The Blue Wall

Résumé du livre

A story of strangeness and struggle, of unflagging interest and deep mystery.

"Should be prescribed by every literary physician. It is a tale to keep strong men from their meat and dames from the bridge table. Mr. Richard Washburn Child's first complete novel is a success. 'What is behind the wall?' asks the doctor attending a child patient as he senses a brooding and malign influence in the atmosphere of the sick room. The answer is revealed in the stories of the doctor, the married couple next door, the old nurse and the automatic chess player. It is a strange and fascinating mystery with divagations into heredity and psychic problems. It grips....Mr. Child will not take it amiss if we trace the influence of Wilkie Collins and Bulwer Lytton in his work." -The Independent

"An absorbing tale....It is a story of mystery and struggle complicated by a hereditary taint. The mystery well guarded to the end involves a seemingly happy family whose unaccountable misfortune and suffering touch with mesmeric subtlety a neighbor's child stricken with meningitis. The child is vividly conscious that her life depends upon the welfare of this family between whom and herself her delirium erects a blue wall. The physician attending her undertakes to unravel the mystery beyond the wall. This he does successfully, and in its accomplishment raises the question of the magnitude of influence exerted by every human being - influence that is not seen with the eyes or heard with the ears but which affects every one near with its good or evil." -Book Review Digest

"Extremely ingenious." -The New York Times

"A mystery tale blended of heredity, degeneracy, crime and telepathy, told with much ingenuity from the successive points of view of its chief actors as each comes in turn to the foreground of the stage. The whole ends in a question that each reader may solve according to his temperament or predilection, so equally balanced is the dilemma." -The Churchman

"Absorbing....In its dealing with the psychology of latent influence it is subtle....A psychological study woven around a crime mystery." -Outlook

"Upon one side of a pale blue wall lay a little girl ill of fever; upon the other side lay heavy mystery. The unknown thing affected the sensitive child in so remarkable a manner that her physician undertook to solve the mystery. The solution constitutes Richard Washburn Child's first long story, 'The Blue Wall.' It is a successful venture marked by novelty and unfailing interest." -McClure's Magazine

"'The Blue Wall' is not only a detective story of more than ordinary interest, but also brings out very strongly the Ibensian theory of heredity. It is well planned and well told." -Louisville Courier-Journal