“Our chief quarrel with Mr. Ragg is on account of his trick of introducing trivialities, hardly suited to the dignity of his theme.”
| + − | Ath. 1907, 1: 662. Je. 1. 1120w. |
“Canon Ragg is steeped to the finger tips in Dantesque lore, is thoroughly familiar with everything written by the man to whom his book is one long tribute of homage, and is gifted with an imagination so vivid that he has been able to piece together a very realistic picture of the period at which his hero lived.”
| + | Int. Studio. 32: 169. Ag. ’07. 200w. |
“His task is suited to his powers, which are, it must be said, not inconsiderable. He gives the delightful impression, so rarely received in these days, that he knows a great deal more than he has set down.”
| + + | Lond. Times. 6: 164. My. 24, ’07. 1340w. |
“With a little more system, a greater tenacity in developing each of his themes, Mr. Ragg would have written a book to be often opened for reference after being once read for pleasure. It is a pity, that this book should be marred by many misprints in foreign words. A more serious defect is an excessive fondness for the dramatic and picturesque, which leads Mr. Ragg into baseless conjectures and striking inconsistencies.”
| + − | Nation. 85: 80. Jl. 25, ’07. 1070w. |
“Everywhere Canon Ragg writes as a man, scholarly and imaginatively dominated by his subject, and yet with a painstaking discretion which at once enables the reader to separate facts from hearsay. On one or two points, however, he shows that he has not followed the researches of Dante’s scholars as carefully as he has the half-forgotten chronicles of the poet’s contemporaries.” Walter Littlefield.