“To have given in a moderate volume the main points in a literature almost continuous for five centuries is to have done a marvelous thing. But he might have done it dryly; he has made every sentence crisp and sparkling.”—Chicago Times-Herald.
“A book which in soundness of learning, sanity of judgment, and attractiveness of manner has not been equaled by the work of any other author who has sought to analyze the elements of English literature in a concise and authoritative way.”—Boston Beacon.
“Thoroughly enjoyable from first to last. It traces the growth of a literature so clearly and simply, that one is apt to underrate the magnitude of the undertaking. Mr. Gosse’s charming personality pervades it all, and his happy manner illuminates matter that has been worked over and over until one might imagine all its freshness gone.”—Chicago Evening Post.
“This is not a mere collection of brief essays on the merits of authors, but a continuous story of the growth of literature, of which the authors and their works are only incidents. The book is lucid, readable, and interesting, and a marvel of condensed information, without its seeming to be so. It can be read by nine out of ten intelligent people, not only without fatigue, but with pleasure; and when it is finished the reader will have a comprehensive and intelligent view of the subject which will not only enable him to talk with some ease and confidence upon the merits of the principal creators of English literature, but will also point the way to the right sources if he wishes to supplement the knowledge which he has derived from this book.”—Pittsburg Times.
“That he has been a careful student, however, in many departments, the most unrelated and recondite, is evident on every page, in the orderly arrangement of his multitudinous materials, in the accuracy of his statements, in the acuteness of his critical observations, and in the large originality of most of his verdicts. He says things that many before him may have thought, though they failed to express them, capturing their fugitive expressions in his curt, inevitable phrases.”—N. Y. Mail and Express.
FRENCH LITERATURE. By EDWARD DOWDEN,
D. Litt., LL. D., D. C. L., Professor of English Literature in the University of Dublin. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
“Certainly the best history of French literature in the English language.”—London Athenæum.
“This is a history of literature as histories of literature should be written.... A living voice, speaking to us with gravity and enthusiasm about the writers of many ages, and of being a human voice always. Hence this book can be read with pleasure even by those for whom a history has in itself little attraction.”—London Saturday Review.
“The book is excellently well done; accurate in facts and dates, just in criticism, well arranged in method.... The excellent bibliography with which it concludes will be invaluable to those who wish to pursue the study further on their own lines.”—London Spectator.
“Remarkable for its fullness of information and frequent brilliancy.... A book which both the student of French literature and the stranger to it will, in different ways, find eminently useful, and in many parts of it thoroughly enjoyable as well.”—London Literary World.