Mr. L.U. Wilkinson--himself a writer of powerful achievement--says of
"The Good Girl": "It does what I have always desired should be done;
it reduces 'atmosphere' and 'nature' to their proper subordinate
place. It wastes no energy. It focuses one's intellect and one's
emotion. It creates characters who resemble none others in fiction. It
is imaginative realism of the highest level of excellence."
The complex figure of Vendred, the hero of the story, the evasive
provocative Mona Lisa-like portrait of Mrs. Dover, the extraordinary
and stimulating art with which her husband is described, the agitating
and tragic appeal made to us by Vendred's child-wife, the unfortunate
Louise--all these together make up one of the most absorbing and
unforgettable impressions we have received for many years.
Of Mr. and Mrs. Dover in their relation to one another the following
passage reverberates through one's mind:--"They would sit opposite one
another silently, criticising with a drastic pitiless criticism. This
in itself showed where they had arrived; for faith has to be shaken
before there is room for criticism, and if love survives the criticism
of lovers, it is altogether different from the love they began with.
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