| + + | Bookm. 25: 77. Mr. ’07. 1180w. (Review of v. 2, pt. 1.) |
“A work of solid merit and a valuable contribution to the history of English literature.”
| + + | Lit. D. 34: 264. F. 16, ’07. 340w. (Review of v. 2, pt. 1.) |
“Brilliant in every chapter and every page, it puts forward an original view, drawn from life—from the life that M. Jusserand brings into all his writings. There is never any suspicion here of ‘index-learning’ or merely law-abiding criticism. M. Jusserand does not go out of his way to traverse ordinary accepted judgments, but his opinions, even when they agree with the majority, are uttered with such a zest as commonly goes with paradoxes and extravagances.”
| + + | Lond. Times. 5: 376. N. 9, ’06. 900w. (Review of v. 2, pt. 1.) |
“Owing partly to the liberty of selection which the design of the book permits, and still more to an unfailing charm of style, there is not a dull page in the volume. As regards the style of the book in its English dress, we may remark that the natural order of subject and verb is inverted with a frequency which is irritating and opposed to English idiom. On the whole, however, the work is satisfactorily executed.”
| + + − | Nation. 84: 247. Mr. 14, ’07. 760w. (Review of v. 2, pt. 1.) |
“The translation is so nearly perfect that, but for a few phrases here and there, in which the French idiom overcomes the English, the book gives the impression of being written in English, and in a sort of English as unusual as the French from which it is set over. It may be said, indeed, that this is a literary history in the very obvious sense that its form is touched with the indefinable, unmistakable charm of literature, and thus contributes to and continues the noble development which it traces.” Edward Cary.
| + + | N. Y. Times. 12: 74. F. 9, ’07. 1580w. (Review of v. 2, pt. 1.) |
“It is not too much to say that if the third volume is equal to its two predecessors, M. Jusserand will have given us what is on the whole the best history of the literature of our language which has yet been written.” Brander Matthews.