Picciola

“It is long since we have encountered a story for children which we can recommend more cordially. It is good all through and in every respect.”—Charleston News and Courier.

“A healthful tale of a French school-boy who suffers the usual school-boy persecution, and emerges from his troubles a hero. The illustrations are bright, and well drawn, and the translation is excellently done.”—Boston Commercial Bulletin.

“A real story-book of the sort which is difficult to lay down, having once begun it. It is fully illustrated and handsomely bound.”—Buffalo Courier.

“The story is one of exceptional merit, and its delightful interest never flags.”—Chicago Herald.

“This is a capital translation of a charming novel. It is bright, witty, fresh, and humorous. ‘The Story of Colette’ is a fine example of what a French novel can be, and all should be.”—Charleston News and Courier.

“Colette is French and the story is French, and both are exceedingly pretty. The story is as pure and refreshing as the innocent yet sighing gayety of Colette’s life.”—Providence Journal.

“A charming little story, molded on the simplest lines, thoroughly pure, and admirably constructed. It is told with a wonderful lightness and raciness. It is full of little skillful touches, such as French literary art at its best knows so well how to produce. It is characterized by a knowledge of human nature and a mastery of style and method which indicate that it is the work rather of a master than of a novice.... Whoever the author of ‘Colette’ may be, there can be no question that it is one of the prettiest, most artistic, and in every way charming stories that French fiction has been honored with for a long time.”—New York Tribune.

“Is it not a little singular that, amid the many treasuries of poetry which have been published with so much acceptance during the last five-and-twenty years, there have been so few devoted to the poetry of love? This is the consideration which emboldens me in putting forth the present volume. Its scope is limited, and even within its limits its possibilities are circumscribed. A body of English love-poetry from the earliest times to the present has appeared to me too great for representation within the space of a single volume. I have therefore contented myself with the fullest selection possible, down to the beginning of the present century.... Of lovers of every mood and variety, examples will be found in these pages. There are the true lover and the false lover, the constant lover and the jealous lover, the quiet lover and the boisterous lover, the merry lover and the mournful lover, the humble lover and the conceited lover, the admiring lover and the pressing lover. We have the lover before marriage and the lover after marriage....”—From the Introduction.

“An admirable selection.”—London Athenæum.

“From the stores of some three centuries much poetic treasure of the first order in art is forthcoming.”—London Saturday Review.

“A delightful bit of French sentiment. The poor and unfortunate are represented as making the best of their miserable surroundings, helping each other with unselfish zeal, and a rose-colored light is thrown over many a disagreeable situation. The tone is wholesome and helpful, and many passages are full of pathos. There is, too, an enthusiasm for country, for the growth and glory of France, which is charming.”—Portland Transcript.

“From his loophole of retreat in a garret the philosopher peeps at the world and moralizes wisely, in a spirit of gentle humanity, and without a touch of cynicism. A very bright and wholesome piece of writing, and well worth the translating.”—Christian Register.

“Made up of simple incidents and observations growing therefrom, the attic philosopher finds plenty of material on which to train his pretty sentiments like vines upon a trellis.... Humanity will suffer nothing by the perusal of this little book.”—Chicago Evening Journal.

“When the first edition of ‘The Household Book of Poetry’ was published by Mr. Dana in 1857, no other collection could so much as aspire to rival it. Since then we have had Bryant’s collection and Emerson’s collection, both by poets of fame, and both presumably eclipsing the effort of a writer who is not, so far as the world knows, a poet. Nevertheless Mr. Dana’s collection remains the best of the three. The book deservedly keeps the lead in popular favor which it took at the start.”—New York Times.

“Every intelligent reader and student of poetry has of course his own favorites, but we are safe in saying that no popular anthology is so well calculated as this to gratify and instruct the general public, or to provide for the genuine lover of verse so much that is good and worthy of preservation.”—Boston Traveller.

“Mr. Dana has added nearly two hundred poems to his well-arranged collection, including many short poems by authors who have not published volumes. The collection now includes eleven hundred and seventy-five selections from three hundred and seventy-seven authors, eighty-five of whom are Americans, and fifty-two women. This edition gives a list of authors, a list of the poems, and an index of first lines, and is printed with new type.”—New York World.

“The title of this volume may perhaps appear a little audacious to those who recall Pope’s familiar dictum as to the impossibility of a faultless piece. In the absolute sense of the term there is, of course, no perfect poem, because there is no perfect thing of any kind. But as every art has its limitations, in whatsoever work the imperfections are caused by these limitations alone, the artist may fairly be said to have succeeded to perfection. On this principle the poems here collected have been chosen.”—From Preface.

“One of the most charming books of the season.... This little volume, printed in excellent taste, is redolent of garden fragrance and garden wisdom.... It is in no sense a text-book, but it combines a vast deal of information with a great deal of out-of-door observation, and exceedingly pleasant and sympathetic writing about flowers and plants.”—Christian Union.

“This dainty nugget of horticultural lore treats of the pleasures and trials of an amateur gardener. From the time when daffodils begin to peer and the ‘secret of the year’ comes in to mid-October, Mr. Ellwanger provides an outline of hardy flower-gardening that can be carried on and worked upon by amateurs.... A little chapter on ‘Warm Weather Wisdom’ is a presentment of the cream of English literature. Nor is the information of this floral calendar confined to the literary or theoretical sides. ‘Plant thickly; it is easier and more profitable to raise flowers than weeds,’ is a practical direction from the garden syllabus.”—Philadelphia Public Ledger.

“A dainty, learned, charming, and delightful book.”—New York Sun.

“The book has the flavor of leisure and culture that belonged to such work in the last century, and its dainty form and attractive head and tail pieces add to its charm.”—San Francisco Chronicle.

“An essay on the building of a house, with all its kaleidoscopic possibilities in the way of reform, and its tantalizing successes before the fact, is always interesting; and the author is not niggardly in the good points he means to secure. It is but natural to follow these with a treatise on rugs full of Orientalism and enthusiasm; on the literary den and the caller, welcome or otherwise; on the cabinets of porcelain, the rare editions on the shelves, the briefly indicated details of the spoils of the chase in their proper place; on the greenhouse, with its curious climate and wonderful botany and odors, about which the author writes with unusual charm and precision; on the dining-room and the dinner.... The book aims only to be agreeable; its literary flavor is pervasive, its sentiment kept well in hand.”—New York Evening Post.

“When the really perfect book of its class comes to a critic’s hands, all the words he has used to describe fairly satisfactory ones are inadequate for his new purpose, and he feels inclined, as in this case, to stand aside and let the book speak for itself. In its own way, it would be hardly possible for this daintily printed volume to do better.”—Art Amateur.

“‘Wotton Reinfred’ is interesting as a historical document. It gives Carlyle before he had adopted his peculiar manner, and yet there are some characteristic bits—especially at the beginning—in the Sartor Resartus vein. I take it that these are reminiscences of Irving and of the Thackeray circle, and there is a curious portrait of Coleridge, not very thinly veiled. There is enough autobiography, too, of interest in its way.”—Leslie Stephen.

“No complete edition of the Sage of Chelsea will be able to ignore these manuscripts.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“Lord Randolph Churchill’s pages are full of diversified adventures and experience, from any part of which interesting extracts could be collected.... A thoroughly attractive book.”—London Telegraph.

“... The reader of these volumes will not marvel more at the unfailing interest of each page than at the extraordinary collection of eminent persons whom the author all his life knew intimately and met frequently. A list would range from Dumas the elder to David the sculptor, from Rachel to Balzac, from Louis Napoleon to Eugène Delacroix, from Louis Philippe to the Princess Demidoff, and from Lola Montez to that other celebrated woman, Alphonsine Plessis, who was the original of the younger Dumas’s ‘Dame aux Caméllias.’ He knew these persons as no other Englishman could have known them, and he writes about them with a charm that has all the attraction of the most pleasing conversation.”—New York Times.

“We have rarely happened upon more fascinating volumes than these Recollections.... One good story leads on to another; one personality brings up reminiscences of another, and we are hurried along in a rattle of gayety.... We have heard many suggestions hazarded as to the anonymous author of these memoirs. There are not above three or four Englishmen with whom it would be possible to identify him. We doubted still until after the middle of the second volume we came upon two or three passages which strike us as being conclusive circumstantial evidence.... We shall not seek to strip the mask from the anonymous.”—London Times.