“These essays should be read by everyone. They are still wonderfully fresh, and because of their merit they are destined to live as long as our language is spoken.”—The Episcopal Methodist, Baltimore, Md.
Elysian Dreams AND Sober Realities.
Van Santvoord. Half-Holidays, Elysian Dreams, and Sober Realities. By Harold Van Santvoord. 12mo, cloth, gilt tops. 85c. (35c)
“Exhibits extensive reading and a pleasant fancy.”—Sun, New York.
“One of those companionable books that have almost a personality for the reader.... The vivacity of its thought, the vigor of insight and charm of expression merit critical appreciation.”—Traveller, Boston.
“The writer has a genuine instinct for the now almost lost art of essay writing. His quiet humor, now and then turned by a clever stroke of wit and well-pointed epigram, and his easy colloquial style, make the reading of his breezy and interesting volume uncommonly entertaining.”—Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston.
“The essays forming the volume show in the writer wide and careful reading, and a memory stored with the fruits of literary research, with a happy facility in imparting what he has acquired. His humor is delicate and mirth-provoking, his illustration of the sentiments presented and positions taken are apposite and pointed, and the serious practical teachings scattered throughout the book are calculated to leave wholesome impressions upon the thoughtful reader.”—Freeman, Kingston, N. Y.
“The contents consists of a collection of essays having no essential relation to one another, none of them long, but all interesting and suggestive from the originality of the thought, the novelty of the treatment and the attractive style.”—Times, Troy.
“Among the brightest of the young American writers, although but a recent adventurer in the field of authorship, is Harold Van Santvoord.... His most ambitious attempt, and his most successful, we sincerely hope, is now before us in the volume entitled, ‘Half-Holiday; Elysian Dreams and Sober Realities.’ While not flippant Mr. Van Santvoord is essentially a humorist, and his humor is of the American school so often analyzed by the critics. But unlike most of our native humorists he is scholarly, and even his sprightliest passages reveal evidence of wide reading.”—Argus, Albany.
“‘Half-Holidays’ is a collection of short essays on such subjects as ‘Are Parsons Great Eaters,’ ‘The Hospitality of Solitude,’ ‘Sermons in Hot Weather,’ ‘Lost Books,’ ‘Music and Madness,’ ‘The Poetry of Flowers,’ and ‘The Significance of a Single Word.’ They are after-dinner papers, bright and lively in their treatment; they make no serious demand on one’s thought, and yet are suggestive of much that is wise in the philosophy of life, and deal lightly and gracefully with the odds and ends of everyday existence. They remind one of Lamb’s ‘Essays of Elia.’”—Herald, Boston.