Some Press Notices.
Daily Chronicle.—“When it is remembered that in these two volumes (January and February) the biographies of more than four hundred saints are to be found, and that in every case the authorities from which they are derived are set forth; that in the Introduction the reader is furnished with a succinct account of the literature of the subject which is the best résumé that we have in English; that errors in the previous edition are not left uncorrected—it will be seen how much is to be expected from this new issue of Mr. Baring-Gould’s wonderful work, and how much will be found in the sixteen volumes which will be required to complete it.… No student of history—to go no further—can dispense with such a valuable book of reference. There is nothing like it in our language.”
Standard.—“The earlier volumes of the new edition are before us, and even a cursory examination is enough to show that the work has been thoroughly revised.… The book is of real value, since it is written with scholarly care, imaginative vision, and a happy union of charity and courage.”
Guardian.—“Whoever reads the more important lives in the sixteen volumes of which this new edition is to consist, will be introduced to a region of which historians for the most part tell him little, and yet one that throws constant light upon some of the obscurest points of ordinary histories. For this, and for the pleasure and profit thence derived, he will have to thank Mr. Baring-Gould.”
Scotsman.—“Mr. Baring-Gould, Anglican priest though he be, fulfils the promise of his original edition in so far as he does not obtrude either prejudice or sectarianism into his record of these Saints.”
British Review and National Observer.—“The new edition of Mr. Baring-Gould’s familiar work may well be called monumental, both on account of its size, and the variety and completeness of the information to be found in it.”
Notes and Queries.—“It is impossible to mention the various sources whence have been drawn the illustrations, which will render this work, to those to whom the subject appeals, the most acceptable, as it is certainly the handsomest, of existing editions.”
Weekly Sun.—“We unhesitatingly commend it as well to the lover of mediævalism as the student who must have at hand encyclopædic volumes of reference. No library that aims at being comprehensive can afford to be without it. No student of ecclesiastical and cathedral antiquities can neglect it if he wishes to make a successful study of his particular subject.”
Christian World.—“The new edition is tastefully got up, and is a worthy setting of a great literary enterprise. The ‘Lives of the Saints’ is a human story of unfading interest.”