Large crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6s.
Athenæum.—“The author has succeeded in giving a really useful account of the whole process of evolution in English letters—an account based upon a keen sense at once of the unity of his subject and of the rhythm of its ebb and flow; and illumined by an unexampled felicity in hitting off the leading characteristics of individual writers, ”placing“ them critically in a few graceful lines. As a whole the book is full of insight and serenity of judgment.”
Literature.—“Mr. Gosse possesses a rare power of giving adequacy even to his most summarised accounts of literary work, and his most rapid sketches of literary figures. He is always master of the vivid, picturesque, or humorous phrase which lives in the memory, and imprints on it the personality of the author, whom it depicts with a stroke. This 'History of Modern English Literature’ is a work which will not only serve its purpose in the class-room, but is eminently worthy of a place of honour in the library.”
Saturday Review.—“It is difficult to be too thankful to a historian who judges everything from the strictly literary point of view, to whom the word history really means a tracing of the continuous life of literature, and to whom the historian himself is a person to be kept rigorously out of sight.”
Times.—“Mr. Gosse’s most ambitious book, and probably his best. It bears on every page the traces of wide reading, of a genuine love for his subject, and of a lively critical intelligence. Moreover, it is extremely readable—more readable, in fact, than any other single volume dealing with the subject that we can call to mind. The picture given is in the main true to life, and it is painted with extreme dexterity.”
Daily Chronicle.—“Mr. Gosse has been remarkably successful in bringing into focus and proportion the salient features of his vast and varied theme. We have read the book, not only with pleasure, but with a singular emotion. The very rapidity with which the majestic procession of names passed in review, brought home to us with peculiar vividness the greatness of the phenomenon comprised in the words ”English Literature.“ Mr. Gosse’s criticism is generally sympathetic, but at the same time it is always sober.”
Daily Graphic.—“Mr. Gosse is a careful student and skilful critic; he knows the subject as well as any one, and he knows how to write something better than a school-book. We wish we could help our readers to enjoy to the full this most delightful book, which every one should read from beginning to end.”
St. James’s Gazette.—“Certainly one of the most valuable as well as one of the most interesting books of its kind.”
Academy.—“A book that is interesting in every paragraph.”