CARNIVAL
By COMPTON MACKENZIE
ATHENÆUM:
Mr. Mackenzie's second novel amply fulfils the promise of his first.... Its first and great quality is originality. The originality of Mr. Mackenzie lies in his possession of an imagination and a vision of life that are as peculiarly his own as a voice or a laugh, and that reflect themselves in a style which is that of no other writer.... A prose full of beauty."
PUNCH:
After reading a couple of pages I settled myself in my chair for a happy evening, and thenceforward the fascination of the book held me like a kind of enchantment. I despair, though, of being able to convey any idea of it in a few lines of criticism.... As for the style, I will only add that it gave me the same blissful feeling of security that one has in listening to a great musician.... In the meantime, having recorded my delight in it, I shall put 'Carnival' upon the small and by no means crowded shelf that I reserve for 'keeps.'"
OUTLOOK:
In these days of muddled literary evaluations, it is a small thing to say of a novel that it is a great novel; but this we should say without hesitation of 'Carnival,' that not only is it marked out to be the reading success of its own season, but to be read afterwards as none but the best books are read."
OBSERVER:
The heroic scale of Mr. Compton Mackenzie's conception and achievement sets a standard for him which one only applies to the 'great' among novelists."
ENGLISH REVIEW:
An exquisite sense of beauty with a hunger for beautiful words to express it."
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS:
The spirit of youth and the spirit of London."
NEW YORK TIMES:
We hail Mr. Mackenzie as a man alive—who raises all things to a spiritual plane."
MR. C. K. Shorter in the SPHERE: "'Carnival' carried me from cover to cover on wings."