'The Shadow of a Dream' makes readers familiar with this rather peculiar development of a peculiar subject, and the tragic ending which is so much more pronounced than any other of the real facts of Howells' novels on which one can decisively lay a finger, as to give the reader an actual shock of horror. This bit of "the stuff that dreams are made of" but gives us an instance of the strange power of dream phantasies over our waking life — a power that more than one of us has felt, and sets us wondering likewise if there is, after all, any definite boundary between sanity and insanity, and whether it is really only a question of majority decision. The story is, of course, handled with all the delicate finish and fidelity of which Howells is along acknowledged master.
