‘John Francis was a faithful servant, and also an earnest worker for the good of his fellow-creatures. Sunday schools, charitable societies, and mechanics’ institutes found in him a patient and steady helper, and no one laboured more persistently and unselfishly to procure the abolition of the pernicious taxes on knowledge.’—Daily Chronicle.
‘Such a life interests us, and carries with it a fruitful moral.... The history of the Athenæum also well deserved to be told.’—Daily News.
‘A worthy monument of the development of literature during the last fifty years.... The volumes contain not a little specially interesting to Scotsmen.’—Scotsman.
‘Rich in literary and social interest, and afford a comprehensive survey of the intellectual progress of the nation.’—Leeds Mercury.
‘It is in characters so sterling and admirable as this that the real strength of a nation lies.... The public will find in the book reading which, if light and easy, is also full of interest and suggestion.... We suspect that writers for the daily and weekly papers will find out that it is convenient to keep these volumes of handy size, and each having its own index, extending the one to 20, the other to 30 pages, at their elbow for reference.’—Liverpool Mercury.
‘The book is, in fact, as it is described, a literary chronicle of the period with which it deals, and a chronicle put together with as much skill as taste and discrimination. The information given about notable people of the past is always interesting and often piquant, while it rarely fails to throw some new light on the individuality of the person to whom it refers.’—Liverpool Daily Post.
‘Our survey has been unavoidably confined almost exclusively to the first volume; indeed, anything like an adequate account of the book is impossible, for it may be described as a history in notes of the literature of the period with which it deals. We confess that we have been able to find very few pages altogether barren of interest, and by far the larger portion of the book will be found irresistibly attractive by all who care anything for the history of literature in our own time.’—Manchester Examiner.
‘It was a happy thought in this age of jubilees to associate with a literary chronicle of the last fifty years a biographical sketch of the life of John Francis.... As we glance through the contents there is scarcely a page which does not induce us to stop and read about the men and events that are summoned again before us.’—Western Daily Mercury.
‘A mine of information on subjects connected with literature for the last fifty years.’—Echo.
‘The volumes are full of interest.... The indexes of these two volumes show at a glance that a feast of memorabilia, of gossip, of reminiscence, is in store for the reader.’—Nonconformist.