Through Siberia

The Times. (One column.)

“The reader who will follow this long Odyssey, with all its episodes of considerable hardships, and not without dangers, will find in Mr. Lansdell’s volumes all that can interest him about Siberia—a country which was once looked upon merely as a place of durance and banishment, with weeping and gnashing of teeth, but which begins now to be better known as a land in many parts of prodigious fertility and transcendent beauty.... Mr. Lansdell appears to have been delighted with almost everything he saw.... He lays claim to the character of an impartial writer, and if his mind was in any way biased it can only have been by those warm chivalrous sympathies which prompted him to an enterprise of charity and humanity, and by a sense of gratitude for the great kindness and hospitality with which he seems to have been welcomed at every stage of his progress.”

The Athenæum. (Five columns.)

“With the exception of Mr. Mackenzie Wallace’s ‘Russia,’ the best book on a Russian subject which has appeared of late years is Mr. Lansdell’s ‘Through Siberia.’ It is a genuine record of a remarkable expedition, written by a traveller who has evidently eyes with which to see clearly, and a mind free from prejudice or bias, whether political or theological.... Mr. Lansdell may be congratulated on having rendered a great service to the convict population of Russia.... But the service which he has rendered to English readers is of a more signal nature.... Mr. Lansdell’s book will now enable every one to judge for himself.”

The Illustrated London News.

“We can promise the readers of Mr. Lansdell’s book a great deal of entertainment, combined with instruction, in the survey of such an immense field of topography, natural history, and ethnology, and in the plentiful anecdotes of wayside experience and casual observation.... His statements are characterised by an imposing air of precision, and are fortified by official statistics, which claim due attention from those candidly disposed to investigate the subject.”

Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society.

“Mr. Lansdell’s work contains much incidental detail likely to be of practical utility to other travellers, apart from its special philanthropic and economical aspects, and the convenience of its collected descriptive matter. The observations on the various races met with, especially in the extreme eastern part of the journey, are of considerable interest, as are the accounts of the actual conditions of the country at the present time.”

Church Missionary Intelligencer. (Four pages.)

“Mr. Lansdell has spared no pains or labour to make his book as complete as possible. It is altogether different from even the higher class of books of travel. It teems with information of every possible kind; ... the footnotes are quite a remarkable feature for the minuteness of statistical detail with which every subject touched upon—geographical and ethnographical, economic and commercial, ecclesiastical and literary, imperial and municipal—is illustrated.”

The Record. (One column.)

“The interest of ‘Through Siberia’ is varied, and the revelations of the book will attract various minds. The Christian will find herein much which will move his pity for souls; the ecclesiastic will note with attention many striking passages which will assist his studies in comparative religion, and supply links between different ages and differing Churches; the philanthropist will engage himself with existing human wrongs, and seek for suggestions as to methods for redressing and removing them; the statesman may find light, lurid, indeed, and terrible, cast on pressing questions of State policy and relation of classes; while the man of science will not search these pages in vain for facts in ethnology, geography, geology, climatology, sociology, and philology, which will enrich his stores and supply missing links in his world of study.”

The Field.

“The utmost commendation must be given to the reverend author, not only for his personal work, but for the good taste that has impelled him to describe his religious labours in language understanded of the laity.... His observations on the varied aspect of the country, its products and capabilities, the actual condition of cities and villages, society, means of travel and accommodation, and the many tribes and races met with, will be perused by the general reader with the greatest interest; whilst a good index enables the student of ethnology, mineralogy, and other physical sciences, etc., to discover the many special notes scattered throughout the book.”

The Globe. (One column.)

“In addition to a large amount of valuable information respecting convict life in Siberia, the author gives many interesting details of the semi-barbarous countries through which he travelled.... The illustrations and maps will be found very serviceable in elucidating the text, and the work as a whole deserves no slight measure of praise.”

The Rock. (One column.)

“The volumes are got up with great care, and remarkably well illustrated. The books will amply repay perusal; and to all who desire to obtain an insight into Russian manners and customs we confidently recommend them.”

The Academy. (Four columns.)

“His book is full of interesting, valuable, and amusing information.... Mr. Lansdell is never tedious; and we are of opinion that ‘Through Siberia’ is much more entertaining, and certainly more readable, than many novels.”

The United Service Gazette. (Three columns.)

“There is plenty of real novelty in Siberia without troubling the novelist any more. Certainly no more entertaining book of the kind, combined with usefulness, has been issued from the press for a long time.... Everywhere there is something new to tell us, and we wonder why in the world it is that Siberia has been left out in the cold so long.”

Paper and Print. (One column.)

“‘Through Siberia’ is a book which every Englishman ought to read.... Mr. Lansdell’s book will create a lasting sensation, and will also provide food for reflection for all who take an interest in the affairs of their fellow-creatures.”

The St. James’s Gazette. (One column.)

“Mr. Lansdell has made a point of avoiding politics; nor does it form part of his plan to inquire why the exiles, imprisoned or confined to particular districts in Siberia, were sent there. He deals only with their actual condition; and this he certainly shows to be much better than is generally supposed.”

The Pall Mall Gazette. (Two columns.)

“In some ways Mr. Lansdell has a better right to speak about Siberia than any previous western traveller. He went right through the country, from Tiumen on the Ural boundary, to Nikolaefsk on the Pacific coast.... His views upon the Russian penal system are undoubtedly founded upon honest personal conviction.... Apart even from its main subject, it teems with useful information about the country and the people, some tribes of which Mr. Lansdell has perhaps been the first so fully to describe.”

The Fireside. (Three pages.)

“As a work of rare interest, we commend to our readers Mr. Lansdell’s charming traveller’s story, a book of which three-fourths of the first edition were sold before it had fairly reached the publishers’ counter.... That he has succeeded in gathering a mass of reliable information is evident; for a Russian Inspector of Prisons writes respecting the proof-sheets of the work: ‘What you say is so perfectly correct, that your book may be taken as a standard even by Russian authorities.’”

Fraser’s Magazine. (Thirteen pages.)

“It is no more than the simple truth which Mr. Lansdell speaks when he claims that he is in a unique position among all those who have written on the subject. He has gone where he pleased in Siberia.... His testimony, therefore, is simply the best that exists.... Of course it is difficult to hope that his testimony will be accepted by everyone; there are too many who, as a popular proverb says, ‘love truth, but invite the lie to dinner.’ But I have faith that the majority of Englishmen will perceive the untrustworthiness of Nihilistic and Polish sources. If I am wrong, it would only prove that public opinion, even in England, has lost its value.”

O. K. (a Russian writer.)

Harper’s Monthly Magazine. (One column.)

“Since the time of Howard, no one has given us so full and fair an account of Russian prisons as is now presented to us by Mr. Lansdell, and like Howard, he finds the Russians far less cruel jailers than they are generally credited or discredited with being.”

The Baptist. (Two columns.)

“The effect of Mr. Lansdell’s laborious investigations from one end of the country to the other cannot but be salutary, and cannot, we are disposed to think, fail to promote a good understanding between Russia and other countries.... It is strange, but none the less true, that no government in the world has been so ludicrously misrepresented as the Russian, and a man who undertakes to set matters in a true light before the eyes of the world deserves the gratitude of all parties. This Mr. Lansdell has done, and his book will rank as a leading book of the season.”

The Saturday Review. (Three columns.)

“Mr. Lansdell is an acute and eager traveller, as well as an ardent philanthropist.... His journey ... was one of great interest, great adventure, and great endurance. The numerous and clever illustrations with which the volumes are adorned add very much to their value. We take leave of our author in the hope that, on the one hand, neither his philanthropy nor his love of travelling is exhausted; and that, on the other hand, his first venture in the world of letters may be so favourable as to tempt him to a second venture, though perhaps on a somewhat smaller scale.”