“The author of the ‘Romance of War’ deserves the popularity which has made him, perhaps, the most read of living novelists. His tales are full of life and action, and his soldier spirit and turn for adventure carry him successfully through, with a skill in narrative which even the author of ‘Charles O’Malley’ seldom shows.”
“Marryat’s works abound in humour—real, unaffected, buoyant, overflowing humour. Many bits of his writings strongly remind us of Dickens. He is an incorrigible joker, and frequently relates such strange anecdotes and adventures, that the gloomiest hypochondriac could not read them without involuntarily indulging in the unwonted luxury of a hearty cachinnation.”—Dublin University Magazine.
“Cooper constructs enthralling stories, which hold us in breathless suspense, and make our brows alternately pallid with awe and terror, or flushed with powerful emotion: when once taken up, they are so fascinating, that we must perforce read on from beginning to end, panting to arrive at the thrilling dénouement.”—Dublin University Magazine.