ABSTRACT
My Dear Sir, There can be no doubt as to the power of your book. It will take
rank: amongst the works of great rank of these years. I have not yet finished it, and I cannot yet make up my mind as to its place as a work of true art. It belongs to a school ofwhich I know nothing, and which I hold at arm's length, at least I think: so. I am no critic, and
very rarely read a modern romance, and I especially hate the so-called realism ofZola. But your painting of dark life seems to me as good as his, and to have a better social purpose-at least I hope so. I am, as I say, very little experienced in judging fiction, and I make no pretensions to judge at all work so full ofpower both in imagination and in expression as your story. It has most deeply stirred and impressed me by its creative energy. And I cannot wait till I have read it coolly, and felt it as a whole, before I write to you. It kept me out of bed a large part of last night-I took it up after my work-and that is what very few books have done for many years.
