Miss Fanny Gilbert is a warm-hearted, high-spirited girl, clever and ambitious, and disposed at first to look contemptuously on poor Arthur, whose humble labors appear in most dingy and sordid colors, when contrasted with the fair Fanny’s gorgeous dreams.  She is not a very fascinating nor a very real heroine; but she is better than most of our heroines, and some of her experiences are very pleasantly told.

Arthur’s miserly employer is very good, and his shrewd friend Cheek is capitally drawn.  It was a peculiarly happy thought to make Cheek into a railroad-conductor, and finally into a “gentlemanly and efficient” superintendent.  Nothing else would have suited his character half so well.  The business-like religionists, Moustache and Breastpin, are not so good as the author meant to have them.  The young bookseller is very well done, and Dr. Gilbert very natural and lifelike.  The story of the Doctor’s awakened interest in his daughter’s success, and of his journey to New York, is very well told.  We like especially the lesson which the triumphant authoress, in the full glory of her fame, receives, on finding that her father sets a higher value on his son’s least achievement than on his daughter’s highest success,—­that, however a woman may deserve a man’s place, the world will never award it to her.  It would have been more effective, however, if Dr. Holland had not been quite so anxious that no one should fail to perceive the moral,—­if he had had a little more confidence in his readers.  But we can give unqualified praise to the scene between Miss Gilbert and the little crippled boy, which is one of the most beautiful and touching pictures ever yet presented.

It is a real satisfaction to find a book which one may venture to criticize fearlessly, knowing that it will bear the test,—­especially at present, when one needs be as chary of trying any book fairly as Don Quixote was of proving his unlucky helmet.  And an additional satisfaction is caused by the fact, that the book, not only in origin, but in essence, is American from cover to cover.

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