The Daily Chronicle.—“The writer shows himself well qualified to write an illuminating history of Greek Literature, in which learning is enlivened and supplemented by literary skill, by a true sense of the humanities. The reader feels that this is no book of perfunctory erudition, but a labour of love, performed by a scholar, to whom ancient Greece and her literature are exceedingly real and vivid. His judgments and suggestions are full of a personal, fresh sincerity.”
The Glasgow Herald.—“To competent knowledge of his subject, Mr. Murray adds a power of exposition which does not always accompany great learning; and, while scholars will here find a fresh and well-digested account of all the most recent criticism of the long procession of outstanding names in Greek literature, the ordinary reader will not be repelled by excessive technicality or too numerous details.”
The St. James’s Gazette.—“Mr. Gosse is to be congratulated on having invited Professor Murray to write the first volume of this series. If the other contributors do their work as well, the success of the venture is assured. He has done no slight service to the cause of real learning as distinguished from superficial culture, and he has invested his treatise with a human interest. The book is equally solid and attractive, and abounds with happy phrases.”
The National Observer and British Review.—“The treatment of the Homeric question seems to us masterly, as an indication of the results attained by scientific analysis of language and the comparative study of early literatures.... For scholars and lovers of Greek, Professor Murray’s summary but penetrating criticism will have the charm that is always exercised by a powerful and original mind discoursing on subjects delightful to the listener.”
The Speaker.—“Vigour and freshness, great learning and independence of judgment, are the salient characteristics of Mr. Murray’s book. He has produced a work which, while it puts the English student abreast of all the latest work in classical research, may be read with pleasure by those who have not carried their classical studies beyond the point they reached at school.”
A. T. Q. C. in the Speaker.—“Mr. Heinemann and Mr. Gosse have made a brilliant start in this Series. To condense into some 400 boldly printed pages a story which is not only vast and intricate in itself, but has been complicated by the discussions and theories of more than two thousand years, and to do this without ignoring those discussions and theories, must have been a daunting task. Mr. Murray has accomplished it, and an even more difficult feat. He has written an eminently readable book.”
The Pall Mall Gazette.—“A really quite admirable book. It is full of learning, but the learning is never obtruded. Then, too, it is full of humour, not exactly racy epigram, but felicitous phrases. The style, indeed, is not the least attractive part of the book. We must also say a word of praise for the translated extracts throughout the book. They are finely selected, accurately rendered, and clothed in really thrilling English.”
The Journal of Education.—“The series starts felici omine. No brighter or more readable account of a subject so immense as Greek literature has, to our knowledge, ever been published in English than Professor Murray’s volume.... This delightful book should be of great service.”
The Spectator.—“Professor Murray soon convinces his readers that he is equal to his subject, has something fresh to say about it, and is able to say it with a quite uncommon vigour. In power of sympathy he surpasses, we think, all his predecessors. We have seldom found a book that has given us more pleasure than this.”