_STANDARD._--“In _The Centaur_ Mr. Blackwood has called out our entire
admiration and, what is to him doubtless of more importance still, our
conviction. We believe in his Centaur, we believe in that wonderful
moment when O’Malley went back to that primitive splendour of an early
world, we believe in the great winds and rushing forms and shadowy
clouds, we believe finally in that last pathos of O’Malley’s death. Mr.
Blackwood in _The Centaur_ has written a book of complete, consistent
beauty.... _The Centaur_ is not only Mr. Blackwood’s best work; it is
also a book that will to the O’Malleys of the world be a gift that they
can never too highly acknowledge.”
_PUNCH._--“A fortunate reader, happening upon _The Centaur_, might well
delight himself in it but yet hesitate to recommend it to his friends.
His hesitation would be due to his poor opinion not of the book but of
the friends.... With no reservations, we insist upon the splendour of
the history and the beauty of the idea of this book.”
_PALL MALL GAZETTE._--“It is a book of strange wonders: there is
greatness in the conception, there is power in the execution, while
the literary excellence is of the finest quality, the arresting phrase
checking and holding the attention in every chapter.”
_WORLD._--“Very rarely indeed is a book so curious and so arresting as
_The Centaur_ given to the reading public.... A singularly fine book.”
_GLOBE._--“The book is a great, even daring, achievement, one inspired
with a fine and intense conviction, and written by a master of
imaginative description.”