"Fine dramatic qualities mark 'A Son of Israel,' which is not to be wondered at when we learn that the supposed author is Mrs. E. S. Willard, wife of the actor, using the pseudonym Rachel Penn. The writer has abandoned the commonplace in devising a plot, and shows literary skill as well as spirit and vivacity in the narration."--_Philadelphia Press._
"The story fairly bristles with melodrama, and contains incident enough for any three ordinary books, while a complete list of the _dramatis personæ_, which range all the way from an ex-ballet dancer to a buyer for an English firm of dealers in curios, and from serfs to the Czarowitz himself, would tax the limits of the longest handbill."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._
"'A Son of Israel' is a timely book. Of peculiar interest now, the book will be read, appreciated, and condemned. It is a novel of feeling, a novel built out of the suffering sympathy of a woman's heart for the oppressed of her people and of her God."--_Chattanooga Times._
There is uncommon freshness, like a wind from the wide plains, in these tales called _Bunch-Grass Stories_. They are the work of a writer who observes and seizes the picturesque traits in every land where fortune happens to call her, and her travels have evidently been many and far away. She has, likewise, much reading, which she puts to good account in stories that impart the ring of truth to classic episodes.
"'A Blind Lead' is certainly a powerful book. We took it up indifferently enough, but we had read a few pages only before we found it was no ordinary work by no ordinary writer. A good deal of skill is shown in the drawing of character. There are no dull pages, and the interest is continuous from the first chapter to the last."--_Boston Advertiser._
"Her story, 'A Blind Lead,' was very promising, and it is followed by an extremely interesting tale, 'A Nameless Wrestler.' Here is something outside the hackneyed course of fiction--fresh, strong, fascinating, dramatic, and wholesome--scenes laid in an unfamiliar country, though our own, and characters human enough to be all the more interesting because touched with strange traits by virtue of environment."--_Detroit Tribune._
"Mrs. Molesworth's books are always interesting, particularly to girls. This story tells of the adventures of a young girl, Philippa, who, in the capacity of a lady's maid, accompanies her married sister on a visit to the latter's connections by marriage. Many complications ensue, which are graphically told."--_Norristown Herald._