"The Treasure Is the Rose" is surely [Julia Cunningham's] finest accomplishment. (p. 40)

There is great beauty in the writing—an aura of color and light, words shimmering on the page as if sunshine illumined them. But the author's consummate achievement has been to probe her characters to the point where we see the secret self that hides within all of them, waiting for someone to bring it forth. Yarrow, the youth who Ariane finally comes to love, is probably the most interesting character Miss Cunningham has ever created—and, upon several readings, her book becomes a pool into which the reader throws tiny pebbles. The rings continue outward. (p. 42)