Dial 69:293 S ’20 3150w
“This ‘Ordeal’ is so brilliant a book and comes so near the truth in its general outlines that it seems almost an excess of seriousness to point out certain excesses of seriousness into which Mr Brooks has been carried by his ardor for the dignity of the literary profession. But it should be pointed out that his criticism is very far from being disinterested. He means to bring an adequate indictment against the sort of society which discourages and represses a man of genius.” C. V. D.
+ − Nation 111:189 Ag 14 ’20 1350w
“Unfortunately Van Wyck Brooks took Mark Twain’s humorously megalomaniac utterances for serious expressions of a megalomaniac soul, and, as it seems to me, utterly missed the most promising lead in his mountain of ore. But there were riches enough for his purpose, nevertheless.” Alvin Johnson
+ − New Repub 23:201 Jl 14 ’20 2350w
“Many books have been written about Mark Twain; but with the exception of Paine’s biography this work by Mr Van Wyck Brooks is the most important and the most essential. Whether one agrees with Mr Brooks’s thesis or not—and I do not—one must admire and one ought to profit by the noble and splendid purpose animating it. It is a call to every writer and to every man and woman not to sin against their own talents.” W: L. Phelps
+ − N Y Times p1 Je 27 ’20 2200w
“While Mr Brooks is in no sense an artist in words, he is a dramatic expositor, and he owns a thesis which attracts to its defense an inspiritingly large number of crisp facts and observations. His book will interest and serve even the unbeliever.”
+ − Review 3:108 Ag 4 ’20 1150w
“Mr Brooks seems to have adopted a thesis which he feels bound to support by ingenious and plausible argument. As a clever and brilliant application of critical methods to a literary career, the book has few equals in American literature.”