University of Virginia Library

“This is the last great work of Mr. Bennett, and almost universally pronounced his
master-piece. The scene is laid in the city of New York, and it accurately shows life
in the great metropolis. The scenes are wrought up with great power, and from the
first line to the last, the reader is, as it were, held spell-bound by the most intense and
thrilling interest. Many of the scenes and characters are drawn from real life. Who
does not remember the awful fate of poor Helen Jewett, and the trial of Robinson
for her murder? Their counterpart may be found in Helen Douglass, and Acton
Atherton—two characters which figure in this work. It shows you the mansion of
the millionaire, and the hovel of poverty; and lays bare crimes of the greatest magnitude,
long concealed under the mask of a damnable hypocrisy; it shows the struggles
of a young man and his sister, who were once rich, but who were robbed of all their
money by the villainy of their uncle, who, living in splendor in the city on his ill-gotten
gains, absolutely refuses to give their mother, (his own sister,) money enough to
buy food to keep her from dying of starvation. And after she is dead, the unfeeling
wretch imprisons his nephew on a false charge of forgery; while his own base son
plots the ruin of his cousin, (the young man's sister.) and actually succeeds in entrapping
her into a house of bad repute. But, not to enter into detail, we will only add
that virtue triumphs in the end, and that villainy meets its just reward. No one can
peruse this story without acknowledging it is a powerful work, and calculated to effect
great good. The moral of it is unexceptionable, and it should be read by the religious
portions of our community as well as by the romance readers. It has already been
approved of by the ministers of the Gospel, and by pious members of the church; and
the author has been more than once congratulated since its appearance for boldly
striking into a new field, and elevating his romance to that high moral standard
which makes it unexceptionable to the most virtuous, pure, and refined.”

“A native novel, in which the scene is laid in the city of New York, and the incidents
detailed with a truthfulness of description which constitutes the great charm of
Mr. Bennett's writings. In his previous works, Mr. Bennett has described border life,
prairie scenes, and Indian warfare, with a pen so graphic, as to bring the scene bodily
before the reader. In `The Forged Will,' he deals with every day occurrences of domestic
town life in the same minute and elaborate way—forcibly reminding us of the
descriptions of Bulwer in `Eugene Aram,' and other works. `The Forged Will' contains
throughout a moral of which the reader is never permitted to lose sight—that crime
sooner or later leads to retribution, and that virtue even when exposed to severe trials,
eventually receives its reward.”

“Another edition, in so short a time, of this most exciting work, shows the extraordinary
interest which it is everywhere exciting, and among all classes of readers. It
is truly a most startling and well wrought picture of the great commercial emporium,
the city which ranks next to London and Paris in gorgeous profligacy and reckless,
squalid crime. New York, with seven hundred thousand inhabitants, its churches,
palaces and hovels, is a wonderful city, and Mr. Bennett turns it inside out to the
astonished gaze of even its own citizens. Such is the rush for the `Forged Will,' that
on the appearance of the third edition, the enterprising, popular publisher announces
his intention of gratifying distant readers, by sending copies through the mail, free of
postage, on receipt of fifty cents, the price of the work.”

“This is a work of power, a thrilling story of such incidents as occur in real life, portraying
the guilty in their relations to the virtuous; deeds of hypocrisy and darkness,
concealed for a time, yet meeting with the stern retribution merited. It is a picture,
mingling light and shade, and teaches that the triumphing of the wicked is short; and
that virtue, though it suffer for a brief season, is sure of a due reward.”