Christiaan Louis Leipoldt

Among all the novels describing life in South Africa this is certainly the most poetic. The style perfectly suits the theme, and nowhere has the character of the Platteland Afrikaner been drawn with greater love and understanding. Pauline Smith's work has been acclaimed by great writers and critics such as Arnold Bennett and William Plomer. It has as great an appeal to popular taste as to the most fastidious. Professor Raymond Sands makes the following judgement: "...I think it has not yet been established, but I also think that it perhaps ought to be, that it is the best of the South African novels in English ... of itself complete, a finished work of art."