| + + | Sat. R. 100: 218. Ag. 12, ‘05. 580w. |
“This brilliant study in the picaresque seems to us one of the most successful of Mr. Hewlett’s works.”
| + + + | Spec. 95: 359. S. 9, ‘05. 310w. |
Hewlett, Maurice Henry. Road in Tuscany. [**]$6. Macmillan.
Mr. Hewlett’s own words are perhaps best descriptive of the freshness of his view of life and art in Tuscany. He calls it “a companion of travel and leisurely, sententious commentary of the country,” and he strikes its key-note in his opening remarks. “His plan for the book has the freshness which marks its rendering of details. ‘Let the history, fine arts, monuments and institutions of a country be as fine as you please, its best product will always be the people of it, who themselves produced those other pleasant spectacles. I have always preferred a road to a church, always a man to a masterpiece, a singer to his song; and I have never opened a book when I could read what I wanted on the hillside or by the river bank.’” (Reader). He consistently subordinates art galleries to peasants, but gives legends, history, and piquant references to the art and literature of the country, with a lavish hand.
“Is one of those rare books having charm, and one which gives no less insight into Mr. Hewlett than into the hearts of all the dead and living Tuscans of whom he writes. Mr. Hewlett’s one fault, regarded as a cicerone, is that he gives us life in superabundance; he gives it to us often at the cost of other things which we are loth to sacrifice. Now guidebooks the very best of them, while they make excellent servants, are bad masters, Mr. Hewlett’s not excepted. Flippant he is, at times, perverse, even arrogant: but he understands the Tuscans, and he loves them. Whoever goes to Florence without ‘The road in Tuscany’ goes but half equipped.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
| + + — | Bookm. 20: 557. F. ‘05. 1860w. | |
| + + | Critic. 46: 479. My. ‘05. 150w. | |
| + — | Nation. 80: 179. Mr. 2, ‘05. 920w. | |
| + + | Reader. 5: 500. Mr. ‘05. 830w. |
“One of those genial, leisurely, charming books, with a touch of infinite knowledge, that we find in the combination of the artist and traveler. It reveals the real Italy, with its color and fragrance, which is known only to those who get away from the towns and cities. Typographically, the work is elegant, and the pictures really illustrate.”
| + + | R. of Rs. 31: 123. Ja. ‘05. 130w. |
“His artistic suggestiveness never fails; his ideas and conclusions especially with regard to such unfamiliar places as Volterra, Cortona, Arezzo, and many more, seem almost invariably right.”