Hours in a Library, Volume 3: New Edition, with AdditionsStephen, Leslie
History
Hours in a Library, Volume 3: New Edition, with Additions
Stephen, Leslie
English literature -- History and criticism
TRUTH.—'I am glad you share my admiration for Mr. Stephen's _magnum
opus_—THE MAGNUM OPUS OF OUR GENERATION—"The Dictionary of National
Biography." A dictionary of the kind had been attempted so often
before by the strongest men—publishers and editors—of the day that I
hardly expected it to succeed. No one expected such a success as it
has so far achieved.'
THE ATHENÆUM.—'The latest volumes of Mr. Stephen's Dictionary
are FULL OF IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING ARTICLES.... Altogether
the volumes are good reading. What is more important, the articles,
whether they are on small or great personages, are nearly all up to
the high standard which has been set in the earlier portions of the
work, and occasionally above it.'
SATURDAY REVIEW.—'From the names we have cited it will be seen that
great pains have been taken with that portion of the Dictionary which
relates to modern times, and this has been rightly done: for often
nothing is more difficult than to find a concise record of the life
of a man who belonged to our own times or to those just preceding
them. Consistently enough, the Editor has been careful to keep the
work reasonably up to date.'
THE SPECTATOR.—'As each volume of the Dictionary appears, its
merits become more conspicuous.... The book ought to commend itself to
as wide a circle of buyers as the "Encyclopædia Britannica."'
THE MANCHESTER EXAMINER AND TIMES.—'We extend a hearty welcome to
the latest instalment of a most magnificent work, in which both the
editing and the writing appear still to improve.'
THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.—'A "DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY," of WHICH
THE COUNTRY MAY BE JUSTLY PROUD, which, though it may need correcting
and supplementing, will probably never be superseded, and which, in
unity of conception and aim, in the number of the names inserted, in
fulness and accuracy of details, in the care and precision with which
the authorities are cited, and in the bibliographical information
given, will not only be immeasurably superior to any work of the kind
which has been produced in Great Britain, but will as far surpass
the German and Belgian biographical dictionaries now in progress,
as these two important undertakings are in advance of the two great
French collections, which until lately reigned supreme in the
department of Biography.'
The Rev. Dr. JESSOP in the _Nineteenth Century_.—'The greatest
literary undertaking that has ever been carried out in England.... We
shall have a Dictionary of National Biography such as no other nation
in Europe can boast of, and such as can never be wholly superseded,
though it will need to be supplemented for the requirements of our
posterity.'
THE LANCET.—'The usefulness, fulness, and general accuracy of this
work become more and more apparent as its progress continues. It is a
classic work of reference as such, WITHOUT ANY COMPEER IN ENGLISH OR
PERHAPS ANY OTHER LANGUAGE.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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