“A remarkable work of sustained fancy, the book presents no new ‘Weltanschauung,’ it brings no new message. Dr. van Eeden has dreamt a dream, he has not seen a vision. The translation is on the whole, admirable.” A. Schade van Westrum.
| + − | Bookm. 25: 296. My. ’07. 1540w. |
“‘The quest’ as a romance is, by reason of its loose construction and its generally feeble character drawing, a negligible quantity. As a work of philosophy it is suggestive, but tautological and obscure. As a social study on the other hand, it possesses exceptional value; is, in fact, one of the most comprehensive arraignments of the hypocrisy and corruption of the age that has yet been written.”
| + − | Ind. 63: 99. Jl. 11, ’07. 480w. |
“There is much jog-trot indeterminate narrative as well as much didacticism, in the third part.”
| + − | Nation. 84: 415. My. 2, ’07. 610w. |
“The things that hold and charm are the glimpses of the quaint mind of ‘de kleine Johannes’—little John—the scenes from Dutch life, the pictures of the mountebanks’ way, the hints of things good and bad that stirred our little John; the flights of fancy, now gracious and now horribly gruesome; the homely simplicity of the narrative of the hero’s love affairs. Almost equally pleasing is much of the homelier satire. But there is other satire that falls dully on the mind like the rhapsodies of Markus the prophet.”
| + − | N. Y. Times. 12: 154. Mr. 16, ’07. 720w. |
“Weary wastes of long-drawn-out commonplace separate the brilliant and beautiful passages. Pages of puerile, pottering pedantic dialogue that might have stepped out of a Rollo book discourage the interest. The result is a work diffuse and discursive—not to say sprawling—and obscure.” Alvan F. Sanborn.