| + + | Ath. 1905, 1: 78. Ja. 14. 580w. |
“There is perhaps little art in the various portraits, and there is certainly no pretence at originality; but there is sympathetic understanding, and thorough and conscientious labor.”
| + | Critic. 46: 475. My. ‘05. 170w. | |
| + + | Dial. 38: 323. My. 1. ‘05. 930w. | |
| N. Y. Times. 10: 153. Mr. 11, ‘05. 360w. |
“‘Literary portraits’ shows marked ability and is to be classed among the books of criticism of the higher standard.”
| + + | N. Y. Times. 10: 198. Ap. 1, ‘05. 1020w. |
“Mr. Whibley has finished these portraits with a skillful and graceful pen. Readers in a critical mood and readers for entertainment will both find his work attractive.”
| + + | Outlook. 79: 760. Mr. 25, ‘05. 160w. |
“We miss the illuminating phrase. The fresh judgment and the historical setting is often wholly omitted. Mr. Whibley has ‘the practiced hand,’ and is apt to be content with that amount of accomplishment.”
| — + | Sat. R. 99: 637. My. 13, ‘05. 180w. |
“This seems to us the best of Mr. Whibley’s volumes of essays, the most mature in style and thought, and the most attractive in subject-matter. He has studied each of his writers with a minute care and has read deeply in contemporary literature, so that they are presented to us in the true setting of their age. His judgments have now the sanity which can only come from a full experience and a full enjoyment of a wide field of literature. His style ... has acquired a body and force which it did not always possess, and his essays are admirable, if for nothing else, for their mastery of clear, graceful, and vigorous prose. Sometimes his comment is a little over-strained.”