| + | Sat. R. 100: 407. S. 23, ‘05. 2020w. |
“Though we cannot praise unreservedly either Mr. Hume’s style or his arrangement, yet both are greatly superior to Mr. Underhill’s; and it is just in those chapters in which he comes into competition with Mr. Underhill that Mr. Hume is at his best.”
| + + — | Spec. 94: 514. Ap. 8, ‘05. 1180w. |
[*] Hume, Martin Andrew Sharp. [Wives of Henry VIII.] [**]$4.50. McClure.
Major Hume portrays King Henry as “a weak, vain and boastful creature, the plaything of his passions, and the tool of those great minds about him who worked solely to further their own religious and political aims.” Catherine of Aragon claims the longest consideration, in which the “pathetic and noble” picture is offset by the less agreeable light thrown on her period of widowhood. The author “gives a pitiless picture of Anne Boleyn—of her utter lack of generosity, her meanness of spirit, her frivolity, and her vanity.” Katherine Howard furnishes the best subject of study from a “psychological and romantic point of view,” while Katherine Lady Latimer is presented as “amiable, tactful and clever and evidently ‘managed’ her fickle husband with great intelligence.” (Acad.)
[*] “The latest and by far the clearest account of these six queens.”
| + + | Acad. 68: 1196. N. 18, ‘05. 1500w. |
[*] “Major Hume in this, his latest book, and certainly one of the most deeply interesting he has written, is just sufficiently partial to make us feel that he is human.”
| + + — | Ath. 1905, 2: 603. N. 4. 1420w. |
[*] “Altogether the book is one which supplies the reader with plenty of ideas and impressions, though there are times when one gets lost in the mazes of the game Mr. Hume is exposing, and wonders if the game is all really there.”