Page:The Mystery of the Sea.djvu/540



The Outlook.— 'In The Awkward Age Mr. Henry Tames has surpassed himself.'

The Daily Chronicle.—'In delicacy of texture, his work, compared to the work of most, we are strongly inclined to say of all other novelists, is as a fabric woven of the finest spider's web to common huckaback. He suggests more by his reticences than he tells by his statements We should have to search far and wide in modern fiction to find artistry more finished, so consummate.'

The Athenæum.— 'In The Two Magics, the first tale, "The Turn of the Screw," is one of the most engrossing and terrifying ghost stories we have ever read. The other story in the book, "Covering End," is in its way excellently told.'

The Daily News.—'It is a masterpiece of artistic execution. Mr. James has lavished upon it all the resources and subtleties of his art. The workmanship throughout is exquisite in the precision of the touch, in the rendering of shades of spectral representation.'

The National Observer.—'A work of brilliant fancy, of delicate humour, of gentle satire, of tragedy and comedy in appropriate admixture. We congratulate Mr. James without reserve upon the power, the delicacy, and the charm of a book of no common fascination.'

The Manchester Guardian.— 'Delightful reading. The old felicity of phrase and epithet, the quick, subtle flashes of insight, the fastidious liking for the best in character and art, are as marked as ever, and give one an intellectual pleasure for which one cannot be too grateful.'

The Daily News.—'A melodrama wrought with the exquisiteness of a madrigal. All the characters, however lightly sketched, are drawn with that clearness of insight, with those minute, accurate, unforeseen touches that tell of relentless observation.'

The Scotsman.—'A masterpiece of Mr. James's analytical genius and finished literary style. It also shows him at his dramatic best. He has never written anything in which insight and dramatic power are so marvellously combined with fine and delicate literary workmanship.'