“Professor Dowden is both trustworthy and brilliant; he writes from a full knowledge and a full sympathy. Master of a style rather correct than charming for its adornments, he can still enliven his pages with telling epigram and pretty phrase. Above all things, the book is not eccentric, not unmethodical, not of a wayward brilliance; and this is especially commendable and fortunate in the case of an English critic writing upon French literature.”—London Daily Chronicle.
“A book readable, graphic, not overloaded with detail, not bristling with dates.... It is a book that can be held in the hand and read aloud with pleasure as a literary treat by an expert in style, master of charming words that come and go easily, and of other literatures that serve for illustrations.”—The Critic.
“His methods afford an admirable example of compressing an immense amount of information and criticism in a sentence or paragraph, and his survey of a vast field is both comprehensive and interesting. As an introduction for the student of literature the work is most excellent, and for the casual reader it will serve as a compendium of one of the richest literatures of the world.”—Philadelphia Public Ledger.
“Thorough without being diffuse. The author is in love with his subject, has made it a study for years, and therefore produced an entertaining volume. Of the scholarship shown it is needless to speak.... It is more than a cyclopædia. It is a brilliant talk by one who is loaded with the lively ammunition of French prose and verse. He talks of the pulpit, the stage, the Senate, and the salon, until the preachers, dramatists, orators, and philosophers seem to be speaking for themselves.”—Boston Globe.
“Professor Dowden’s book is more interesting than we ever supposed a brief history of a literature could be. His characterizations are most admirable in their conciseness and brilliancy. He has given in one volume a very thorough review of French literature.”—The Interior, Chicago.
“The book will be especially valuable to the student as a safe and intelligible index to a course of reading.”—The Independent.
SPANISH LITERATURE.
By JAMES FITZMAURICE-KELLY,
Member of the Spanish Academy.
“Mr. Kelly has written a book that must be read and pondered, for within its limits it has no rival as ‘A History of Spanish Literature.’”—The Mail and Express.
“The work before us is one which no student can henceforth neglect, ... if the student would keep his knowledge of Spanish up to date.... We close with a renewed expression of admiration for this excellent manual; the style is marked and full of piquancy, the phrases dwell in the memory.”—The Spectator.
“A handbook that has long been needed for the use of the general reader, and it admirably supplies the want. Great skill is shown in the selection of the important facts; the criticisms, though necessarily brief, are authoritative and to the point, and the history is gracefully told in sound literary style.”—Saturday Evening Gazette.