[The Silken Net] is a traditional novel of a particularly English kind. Words could be used linking Melvyn Bragg with Hardy, Lawrence and Bennett in the Grand Chain: that he belongs there is indisputable. The intensity of the writing leads Mr Bragg into occasional linguistic clumsiness. In the interests of grace (if grace interests him) he might have edited himself … more severely…. One could argue about the strengths, the weaknesses and the implications of The Silken Net all night. (p. 229)

Victoria Glendinning, in New Statesman (© 1974 The Statesman & Nation Publishing Co. Ltd.), August 16, 1974.