By JOHN C. FRANCIS.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
‘The career of John Francis, publisher of the Athenæum, was worth telling for the zeal with which, for more than thirty years, he pursued the definite purpose of obtaining the abolition of the paper duty.... With equal ardour did Mr. Francis labour for half a century in publishing the weekly issue of the Athenæum; and these two volumes, which describe its progress from its birth in January, 1828, to the full perfection of its powers in 1882, are a fitting record of the literary history of that period.’—Academy.
‘Anybody who wants a complete summary of what the world has been thinking and doing since Silk Buckingham, with Dr. Stebbing and Charles Knight and Sterling and Maurice as his staff, started the Athenæum in 1828, will find plenty to satisfy him in John Francis, a Literary Chronicle of Half a Century.... Mr. Francis’s autobiography is not the least valuable part of this valuable record.’—Graphic.
‘As a record of the literature of fifty years, and in a less complete degree of the progress of science and art, and as a memento of many notable characters in various fields of intellectual culture, these volumes are of considerable value.’—Morning Post.
‘The volumes abound with curious and interesting statements, and in bringing before the public the most notable features of a distinguished journal from its infancy almost to the present hour, Mr. Francis deserves the thanks of all readers interested in literature.’—Spectator.
‘No memoir of Mr. Francis would be complete without a corresponding history of the journal with which his name will for ever be identified.... The extraordinary variety of subjects and persons referred to, embracing as they do every event in literature, and referring to every person of distinction in science or letters, is a record of such magnitude that we can only indicate its outlines. To the literary historian the volumes will be of incalculable service.’—Bookseller.
‘This literary chronicle of half a century must at once, or in course of a short time, take a place as a permanent work of reference.’—Publishers’ Circular.
‘Some valuable and interesting matter has been collected chronologically regarding the literary history of the last fifty years.’—Murray’s Magazine.
‘We have put before us a valuable collection of materials for the future history of the Victorian era of English literature.’—Standard.