SOURCE: A review of Piccadilly, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. CVIII, No. DCLX, October, 1870, pp. 401-22.

In the following excerpt from Blackwood's, the anonymous critic examines the social context and spiritual evolution of the principle characters of Piccadilly.

It would be impossible to imagine any book more utterly puzzling to the careless reader, who is unprepared to encounter anything more weighty than ordinary sketches of contemporary life—or more full of meaning to the thoughtful, than the volume which, after a lapse of several years from its original appearance in these pages, has just been republished under the above title. We make no apology for thus taking up, in the way of criticism and review, a work originally produced to the world by Maga herself; for the book is too curious and individual to be received as an exposition of any opinions but those of its author; and...