Daily Telegraph

30 October 1887.

Among the other Christmas books issued is one by Messrs. Tresse and Stock, called "En Rade," by M. J. K. Huysmans. The work is not only well written, but is neatly printed, and the text almost invites one to read. It is a study of the "ups and downs" of a Parisian household in the country, and the author shows his knowledge of peasant life to be as accurate as his Balzac-like acquaintance with metropolitan manners and customs. Here and there in the volume there are a few Zolaesque sentences which might have been expurgated, but M. Huysmans has not allowed himself to follow the author of "La Terre" too closely in his modes of expression, and he very prudently stops short where M. Zola would be tempted to go on. "En Rade" is, on the whole, a healthy study of peasant life.