SOURCE: A review of The Third Circle, in The Athenaeum, No. 4269, August 21, 1909, p. 206.

In the following review, the critic describes the stories in The Third Circle as interesting examples of Norris's apprentice work.

There are some sixteen stories or sketches brought together in [The Third Circle], and if it were not that they are posthumous papers, we should have questioned the wisdom of preserving some of them. They represent the early work of a clever writer, whose life, unfortunately, was not long enough to admit of the maturing of his talents. Combined with the somewhat feverish energy which came to him in Western America, Frank Norris had a fine feeling for romance, and a serious appreciation of the writer's obligations which would probably have carried him far. The sketches here presented are rather journalistic than literary; but they contain imaginative touches, and interesting evidence of a writer's progress...