“The extent to which Wilde was a deliberate poseur is made very clear by this book, for here there is very little pose. In these reviews, chiefly from the Pall Mall Gazette, we see Wilde as a critic with strong common sense, general good taste and with an outlook on life and literature sufficiently ordinary to be indistinguishable from that of half-a-hundred other critics of his time and of ours.”
+ − Ath p1258 N 28 ’19 600w
“It has all his delights and all his superficialities and all his faults.”
+ − Dial 69:212 Ag ’20 110w
“There is nothing especially characteristic about the collection except, perhaps, a lightness of touch that distinguishes its contents from the ordinary book-review, and while they reveal the delicacy of Wilde’s taste and the sincerity of his delight in art and letters they reveal his limitations, also, and the shallowness of his intellectual draught.”
+ − Freeman 1:430 Jl 14 ’20 250w
“There is certainly no adequate reason why these forgotten writings of Oscar Wilde should be sought out and set in order, and sent forth in a seemly little tome of two hundred pages. Their resurrection does not add anything to his reputation, nor does it detract anything. It does not enlarge our knowledge of the writer or cast any new light upon the character of the man.” Brander Matthews
− + N Y Times 25:69 F 8 ’20 3400w
“These modest criticisms impress one collectively as good-natured, orthodox, and sensible. Its art vibrates between distinction and mediocrity—which is another way of saying that it is undistinguished.”
+ − Review 3:152 Ag 18 ’20 330w