A triumph of exact compassion, of disciplined speculation, and of imaginative justice.
-- Christopher Ricks The Sunday Times [UK]
Strouse is acquainting us with the younger sister of William and Henry James...[She has] written a Jamesian novel, subtle, evasive, embroidered, splendid.
-- John Leonard New York Times
Brilliant...Jean Strouse has created a fascinating picture of 'woman's place' in a family of genius and throws a searching light on the price a woman sometimes pays when reared in such a hothouse.
-- Leon Edel