Talk:Ensign Knightley and Other Stories

Reviews

 * The Bookman September 1901:
 * Mr. Mason's long stories we have enjoyed and admired; but they had hardly prepared us for the particular excellence of this volume. Of the vigour, the precision, and the picturesqueness of these shorter tales it is impossible to say too much. Occasionally the writer seems to get over difficulties of subject by a kind of tour de force—for he is wont to deal in brief with rather complicated themes—but the sense of strain is never too obvious. Adventure is the dominant note in them, but not merely the adventure of sword and gun; and the workmanship, the play of motive and character, place them entirely outside the range of schoolboy literature. "Ensign Knightley," "Mr. Mitchelbourne's Last Escapade" and "The Keeper of the Bishop" are the most distinguished; but all the stories are fit to rub shoulders with these.

The reader will find here a succession of very short stories, about fourteen in number, all powerfully told, and marked by a somewhat grim realism that bears the reader on like the march of fate. The stories vary much in subject, though the elements of military life prevail, and the tone and atmosphere are decidedly English. The reader who likes movement, adventure, and a touch of the stoical running through the thread of life will enjoy these stories.
 * The Outlook 6 June 1901