Meditations in Motley reveals a new American essayist, honest and
whimsical, with a good deal of decorative plain speaking. An occasional
carelessness of style is redeemed by unfailing insight.—I. Zangwill in
_The Pall Mall Magazine_ for April, 1895.
Philip Hale, the well-known and brilliant literary and musical critic,
writes: “Walter Blackburn Harte is beyond doubt and peradventure, the
leading essayist in Boston to-day. For Boston, perhaps you had better
read “The United States.” His matter is original and brave, his style is
clear, polished when effect is to be gained thereby, blunt when the blow
should fall, and at times delightfully whimsical, rambling, paradoxical,
fantastical.”
Mr. Harte is not always so good in the piece as in the pattern, but
he is a pleasant companion, and I have met with no volume of essays
from America since Miss Agnes Repplier’s so good as his Meditations in
Motley.—RICHARD LE GALLIENNE, in the London _Review_.