'[letter from Beatrice Webb to Mrs Ward about her novel "Sir George Tressady"] the story is very touching and you have an indescribable power of making your readers sympathise with all your characters, even with Letty and her unlovely mother-in-law. Of course, as a strict utilitarian, I am inclined to estimate the book more in its character of treatise than as a novel. From this point of view it is the most useful piece of work that has been done for many a long day. You have managed to give the arguments for and against factory legslation with admirable lucidity and picturesqueness - in a way that will make them comprehensible to the ordinary person without any technical knowledge'.