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The Spectator.—'While her only rival in this field of fiction is Mr. Kipling, her work is marked by an even subtler appreciation of the Oriental standpoint—both ethical and religious a more exhaustive acquaintance with native life in its domestic and indoor aspects, and a deeper sense of the moral responsibilities attaching to our rule in the East. The book is profoundly interesting from beginning to end.'

The Pall Mall Gazette.—'A volume of charming stories and of stories possessing something more than mere charm. Stories made rich with beauty and colour, strong with the strength of truth, and pathetic with the intimate pathos which grows only from the heart. All the mystery and the frankness, the simplicity and the complexity of Indian life are here in a glowing setting of brilliant Oriental hues. A book to read and a book to buy. A book which no one but Mrs. Steel could have given us, a book which all persons of leisure should read, and for which all persons of taste will be grateful.'

The Times.—'Mrs. Steel has evidently been brought into close contact with the domestic life of all classes, Hindu and Mahommedan, in city and village, and has steeped herself in their customs and superstitions Mrs. Steel's book is of exceptional merit and freshness.'

 The Athenæum.—'They possess this great merit, that they reflect the habits, modes of life, and ideas of the middle and lower classes of the population of Northern India better than do systematic and more pretentious works.'

The Globe.—'She puts before us the natives of our Empire in the East as they live and move and speak, with their pitiful superstitions, their strange fancies, their melancholy ignorance of what poses with us for knowledge and civilisation, their doubt of the new ways, the new laws, the new people. "Shah Sujah's Mouse," the gem of the collection—a touching tale of unreasoning fidelity towards an English "Sinny Baba" is a tiny bit of perfect writing.'

The Globe.— 'This is a brilliant story a story that fascinates, tingling with life, steeped in sympathy with all that is best and saddest.'

The Manchester Guardian.—'The impression left upon one after reading The Potter's Thumb is that a new literary artist, of very great and unusual gifts, has arisen In short, Mrs. Steel must be congratulated upon having achieved a very genuine and amply deserved success.'

The Scotsman.—'It is a capital story, full of variety and movement, which brings with great vividness before the reader one of the phases of Anglo-Indian life. Mrs. Steel writes forcibly and sympathetically, and much of the charm of the picture which she draws lies in the force with which she brings out the contrast between the Asiatic and European world. The Potter's Thumb is very good reading, with its mingling of the tragedy and comedy of life. Its evil woman par excellence is a finished study.'