WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE, AND OTHER VERSES.
By Henry Lawson.
THE ACADEMY: "These ballads (for such they mostly are) abound in spirit and manhood, in the colour and smell of Australian soil.
They deserve the popularity which they have won in Australia, and which, we trust, this edition will now give them in England."
THE SPEAKER: "There are poems in "In the Days When the World was Wide"
which are of a higher mood than any yet heard in distinctively Australian poetry."
LITERARY WORLD: "Not a few of the pieces have made us feel discontented with our sober surroundings, and desirous of seeing new birds, new landscapes, new stars; for at times the blood tingles because of Mr. Lawson"s galloping rhymes."
NEWCASTLE WEEKLY CHRONICLE: "Swinging, rhythmic verse."
WHILE THE BILLY BOILS.
By Henry Lawson.
THE ACADEMY: "A book of honest, direct, sympathetic, humorous writing about Australia from within is worth a library of travellers" tales... .
The result is a real book -- a book in a hundred. His language is terse, supple, and richly idiomatic. He can tell a yarn with the best."
THE SCOTSMAN: "There is no lack of dramatic imagination in the construction of the tales; and the best of them contrive to construct a strong sensational situation in a couple of pages. But the chief charm and value of the book is its fidelity to the rough character of the scenes from which it is drawn."
LITERATURE: "These sketches bring us into contact with one phase of colonial life at first hand... . The simplicity of the narrative gives it almost the effect of a story that is told by word of mouth."
THE SPECTATOR: "It is strange that one we would venture to call the greatest Australian writer should be practically unknown in England.
Mr. Lawson is a less experienced writer than Mr. Kipling, and more unequal, but there are two or three sketches in this volume which for vigour and truth can hold their own with even so great a rival.
Both men have somehow gained that power of concentration which by a few strong strokes can set place and people before you with amazing force."
THE TIMES: "A collection of short and vigorous studies and stories of Australian life and character. A little in Bret Harte"s manner, crossed, perhaps, with that of Guy de Maupa.s.sant."
BRITISH WEEKLY: "Many of Mr. Lawson"s tales photograph life at the diggings or in the bush with an incisive and remorseless reality that grips the imagination. He silhouettes a swagman in a couple of pages, and the man is there, alive."
THE MORNING POST: "For the most part they are full of local colour, and, correctly speaking, represent rather rapid sketches ill.u.s.trative of life in the bush than tales in the ordinary sense of the word... .
They bear the impress of truth, sincere if unvarnished."