Translated from the Italian, Matilde Serao tells the story of the simple tragedies of two Italian women. Pictures as sad and as hopeless as they are exquisite. The external plots of both, "The Ballet Dancer" and "On Guard" are simple in the extreme. The psychological problems of each one, especially of the first, is intricate. It is rather interesting to note that the heroines of both are the gray, joyless type of women, timid and shrinking, that we associate rather with northern countries than the south of Italy. The soul of the story is Carmela's love for a man whom she does not know, who has looked at her but once or twice, and then with scorn. (Summary from New York Times book review of 1901)Matilde Serao is widely regarded as the most successful Italian women journalist of the 19th Century. Along with being a very popular newspaper columnist, she wrote over 40 books, founded four newspapers and brought up five children.