom the
author determines to interest her readers. Her knowledge of the human heart, in
childhood, and in the multiform trails of woman's lot, gives her the power of an experienced
artist.

She has the happy faculty of enlisting the sympathies and affections of her readers,
and of holding their attention to her pages with deep and absorbing interest.

The two stories which make up this volume—“Dora Deane” and “Maggie Miller”—
have the elements of as wide a popularity as either of their predecessors. She wields a
graceful and graphic pen. Her characters are skilfully portrayed, and she never fails
to win and retain the good opinion of her readers. She has not failed in this agreeable
volume.

These stories are told in her best manner. “Maggie Miller” will be found particularly
interesting. The characters are finely drawn, and the incidents are life-like and
truthful.

The stories in this volume will be read by every lover of fiction with unadulterated
satisfaction. As a student of human character Mrs. Holmes has few equals, and her
descriptive faculties are of a superior order. “Maggie Miller” especially demonstrates
this fact. Some of its passages, as specimens of spirited composition, are seldom
excelled.

The two stories in the work before us are among the most entertaining the talented
authoress has ever written; there is, throughout both, a charm and a beauty which
cannot fail to please, and they have not a dull page within them. The characters are
sketched with a master pen—not overwrought, but yet so earnestly life-like as to be full
of interest—and an easy grace pervades the whole.