FOUR FRENCHWOMEN. BY AUSTIN DOBSON. 'It is many months since we came across a book that gave us so much pleasure as Mr. Dobson's "Four Frenchwomen." Everyone should read it; but he should not lend it to his friends, for of a certainty he will not get it back again.'-Athenæum. 'Mr. Austin Dobson's "Four Frenchwomen" is as dainty as his muse. The most diligent student of the French memoirs of the eighteenth century could not have made a more enticing selection.'-St. James's Gazette. 'Four most effectively picturesque sketches they are-comic and dramatic. In the way of essay-writing, nothing so absorbingly interesting has come in my way for a long time.'-Star. 'A most exquisite and delightful book.'-Pall Mall Gazette. "These short biographical papers have a care and suggest comparison with Mr. Dobson's villanelles. cameos from eighteenth-century memoirs; and no good for them.'-Speaker. finish which often They are a sort of praise is much too 'Mr. Dobson here is like an exquisite genre painter, called upon to depict the darkest scenes of human tragedy. And the genre painter, it must be avowed, comes admirably out of the ordeal. The artist that is in Mr. Dobson shows himself quite equal to this new task.'-Academy. Square 8vo. cloth extra, with 95 Illustrations, 6s. 'Mr. Dobson's high appreciation of Bewick, and his innate love of art, together with his literary power, combine to make his book an extremely pleasant one for the reader. His command of language never leads him either into prosiness or into fine writing. He has access to the best sources of information now available, and gives us many facts not previously known. Mr. Dobson's little volume is not only pleasant reading, but will be of great use to the collector and the student, as it affords much assistance in identifying the engravers.'-Saturday Review. Anything that Mr. Dobson writes must have in it grace and interest. His style is lively and pleasant; he keeps the attention fixed, and imparts information in so agreeable a manner that even the reader for mere amusement lays down his books wiser than when he took them up. All these attractions are present in "Thomas Bewick and his Pupils."Glasgow Herald. 'It is just the book to delight a boy with a turn for natural history, or a taste for drawing; and we commend it especially to the notice of those who desire to exhibit their own good taste in the selection of a suitable gift.'-Exeter Gazette. Written with all the author's delicacy and finish of style.'-Contemporary Review. LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY. Crown Svo. buckram, with Frontispiece, 6s. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VIGNETTES. FIRST SERIES. BY AUSTIN DOBSON. 'Charming as is everything produced by this graceful writer. Austin Dobson is, in fact, the lineal descendant of Addison, Goldsmith, and Gray. To sit and bask in the sunshine of the eighteenth century, with Austin Dobson turning on the sun, is a rare and a holy joy.'WALTER BESANT in The Author. 'The characteristic of Mr. Dobson appears to be a singular power of perception and appreciation. It would be difficult to name another contemporary critic with such nicety of observation, and with such a happy faculty of discovering and pointing out the peculiar merits of works well known to all, but in which Mr. Dobson is able to point out some fresh beauties or a new charm of thought or expression.'—Athenæum. 'Mr. Austin Dobson has written a book instinct with vitality, abounding in delicate observation, its details artistically selected, its learning most pleasantly disguised.'-Tablet. 'It presents the most exact series of pictures of a certain past society which has ever been given to us.'-Speaker. 'These papers breathe the spirit of the philosophic century; they speak its language; they know where to find poetry and humanity beneath the powder and the patch; but, most of all, they know its books and literary people, and write of them with a tender sympathy which to many readers will make these books and literary people more interesting than they would be in themselves.'-Scotsman. 'A beautiful book-a joy to look on and to handle. . . . It carries one away to that delightful world of the eighteenth century, whose dainty artificiality, through Mr. Dobson's devotion, blooms again for us with a quite paradoxical freshness. He gossips in his pleasant, allusive, vivid, and slyly humorous style, in which many a phrase promptly recalls the polished age he loves so well.'-Star. 'We thank Mr. Dobson for these charming "Eighteenth Century Vignettes," these literary melodies all played delicatissimo. He says, in a modest preface, "It is not impossible that they may be followed by a further collection." The sooner the better ! ' - Daily Chronicle. 'Mr. Dobson has here put together twenty winning sketches of much that is most dear and pleasant in the arts and letters of his cherished age. All are good-some choicely good. We find it hard to say, without foolish airs of enthusiasm, how good is this book.'-Academy. 'Mr. Dobson is known to many as a graceful writer of dainty, gallant, and old-fashioned verse, and the spirit of poetry somehow invariably contrives to lurk in his delicately-wrought and imaginative prose. The literary flavour of these choice appreciations in literature and life is unmistakable, and the man who is most familiar with the society which Mr. Dobson describes will most enjoy the side-lights which in these pages are thrown upon it.'-Leeds Mercury. LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY. |