“The book has the usual charming and idiomatic style of Mr. Howells.” Wallace Rice.
+ + Dial. 41: 391. D. 1, ’06. 180w.
“Mr. Howells travels with open eyes and after seeing describes the thing seen with a keen regard for the value of an incident and with full appreciation of the humorous.”
+ + Ind. 61: 1397. D. 22, ’06. 100w.
“There is nothing essential missed of the historic or literary association of these towns, but what one seems to value even more is the suave, humorous observation of ordinary things which gives one the sense of the highest reality.”
+ + Lit. D. 33: 856. D. 8, ’06. 100w.
“What will endear its pages to every reader is its unfailing humor, its nice balancing of the emotions and aesthetic impressions by one on whom no charm whether of setting or human association was thrown away.”
+ + Nation. 83: 462. N. 29, ’06. 360w.
“Another permanent contribution to American letters. Throughout the book we find the same genial humor we found so delightful in his ‘Italian journeys’, and ‘Their silver wedding journey’; the same poetically realistic descriptions of places and people; inimitable touches, that bring instantly and vividly the scene or person before the mind’s eye.” Madison Cawein.