Mr. Edmund Gosse, in THE WORLD: 'We may find it hard to realise that
Max may become a classic, but I see no other essayist who seems to have
more chance of it.... There is no question of "reserved places" on
Parnassus, but it is my individual conviction that where La Bruye're
and Addison and Stevenson are, there Max will be.... It is perhaps his
final charm as an essayist that, underneath a ceremonious style, an
exquisite demeanour and advance, a low voice, a graceful hearing, a
polished cadence, there exists a powerful, sometimes what almost seems
a furious independence of character.'
THE TIMES: 'So few men can trifle without being silly or be intimate
without being tiresome, so few have either the mental power or the
unity of vision necessary for a decent transition from mood to mood,
that essayists fit to be ranked with Steele, Addison, Stevenson, are
still few. Mr. Max Beerbohm has proved his title.... There, where every
idea is the author's, and every phrase is scrupulously adapted to the
best expression by the author of his own idea, we get the true
originality in art. Through all the play of fancy, the wit and humour,
the swift transitions, the caprice and jesting, that ultimate sincerity
shines; and it is that which lights Mr. Beerbohm's fine taste and
knowledge of his craft to beauty.'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: 'As an artist whose medium is the essay, Mr. Max
Beerbohm should stand for this generation as Lamb stands for the first
generation of the nineteenth century.'
THE DAILY NEWS: 'He has wit, and charm, and good humour--and these are
the qualities which characterise this completely delightful volume of
essays.'
THE MORNING LEADER: 'Max sees himself in a hundred different ways. In
any capacity he is unique. He remains our best essayist.'
THE OBSERVER: 'Charles Lamb a' la Max is never obtrusive. It is only
the ghost of him that stalks in and about. We soon fall away from the
reminiscence; and the caricaturist becomes a personality.'
Mr. Sidney Dark in THE DAILY EXPRESS: 'Max is always delightful in his
dainty, leisurely tolerance of everybody and everything. No other
living writer could have produced "Yet Again." It is individual--and
thoroughly good to read.'
THE EVENING STANDARD: 'Mr. Beerbohm is always in holiday mood; and this
we gradually catch from him. We begin by enjoying him; we end by
enjoying life and ourselves.'
THE NATION: 'Blessed are they who possess the gift of extracting
sunbeams from cucumbers.... The simplicity of Mr. Beerbohm's themes
serves but to enhance the elegance of his mind.'
Mr. G. S. Street in THE ENGLISHWOMAN: 'I trust sincerely I shall not
damage his reputation if I say that the play of his fancy is never
inconsistent with two strong qualities of his mind and temperament, a
sound judgment and a kindly heart.'
Mr. W. H. Chesson in THE DAILY CHRONICLE: 'He is undoubtedly one of our
benefactors. He excels in the humour which creates humour.'
THE GLOBE: 'In their different ways, all these essays will delight the
appreciative reader, and we can only bid him or her buy, beg, borrow,
or steal Max's latest volume immediately.'
Mr. James Douglas in LONDON OPINION: 'The style of these essays is not
eccentric, and yet it is dyed with the hues of a personality as rich
and rare as Elia's own, There is no contemporary prose which is so
uncorrupted by current influences, and which is so sure to defy the
corrosion of time. In a hundred years it will not be a dated or
derelict thing. Its colour and its cadence will delight the connoisseur
then as the colour and cadence of Lamb's prose delights him now.'
THE MORNING POST: 'He is naturally gifted with something that is called
talent in life and genius after death.'