The plotting is complex, astonishing and perfect. It brims with good nature and generosity of spirit...it's full of jokes, suspense, cliffhangers, narrative reversals and pathos'

I think the Oedipus Tyrannus, The Alchemist, and Tom Jones, the three most perfect plots ever planned. And how charming, how wholesome, Fielding always is! To take him up after Richardson, is like emerging from a sick room heated by stoves, into an open lawn, on a breezy day in May

An exquisite picture of human manners

I am shocked to hear you quote from so vicious a book. I am sorry to hear you have read it: a confession which no modest lady should ever make

As the voices of Austen, Turgenev and Tolstoy have survived, so will Maxwell's

This characteristically gentle story about a family tragedy lingers long in the memory as does all this master's work

An excellent introduction to his sympathetic, refined and humane art, and is a most moving and impressive artefact in itself

A lovely, heartbreaking book

Rare...exquisite...a cameo-like perfection

Speaks volumes about heroism and the human condition... A taut, page-turning narrative

Ingenious