_ATHENAEUM:_
"Mr. Mackenzie's second novel amply fulfils the promise of his
first.... Its first and great quality is originality. The
originality of Mr. Mackenzie lies in his possession of an
imagination and a vision of life that are as peculiarly his own as
a voice or a laugh, and that reflect themselves in a style which is
that of no other writer.... A prose full of beauty."
_PUNCH:_
"After reading a couple of pages I settled myself in my chair for a
happy evening, and thenceforward the fascination of the book held
me like a kind of enchantment. I despair, though, of being able to
convey any idea of it in a few lines of criticism.... As for the
style, I will only add that it gave me the same blissful feeling of
security that one has in listening to a great musician.... In the
meantime, having recorded my delight in it, I shall put 'Carnival'
upon the small and by no means crowded shelf that I reserve for
'keeps.'"
_OUTLOOK:_
"In these days of muddled literary evaluations, it is a small thing
to say of a novel that it is a great novel; but this we should say
without hesitation of 'Carnival,' that not only is it marked out to
be the reading success of its own season, but to be read afterwards
as none but the best books are read."
_OBSERVER:_
"The heroic scale of Mr. Compton Mackenzie's conception and
achievement sets a standard for him which one only applies to the
'great' among novelists."
_ENGLISH REVIEW:_
"An exquisite sense of beauty with a hunger for beautiful words to
express it."
_ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS:_
"The spirit of youth and the spirit of London."
_NEW YORK TIMES:_
"We hail Mr. Mackenzie as a man alive--who raises all things to a
spiritual plane."
_MR. C. K. SHORTER in the SPHERE:_
"'Carnival' carried me from cover to cover on wings."
_NEW AGE:_
"We are more than sick of it."