Cora Sandel keeps on the essentials with a sure poise and distance that has deserted the novelist today. There is no raucous insistence, no flurry of words or metaphors . . . but it is all there, the pressures of economics, psychological and social forces that have placed Alberta where she is.
- Guardian, UK
This is a magnificent work of introspection; few women could reveal themselves so completely with such a critical eye and with such understanding of human weakness...The trilogy is a moving story, a familiar classic in Norwegian literature, and a prize to be translated for the American public.
- Library Journal, USA
A Masterpiece . . . On all levels it is a pleasure to read.
- Observer, UK
A remarkably delicate and precise writer.
- Punch, UK
[This] is a masterpiece... As a writer, Miss Sandel is Maugham's superior. She has not his gift of irony, but her emotional depth is far greater... Miss Sandel is a stylist, a writer of marvelous delicacy...To read it is, in part, to relive the painful experience of growing human.
- Saturday Review, USA