The Devastators (Cambridge novel)

The Devastators (1901) is a novel by Australian writer Ada Cambridge.

Story outline
The novel considers the impacts on two ill-made marriages: Peggy Le Marchand is married to Harry Bedingfield, but should have married Dr. Dallas who is actually married to Mimi Rochester.

Critical reception
A reviewer in Freeman's Journal was underwhelmed by the book noting it is "described as 'a novel with a purpose.' Masters of the craft of bookmaking like Dickens also wrote novels with a purpose, the moral of which ran in a thin red line of tragedy carefully woven into a healthy story in which comedy had its share.' In The Devastators the purpose is the whole plot; and, however excellent it may be to hold up the mirror to ill-chosen marriages for the instruction of others, the result is rather dismal to the reader in this case."