“For the most part the episodes are trite, and without exception the characters are lifeless puppets. But it is perhaps in dialogue that Mr. Pemberton fails most signally.”
– Sat. R. 101: 561. My. 5, ’06. 230w.
Pennell, Elizabeth Robins (Mrs. Joseph Pennell). Charles Godfrey Leland: a biography. 2v. **$5. Houghton.
“All who knew Charles Godfrey Leland knew that the man was stronger than his work. It is this man that Mrs. Pennell draws for us. From her pages radiates a personality that refreshes and rejoices, a vitality that heartens, and invigorates the reader. Not but that the biographer, proud of her brilliant uncle, does her best to give some account of what he achieved. And here she serves him truly.... The biography is mainly the work of Leland’s own pen. It consists almost entirely in transcripts from his memoranda, notes, and other papers, and of letters written to his family and to celebrities, American and English, with some of their replies. Mrs. Pennell furnishes the necessary links, transitions, and explanations, drawing upon her knowledge of the man and his ways, acquired during the period of her intimate companionship with him.... The illustrations consist of two frontispiece portraits of ‘the Rye,’ and facsimile reproductions of letters written to him by Lowell, Holmes, Tennyson, Browning, Bulwer-Lytton and many others.”—Nation.
“She has done ample justice to the fine traits in her uncle’s character, and has produced a biography which will be read with pleasure by all to whom his talents and achievements were known.”
+ + Ath. 1906, 2: 686. D. 1. 1410w. Current Literature. 41: 648. D. ’06. 1220w.
“As a companion and supplement to the ‘Memoirs’ of 1839, it helps to furnish a full-length portrait of an unusually interesting man.” Percy F. Bicknell.
+ + Dial. 41: 198. O. 1, ’06. 1850w.
“A life absorbed in interests of so romantic a nature cannot fail to furnish a rich find to the biographer, and Mrs. Pennell has acquitted herself admirably of the task.”