There is no pretension in [Olivia Manning's] writing, and no bitterness—and yet her view of life is not in the least warped with sentimentality, although love is largely the subject of ["The Doves of Venus"], as the title might indicate. I think what she is mainly is a solid professional, concerned with keeping her story interesting, her characters real, and her attitudes mature. She can evoke pity, describe the shame and the reality of poverty, and she can be delightfully entertaining…. Let us say she is a modest novelist, in the sense that she keeps her aims fairly small and circumspect. Having circumscribed her subject she proceeds to reveal it with deftness and near-perfection.

The most charming and moving portions of the book tell of an eighteen-year-old girl, Ellie, absolutely dedicated to making a place for herself in London after leaving the small town of her family. (p. 18)

While she climbs the ladder of love she crosses paths with an aging beauty who is descending regretfully. Their two lives are interwoven delicately and ironically, both centering for a time around the same man, and while they meet and pass each other, like unaware travelers, some of the contemporary life and society of London is exposed. Miss Manning observes this life sharply…. [She] is neither particularly kind to these people nor embittered. Her humor is tinged with a touch of acid and a touch of benevolence. We see through the wide, impressed, inexperienced eyes of Ellie and through the bitter, tired eyes of Petta.

Miss Manning is content with an exterior view of the men who pass through the lives of the two women. But if you aren't given all the means to understand what makes them as they are, she has made up for it with touches of observation and wisdom. She has written, after all, a comedy of life, not a tragedy. (p. 19)