Margaret B. McDowell

Margaret B. McDowell wrote that while Jameson's first novels sold well, they served a greater importance as her apprentice writing. They garnered increasingly positive reviews as she began to mature as a writer. Rebecca West

Jameson says in her autobiography that this novel was welcomed in The Spectator and The Times, but was sharply criticised in the Times Literary Supplement. Margaret B. McDowell observes that some reviewers found...

SJ temporarily abandoned her Mirror series for several reasons. She attempted to weave together autobiographical, fictional, and cultural forces in her work in order effectively to interpret the social world of her generation.

Critic Margaret B. McDowell calls the marriage ill-considered and violent, and notes that the couple lived emotionally and physically apart for most of it.