“His style is rather exuberant, but it is picturesque and rapid.”
“The book is of value to the lay reader in that it clarifies not a few of the foggy statements and definitions that have been associated with this newly developed science to its popular detraction. Professor Ross is a clear and forcible writer.”
Ross, Janet Anne (Mrs. Henry J. Ross).Old Florence and modern Tuscany.*$1.50. Dutton.
The author, who has lived among the Tuscan peasants for over thirty years, has written a series of fifteen papers, eleven of which have already appeared in various magazines. The book opens with the history of the Misericordia, the brotherhood of pity in Florence, then follow chapters upon “A domestic chaplain of the Medici,” “Two Florentine hospitals,” “A September day in the valley of the Arno,” “Popular songs of Tuscany,” “Vintaging in Tuscany,” “Oil-making in Tuscany.” “Virgil and agriculture in Tuscany,” “A stroll in Boccaccio’s country,” “The dove of the holy Saturday,” “San Gimignano della Belle Torre,” “Volterra,” “Mezzeria or land tenure in Tuscany,” and “The jubilee of the crucifix.”
Reviewed by Anna Benneson McMahan.
“Well deserve being collected into book form on account of their historical research and of their keen observation of actual conditions of peasant life in Tuscany. The most attractive article of all in this volume is on the popular songs of Tuscany.”
“Written with a distinct and common inspiration and with undoubted joy in transcription.”
“Mr. Carmichael and Mr. Hewlett have been enlightening us as to Tuscany; now comes Mrs. Ross in a smaller volume but with almost equal information, especially as to the Tuscan peasants. While we learn more about modern Tuscany than about old Florence ... Mrs. Ross’s account is noteworthy, although for a more exhaustive treatment one will turn to the volumes by Mr. Gardner, M. Yriarte, and Mrs. Oliphant.”
Rosse, Florence James.Philosophy and froth. 50c. Broadway pub.
Almost 200 little epigrammatic sayings, some of which are clever and some of which are not.
Rouse, Adelaide Louise.Letters of Theodora.†$1.50. Macmillan.
A girl, who has left a position in a New Jersey college and a faithful lover to seek literary honors in unfeeling New York, writes of her struggles to a girl friend. A life of grape-nuts in a hall bedroom does not discourage her and she has many experiences and flirtations which introduce various interesting characters; but in the end she marries the original John.
“Though she really has nothing much to write about, her letters make pleasant reading.”
“‘The letters of Theodora’ do not constitute a psychological brain-twister, but a light and pleasing romance.”
“It must be confessed that Teddy has a vivacious way about her which makes her letters very pleasant reading.”
“A clever entertaining book.”
“May not appeal to a very large public. The public to which it does appeal will be select and worth having.”
Rouse, G. H.Old Testament criticism in New Testament light.*$1. Union press.
An address given before the Bengali Christian conference of Calcutta has been expanded into this volume which is addressed to the general reader. It presents “modern views” upon subjects included under the chapter headings, Our basis—Christ made no mistakes; Christ’s treatment of the Old Testament; The relation of the Levitical law to the prophetic history and teaching; The Pentateuch; The authorship of Psalm cx.; The historicity, accuracy, and authoritativeness of the Old Testament; The book of Daniel; Prophecy; and Critical methods.
“The higher critics will find in this work much to learn, and much to moderate their views, while the uncritical Christian will find much to deepen his faith and to strengthen his hold on the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.” T. H. L. Leary.
*Routh, James Edward, jr.Fall of Tollan. $1. Badger, R: G.
A dramatic poem in which Quetzal is sent by “the all-father, the high Tonaca,” to rule over Mexican Tollan and become a power for good. The god of darkness, “lest man should be all blessed,” took the form of Lord Tezca who basely seized the throne and “scoffing all but careless, jovial wit and witty joy,” ruled until “hostile tribes flung down the bronze-wrought gates.” Kingdom followed kingdom, while the people dumbly waited for “Quetzal’s hoped return.”
Rowland, Helen.Digressions of Polly.†$1.50. Baker.
Polly and her fiancé furnish the airy dialogue of this book. There are twenty-three chapters, each a complete little chat, with its own setting and its own amusing climax; but thru them all Polly, the light-hearted, with her curls, her dimples and her chiffon ruffles, and Jack the resourceful, very human and very much in love, are true to their frivolous parts.
“The result is not equal to the effort.”
“One of the brightest volumes of dialogue of the season.”
“If it is lacking in originality ... the conversations of the fair and frivolous Polly and her fiancé, never dull, are often unusually diverting.”
“Her froth and her frills make her very good company, indeed, for others than the agreeable young man who takes her balls and occasionally sends back a very respectable one of his own.”
“She is certainly entertaining, though, perhaps for too many pages.”
*Rowland, Henry Cottrell.Mountain of fears.†$1.50. Barnes.
“There are contained in this volume eight stories of adventure, having a slender thread of connection in that all are narratives by Doctor Leyden of strange experiences in his career as a collector for museums.” (Pub. Opin.) “They deal with strange and exotic regions such as Papua, the Orinoco, Borneo, Curacao, Sulu, the South Sea islands, Hayti, and the Malay peninsula.... Drinking, murder, abduction, fraud, brutality, cowardice—such are the contents of the book.” (Nation.)
*“Some of the most unpleasant short stories it was ever the fate of an author to invent. There is no denying that in spite of some exaggeration and tall talk, the stories are exceedingly well told, but why tell them?”
*“The tales are vivid and strange.”
*“Joseph Conrad would have told the story differently, and doubtless better, but it is doubtful if he could have created a more convincing atmosphere of horror.”
Rowland, Henry Cottrell.Wanderers.†$1.50. Barnes.
The story of a young Irishman who, fearing that his father’s will has given his yacht to a brother, runs away with the coveted boat. He takes an artist friend with him, and later picks up an American professor’s daughter, with whom both young men fall in love, and her chaperone. After many and varied adventures, which include dueling and piracy, Brian legally acquires both the yacht and the girl.
“The style is simple but adequate, there is plenty of humor, and the book admirably fulfils its purpose.”
“An unpretending tale, entertaining for an hour or two, agreeable in its main personages, pleasantly written, abundantly varied in its kinds of interest.”
“Rollicking, jovial story.”
“A light, breezy tale of the sea, with less of storm and stress than is common to novels of a marine cast, but sufficiently spiced with adventure to keep the interest alive. Leaving numerous improbabilities out of mind, the book will serve well to while away a couple of hours.”
“The book will be acceptable to those who wish entertainment without mental effort.”
Rowlands, Samuel.Bride.**$3.50. Goodspeed.
“An interesting reprint.... Save for an entry in the Stationers’ register under date of 1617, this work has hitherto been unknown to bibliography. Last spring a unique copy was purchased from a German bookseller for the library of Harvard university, and this is now reprinted in partial facsimile, with a brief introductory note. The poem ... a conversation between a bride and her attendant maidens concerning the respective advantages of the single and married estates ... is written in Rowlands’ habitual cleanly-turned six-line, stanza.”—Nation.
“Will add little to Rowlands’ fame.”
“There is nothing in the poem either to add to the poetic treasures of our literature or to furnish any new footnotes to literary history.”
Rowntree, B. Seebohm.Betting and gambling: a national evil.*$1.60. Macmillan.
“The preliminary chapter is devoted to the Ethics of betting and gambling, and is by John A. Hobson, M. A. It is followed by The extent of gambling, by John Hawke; Stock exchange gambling, by A. J. Wilson; Gambling among women, by J. M. Hogge; Crime and gambling, by Canon Horsley; The deluded sportsman, by a bookmaker; Gambling and citizenship, by J. Ramsey MacDonald; Existing legislation, by John Hawke; and The repression of gambling, by R. Seebohm Rowntree. In the appendix are given some government bills on the subject, opinions of prominent men on betting, a note on pedestrianism, tipping, betting statistics, and a bibliography.”—N. Y. Times.
“We can at all events congratulate Mr. Seebohm Rowntree upon having produced an amusing contribution to the faddist class of literature of the day.”
*“Mr. Rowntree treats of the evil of betting in the thoro and dispassionate manner he has employed in his other studies.”
“Such a book as this has long been needed. It is the work of specialists for the abatement of a national evil.”
“As a study the book is very good reading.”
“This volume will be found very valuable as a reference-book.”
*Rowson, Susanna Haswell.Charlotte Temple: a tale of truth; with an historical and biographical introd. by Francis W. Halsey; reprinted from the first Am. ed., 1794. $1.25. Funk.
This “true story of events in New York city during the Revolution,” has seen over one hundred editions, and the present reprint corrects many errors which have crept into the various texts and gives an historical introduction showing that the people concerned in this account of the beautiful and ill-fated Charlotte, who eloped at fifteen with an English army officer and died broken-hearted and deserted some two years later, concerns people well known in their day. The language of the book is quaintly old-fashioned, and the unpleasant truths are plainly treated. The story was originally intended as a warning to young girls.
*“Mr. Halsey’s introduction is extremely interesting: a bit of bibliographical work of high order, adding enormously to the literary value of the volume.”
Royce, Josiah.Herbert Spencer; an estimate and review; together with a chapter of personal reminiscences by James Collier.**$1.25. Fox.
“Exactly one-half this volume is occupied by Professor Royce’s estimate of Spencer.... Having sketched the general history of evolution in bold and strong lines, he reviews the origin and significance of Spencer’s own view of evolution.... The third quarter of the volume is given to a criticism by Professor Royce of Spencer’s educational theories.... The volume is brought to a close by some personal reminiscences of Spencer by Mr. James Collier, who was for nine years his secretary, and for ten his amanuensis.”—Nation.
“[Belongs] to the supplementary order of biographical material.” H. W. Boynton.
“This little volume is one of the best ... contributions to Spenceriana which have been called forth by the publication of Spencer’s Autobiography.”
“A most apt supplement to the ‘Autobiography.’”
“Professor Royce has given us a rather dreary picture of the Englishman, Mr. Collier ... gives a more sympathetic account in his personal reminiscences in the latter part of the book.” H. Heath Bawden.
“One need hardly ask better help toward a just estimate of the great career so lately closed than is afforded by this little book in which historical, biographical and critical insights are happily blended.” Edward H. Griffin.
*Rudy, Charles.Cathedrals of northern Spain; their history and their architecture: together with much of interest concerning the bishops, rulers and other personages identified with them.**$2. Page.
The author of this well illustrated volume in the ‘Cathedral series’ “has an unbounded love not only for Spain but for the Spanish people. He sees the cathedrals of the Castillian country with enthusiastic eyes, and he writes as he sees.” (Ind.)
*“The book, as a whole, will hardly appeal to any but the superficial reader.”
*Ruskin, John.Complete works. $37.50. Crowell.
Thirty volumes containing besides the usual texts of Ruskin’s works at least two volumes of author’s notes, bibliography and indices not usually found in current editions. The volumes are strongly bound for library purposes, the type is large and clear, and the illustrations for the set include thirty photogravures, 341 half-tones, and 10 color plates, some of which are reproductions of Ruskin’s own sketches, as well as Turner’s. The books are boxed and appear in three styles of bindings.
Ruskin, John.Letters of John Ruskin to Charles Eliot Norton; ed. by C. E. Norton.**$4. Houghton.
These letters, covering a period from 1855 to 1887, are edited by Professor Norton himself. They are the intimate letters of a man to his best friend, some, indeed, have been omitted as too intimate for publication, and, beginning where “Praeterita” ended, they form a sequel to it and a valuable addition to Ruskin’s autobiography. The letters describe the changes which took place in Ruskin’s views of art, religion, and life during that period, they show him as a social reformer, and political economist, and give his opinions on American and European politics. His sketches of the people and places that he loved, his inner purposes, his work, and the doubts and perplexities that beset him, reveal the writer to us in a new and more lovable light. There are a number of illustrations.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton.
“The graceful dignity and consummate skill of the comment which accompanies them. Not only are they a continuous record of Ruskin’s intellectual and emotional life from 1856 on, and thus almost completely supplement the unfinished ‘Praeterita,’ but they have the advantage over ‘Praeterita’ in being records contemporary to the fact, and thus not subject to contamination through subsequent changes of mood and of memory. In that of purest friendship, merelyas the spontaneous record of his inner as well as his outer life. With just reticence and balance of judgment, Mr. Norton sums up the work of his friend. Ruskin’s comments on his contemporaries are interesting.” G. R. Carpenter.
“He [Norton] has performed a delicate task with exquisite taste.” Jeanette L. Gilder.
“Read with an eye single to the revelation of personality, there is hardly a letter here included that does not yield something of value, and the effect of the whole is to give us the conviction that we may now approach closer to the real Ruskin than has hitherto been possible even with the assistance of his ablest interpreters.”
“The letters are indeed revelatory, but, for the most part, they are revelatory of a woeful instability of purpose and of a pitiful misery of mind. Except incidentally and occasionally, they cannot be said to add dignity to the name of the man they characterize.”
“Professor Norton was one of Ruskin’s closest friends, and these letters make an excellent biography of the great Englishman.”
“Fascinating as these letters are to read, their one subject is Himself, his own troubles, his own work, his own knowledge: from beginning to end it is I.”
Russell, Charles Edward.Twin immortalities, and other poems.*$1.50; special ed.*$2.50. Hammersmark.
The little ode and several other poems contain an interpretation of music, but in Graubünden and Pigli, which are written according to the classical form of the sonata, music and poetry are most closely allied. The book is dedicated to President Loubet, the foremost democrat of these times, and in such poems as “Adam’s sons” and the “Coronation ode,” the brotherhood of man is set forth.
“That there is much in this volume to interest both the musician and the verse-wright,—perhaps, chiefly, him who stands on the borderland between the two arts, the composer of librettos.”
“Rich and varied volume of verse.”
“He has an admirable gift of phrase, which at its best is alive to its finger tips.”
Russell, Constance, Lady.Three generations of fascinating women, and other sketches from family history.*$10.50. Longmans.
“A gallery is presented in the volume of beautiful women of the past, and of those in particular who were the leaders in the society of former times.” (N. Y. Times). There are fourteen sketches dealing with Lady Russell’s family history, including the families of Campbell, Gunning, Lenox, Gordon, and Whitworth, besides side-light information concerning contemporaries. There is the Hon. Mary Bellenden, who was “incontestably the most agreeable, the most insinuating, and the most likable woman of her time;” of the second generation, her daughter Caroline, Countess of Ailesbury, a woman of rare charms, who numbered among her friends the statesmen and men of letters of the day; of the third generation, the Hon. Mrs. Damer, who in both London and Paris was a social leader and the center of a host of literary personages.
“You might call Lady Russell’s book a story of fleeting beauties. Are not so much idealizations as realities.”
*“This is an admirable literary work now revised and reproduced in a most admirable manner.”
Russell, George William Erskine.Sydney Smith.**75c. Macmillan.
A volume in the “English men of letters series.” A full treatment of the life and personality of a man celebrated for his wit, but whose more solid qualities as a man of letters, a founder of the Edinburgh Review, a lecturer on moral philosophy, a writer of pamphlets, a politician, and a clergyman, deserve respect. His humor found him a ready audience, and his keen shafts were used to point his morals more effectively.
“Mr. George Russell’s biography is adequate and sympathetic. He has selected his material with discretion, and has let Sydney Smith tell his own story as far as possible. Now and again the biographer permits his own prejudices to intervene, and so strikes a jarring note. The book is a coherent, intelligible account of a great man.”
“He seems, in short, pretty thoroughly to have summed up the Sydney Smith question; no more elaborate study of him is likely to be needed.” H. W. Boynton.
“Mr. Russell’s chief merit, then, consists ... in the shrewd and kindly criticism which he bestows upon Sydney Smith’s energy, goodness, wit and occasional foibles.”
“If there is any fault to be found with Mr. Russell’s book, it is that he does not dwell long enough on the purely social side of Sidney Smith. Mr. Russell’s brief but interesting biography is well indexed, and provides such copious extracts from Sydney Smith’s writings on all possible subjects that it is not a bad substitute for his ‘Works,’ which are not easily accessible to the general reader.”
“If Mr. Morley made a mistake in selecting his subject he has shown his editorial wisdom in his choice of author. No one is better suited to treat of the great Whig wit than such a representative of the great Whig family, the Russells. Having something of a conscience, Mr. Russell does not say much about Smith’s literary qualities and capacities.” Joseph Jacobs.
“A very readable life of the great English wit by an interesting biographer. Suffers nothing by brevity; for Mr. Russell has succeeded in conveying the personality of Sydney Smith and in making his pages live in the light of that personality.”
“A very readable monograph.”
“Sydney Smith is essentially of those writers who speak for themselves. The assistance he has received from Mr. Russell is judged to a nicety.”
“Mr. Russell’s volume makes one of the best jest books we have ever seen, for there is just enough flour of biography to keep the plums of quotation properly apart. If we may hint a fault, it is that in the matter of Smith’s churchmanship Mr. Russell seems to make the worst of what he considers a bad job.”
*Ryan, Thomas Curran.Finite and infinite.**$1.50. Lippincott.
The author says, “My purpose is to consider,first, such evidences of God’s disposition towards the world, as may be found in the history of nature; and, second, as to whether, in the light of science and philosophy, we may conceive Him as other than a Person, having such attributes as are, to human understanding, inseparable from personality.”
*“Mr. Ryan seems to have read widely in philosophy, with a result that should caution all readers to read no more than they can digest.”
Sabbath-school teacher training course. 1st year: a series of thirty-nine lessons designed for use in normal classes.**25c. Presb. bd.
This volume “contains a course of study for three-quarters of a year, and a forth-coming volume will complete the scheme. At the end of the first course the Presbyterian board of publication, Philadelphia, will arrange for an examination for such as desire it, and a teacher’s diploma will be granted to such as satisfy the examiners.... Even if the book is not used with a view to a diploma, many Sunday school teachers will find it advantageous to make it the ground-plan of private study.”—Ind.
“This first year’s course is admirable in every respect. The well selected range of subjects is concise, but sufficiently comprehensive.”
Sabin, Edwin Legrand.Beaufort chums.†$1. Crowell.
The real adventures of real boys are interestingly told here for young readers. The Mississippi river furnishes the scene for camping, hunting, fishing, and kindred fun. There is the full quota of happenings, and live boys keen on the scent for them.
*“Real boy books are scarce these days, and ‘Beaufort chums’ ought to be hailed as an acquisition to the juvenile library.”
Sabin, Edwin Legrand.When you were a boy.†$1.50. Baker.
Humorously sympathetic recollections of the days when “you” played ball with the North star nine, preferred illness to the awful alternative of going to school, fought “your” fights, made a chum of “your” dog, went fishing, swimming, and skating, or, amid “your” companions’ jeers, saw “your” first “girl” home from a party. Fifty real boy illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele illustrate the volume.
*“Will probably outrival most of their predecessors in popular favor, since they treat of life from a boy’s standpoint.” Sara Andrew Shafer.
*“His boys are quite as ‘real’ as Judge Shute’s and a trifle less coarse. The reflections of a man of mature years run between the lines.”
*“It is all very amusing and to many of us reminiscent.”
Saddle and song; a collection of verses made at Warrenton, Va., during the winter of 1904-1905.**$1.50. Lippincott.
An anthology of verses written about the horse, including selections from Browning, Byron, Bayard Taylor, Scott, Kipling, Longfellow, Kingsley, Quiller-Couch, and others. “No claim is made to have exhausted the literature of the English language upon this subject, but it is hoped that a sufficient variety, in respect to the types of horses and the tasks accomplished by them, has been offered to enable those who may read, each to find some horse to his liking or the story of some gallant effort that must command his admiration.”
*“Within its limits the collection is a good one.”
*Sadlier, Anna Theresa.Wayward Winifred. $1.25. Benziger.
A story of Ireland in which an American finds Wayward Winifred, a mysterious child who lives in an out of the way castle with a blind old woman, and takes her to America to be educated in a Catholic school. In New York the child by chance meets her father and what seemed a great mystery turns out to be a very little mystery after all and the child and the father both return to Ireland to do honor to their old Irish name and restore their old Irish estate.
*Sage, Elizabeth, and Cooley, Anna M.Occupations for little fingers: a manual for grade teachers, mothers and settlement workers.**$1. Scribner.
“This little manual illustrates and describes simple forms of handwork; including cord and raffia-work, coarse sewing, paper-cutting and folding, clay modelling, furniture and upholstery for a doll’s house, and crocheting and knitting. The writers are teachers who have worked out with their classes the things of which they write. Their models are simple and useful articles that will interest the child and give his work practical connection with the world about him.... They give with each lesson the necessary cost.”—Nation.
*“This is eminently a practical book of instruction and suggestion.”
St. John, J. Allen.Face in the pool.**$1.50. McClurg.
A delightful fairy tale of mystery and gallant chivalry. The hero, a young prince, is rewarded for kindness to the King of the Gnomes by the privilege of beholding in the pool the face of a fair princess. He seeks this much beleaguered Astrella, and wins her after many a conflict with a wicked fairy. The illustrations are the author’s own and include full page colored plates besides a number of pen and ink drawings.
*“Will be read by advanced as well as by juvenile readers.”
*“In fact, nothing can be said against it except that it is not as good as Grimm or Spenser, while challenging comparison with both.”
St. Luz, Berthe.Black butterflies. $1.50. Fenno.
The occult is here blended with the ultra frivolous, and the arts of Emoclew-Houssein Rao, a worshipper of Doorka, seem all the more miraculous because he exercises them upon a group of modern and rather vulgar society folk. He wipes the hateful letters, with which a jealous husband has branded her, from Rosamond Arbuthnot’s forehead, and he frees the deformed master of Castlewalls from his all-consuming love for the beautiful Mrs. Demaris in such a manner that neither he nor the reader can separate the hallucination from the real.
“It is not exactly clear what the author is driving at.”
Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin.Portraits of the 17th century, historic and literary; tr. by Katharine P. Wormeley. 2 pts. ea.**$2.50. Putnam.
Sainte-Beuve’s historical and literary portraits of the 17th century have been collected and translated by Katharine P. Wormeley, who says of her work—“In the following volumes—taken from the Causeries du Lundi, thePortraits de femmeand thePortraits littéraires—some passages have been omitted; these relate chiefly to editions that have long since passed away, or to discussions on style that cannot be made clear in English. Also, where two or more essays on the same person have appeared in the different series, they are here put together, omitting repetitions.” The volumes are handsomely bound and illustrated.
“Our enjoyment ... has been greatly marred by the lamentable inefficiency of the translation. Miss Wormeley has fallen a victim to the fetish of an exaggerated literalness with the most distressing result. Her structure is frequently not English; at times it is even ungrammatical.” Horace B. Samuel.
“Although the finer shades of his style have not always been exactly rendered by Miss Wormeley, yet the translation, on the whole, is fairly good. The value of the work is impaired by the absence of a good index.”
“Diverse as are the characters treated of, each one is examined with the same charm, the same absence of exaggeration or trivial gossip.”
“It presents in sound, idiomatic English some of the best work of the man who holds rank as one of the greatest critics in all literature.”
“To those who have no French, Miss Wormeley’s volumes may be commended. She has chosen wisely, and has translated accurately, if without distinction.”
Saintsbury, George Edward Bateman.History of criticism and literary taste in Europe from the earliest texts to the present day. V. 3.*$3.50. Dodd.
The author, professor of rhetoric in the university of Edinburgh, devoting this third volume to a survey of the nineteenth century, includes a study of English criticism from 1860 to 1900, and gives sixteen pages to American critics.
Reviewed by Ferris Greenslet.
“A trial balance of the qualities and defects of this great work might run somewhat as follows: Professor Saintsbury is unreliable, but frequently admirable, on the authors who touch his heart—the romantics; he is almost invariably inadequate and unfair to the critics he dislikes—the doctrinaires, among them the Germans especially; and he is safe only on the critics who bore him—the small fry generally. The volume, although its matter is on the whole the most attractive of the three, is less readable than its predecessors. It is chiefly valuable because the deposit of facts, which careful straining will separate, is considerable. Bad guide as he is for the highroad, the byways of criticism become accessible through Professor Saintsbury’s labors.” F. J. Mather, jr.
“It is however, only fair to say that Professor Saintsbury never allows his political or religious beliefs, strong as these are, to interfere with his judgment. We are a little surprised, perhaps, to find the section on Lamb one of the best of the book—a good piece of writing without qualification. The poorest chapters of the book—and they are poor beyond forgiveness—are those which deal with topics that require ideas or the understanding of ideas. A book of irritating qualities. He is interesting—despite the continual faults of taste and despite the tedium of the subject, he never allows the reader’s attention to flag, and that is high praise.”
*“In spite of its author’s rather slap-dash fashion, is on the whole a valuable, even an indispensable compendium for students of that very special criticism which is concerned with books almost exclusively.”
“One must always remember, in reading him, that he writes with the strongest possible bias, and that, however useful and even indispensable to the student of literature his history is, it is rather a work of reference than as a storehouse of reliable literary judgments. The style of the volume is deplorable. His offences against taste are of various kinds; perhaps the most exasperating is his reference to great men by their Christian names.”
“With all its wealth of material and faithful investigation of original sources, it is the work of a cloudy and often incoherent mind. ‘Exhaustive’ is the word which comes to the reviewer’s mind as he surveys the range of this history. No work in this field covers the ground so completely or with such wealth of knowledge.”
Saintsbury, George.Minor Caroline poets.2v. v. I.*$3.40. Oxford.
“This volume contains Chamberlayne’s ‘Pharonnida,’ a ‘heroick poem’ of heroic length; Benlowes’ ‘Theophila,’ a ‘divine poem’ in many cantos; the poems of Mrs. Katherine Philips, ‘the matchless Orinda;’ and the poems of Patrick Hannay, a very obscure person of whom nothing is known, and of whose book only six copies remain. Indeed all the writers collected in this book are more or less obscure now, and you must be interested in the history of English poetry before you can be expected to read them.”—Lond. Times.
“It is well and judiciously edited as a whole, the notes being sparing and adequate, while the prefaces—both the general preface and those to single authors—if one can stomach the editor’s most unappetizing and contorted style, are excellent in substance, alike critical and informative.”
“We can and do applaud the zeal for true literary criticism and for scientific literary history, which prompted Professor Saintsbury to reprint and edit the minor Caroline poets, but we cannot and do not pretend to endorse all his conclusions as to the merits of the four included in the volume before us.”
Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3d marquis of.Essays, v. 1, Foreign politics, v. 2, Biographical. ea.*$2. Dutton.
“If these essays were now to be reproduced as the work of a man who had done nothing else, they would not command attention.... The interest which attracts readers to them is the interest in the man otherwise so remarkable who wrote them at a time when, as Lord Robert Cecil, and as a private member of parliament at odds with his noble parent, he found it necessary to do something for his living.... That they are partisan goes without saying.... Although the essays are divided by the present editor into those of biography and those of ‘foreign politics,’ they are all really political and polemical.”—N. Y. Times.
“It is well worth while to collect them in two attractive volumes, not only for their intrinsicvalue, but for the light they throw upon the mind of the writer.” Edward Fuller.
“The first volume is by far the more interesting.”
“It is patient, scholarly, and sound, and, taken at its own modest pretensions, admirable.”
*“Regarded merely as historical studies, the contributions which Lord Salisbury made to the ‘Quarterly review’ are not important. Thanks, however, to the trenchant style and their author’s subsequent part in foreign politics, they are worth reprinting.”