Sir Edward Fry
, the father of ER
's friend Margery Fry
, noted that many readers were surprised by the distant, dispassionate tone taken in this work,
Pedersen, Susan. “Eleanor Rathbone (1872-1946): The Victorian Family Under the Daughter’s Eye”. After the Victorians: Private Conscience and Public Duty in Modern Britain, edited by Susan Pedersen and Peter Mandler, Routledge, 1994, pp. 105-2.