Publisher's Synopsis
A group of short stories in Miss Wilkins's best and most characteristic vein; sketches of quaint or "cranky" New England characters, apparently studied from the life, and drawn with precision and humor. In these short stories Miss Wilkins is dealing with the subjects which she knows at first hand; and the strength of her work, which lies in its knowledge of a certain narrow type of New England character, in a certain class of New England communities, is fully developed in the distinctness with which her men and women stand out against the homely and in some cases sordid background of village or home life.
-The Outlook, Volume 77 [1904]
Miss Wilkins is another instance of the superiority of the average American popular writer to the average popular writer of our own country. No one, we may safely say, would venture to offer Transatlantic readers the slop and twaddle that fills five sixths of our own novels and novelettes. It is felt across the water that a published story should have point about it, and, in addition, should be told well. These remarks may serve to indicate the character of the New England tales - two dozen in all - now sent to us. Homely, pastoral idyls they are, with humble actors and every-day situations; yet the keen eye of the writer and her descriptive powers give the stories a quality and distinction that is looked for in vain in many more pretentious compositions.
-The Literary World, Volume 22
