“The only coherent constituent of the New Spirit which this book professes to set forth, is a vehement hatred, amounting to a passion, against conventional unveracities, and a determination that they should be swept away.... We cannot imagine anything of which it could be more necessary for human nature, so taught [by our Lord], to purge itself, than the New Spirit of Havelock Ellis.”—Spectator.
“Mr. Havelock Ellis has written an interesting and significant book, which it is quite easy to ridicule, but which certainly deserves a fair hearing.... Apparently these writers are chosen because they all agree in a hatred of shams, in looking facts in the face, and in demanding provision for the healthy satisfaction of animal wants.... Mr. Ellis writes with force and insight; but, whether from brevity or want of caution, he leaves with regard to these subjects an impression which he would probably not himself desire to produce.”—Murray’s Magazine.
“The concluding chapter, wherein Mr. Ellis expresses his own ‘intimate thought and secret emotion,’ is one of the best utterances of the New Spirit which we have ever read.”—Echo.
“Un volume de haute critique littéraire qui rappelle le style fort et la méthode stricte de Hennequin.”—Mercure de France.
“A more foolish, unwholesome, perverted piece of sentimental cant we have never wasted our time over.”—World.
“Excellent examples of appreciative criticism of an exceedingly interesting series of authors, of whom every one ought to know at least as much as Mr. Ellis here tells us so freshly and vivaciously.”—Scottish Leader.
“We only refer to this unpleasant compilation of cool impudence and effrontery to warn our readers against it.”—Dundee Advertiser.
“Beautiful both in thought and expression. But Mr. Ellis seems to have laid aside altogether the wise restraint which characterises his volume on ‘The Criminal.’... The scientific spirit, of which at other times he has shown himself a distinguished exponent, should have prevented him from such error.”—Arbroath Herald.
“Ardent, enthusiastic, and eloquent.”—Boston Literary World.