'The anonymous writer of this novel has evidently started with the intention of presenting to the public a new and original type of Australian heroine. We have met with Australian girls (in books) whose principal characteristics were a tendency to use slang on every possible occasion, a predeliction for riding barebacked on unmanageable horses, and their somewhat hazy notion as the manners considered becoming in a young English lady; but never, in books or out of them, did we encounter the prototype of Stella Courtland the "Australian Girl", who had Kant's "Kritik of Pure Reason" at her fingers' ends, and spoke and wrote interminable pages of reflections on life, death and theological doctrines. As far as looks go, this unique young person, was quite on par with the average heroine, no less than 13 lines being devoted to the description of her eyes alone...'