The Yellow Nineties Online - 1890s Reviews

1890s Reviews about The Yellow Book

Volume 1

	From Book Reviews: Rev. of The Yellow Book 1 ~ Unattributed The varied opinions held by the English papers in regard to this new and most original quarterly make amusing reading. "If the New Art is represented by the cover of this wonderful volume," says the Times, "it is scarcely calculated to attract by its intrinsic beauty or merit." HTML PDF XML

	From Current Literature: "A Yellow Melancholy": The New Quarterly ~ Unattributed Of the new English quarterly, The Yellow Book, the original literary departure from the conventional magazine, and whose appearance is the literary sensation of the month, the London Speaker gives this review: In an advertisement affixed to The Yellow Book we learn that Messrs. Elkin Mathews and John Lane, of the Bodley Head, Vigo Street, London, W., "produce books so delightfully that it must give an added pleasure to the hoarding of first editions." HTML PDF XML

	From St. James Gazette: The Yellow Book ~ Unattributed IT will be curious to see how the Yellow Book takes with the public. The first number is a curious mixture of clevernesses—some good, others (as we hold) bad. At any rate, it is a very queer new sort of quarterly. HTML PDF XML

	From The Academy: "The Yellow Book" ~ Frederick Wedmore MESSRS. ELKIN MATHEWS & JOHN LANE have issued the first number of The Yellow Book, a new and bulky and well-printed miscellany, which is to be published once a quarter. Its cover, I am sorry to say, might go a long way to damn it as a serious venture for tasteful people can only suppose that the design was a joke of a third-rate order, sent back as unacceptable from the office of Pick-me-up. HTML PDF XML

	From The Cambridge Review: The Yellow Book ~ C.H.S.M. "The Yellow Book as the representative of English Literature and Art." The Yellow Book has now been before the public for some time, but echoes of the laughter with which it was pretty generally greeted are still lingering on, and will in all probability continue to linger for some time to come. HTML PDF XML

	From The Cosmopolitan: In the World of Art and Letters ~ Andrew Lang THE very newest thing in literature which aims at being light is "The Yellow Book" (Lane and Matthews). I do not pretend to understand the literary aims of "The Yellow Book," if it has any in particular. To some extent it is an advertisement, or manifesto, of several ingenious young men. HTML PDF XML

	From The Critic: A Yellow Impertinence ~ Unattributed The Yellow Book is the Oscar Wilde of periodicals. With enough cleverness to be successful by legitimate methods, Mr. Wilde preferred to attract attention with his long hair and silk-encased calves. It is the same with The Yellow Book. Its contributors and illustrators are clever enough to catch the public attention by serious endeavor, but its editors prefer to attract more sudden attention by mountebank methods. HTML PDF XML

	From The Dial: The Initial Number of the "Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed The first number of the much heralded "Yellow Book" has appeared, Messrs. Copeland & Day being the American publishers. It is an illustrated quarterly magazine, edited by Mr. Henry Harland, and realizing in a measure the suggestion made by Mr. Howells in "A Hazard of New Fortunes." That is, each number of the periodical is to be a cloth-bound book, complete in itself. HTML PDF XML

	From The Literary World: London Letter ~ Katharine Tynan Hinkson The Yellow Book of Messrs. Matthews & Lane seems to have disappointed most of the reviewers. To my mind it is just a rather elaborate magazine, not differing greatly from other magazines except by displaying the eccentric influence of Mr. Aubrey Beardsley, which gives it its individuality. HTML PDF XML

	From The Nation: Rev. of The Yellow Book 1 ~ Unattributed To do something new seems to have been the principal aim of the publishers of 'The Yellow Book An illustrated Quarterly''(London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane Boston: Copeland & Day), vol. i. of which, for April, 1894, lies before us. HTML PDF XML

	From The National Observer: Rev. of The Yellow Book 1 ~ Unattributed On Monday the great world did Messrs. Mathews and Lane, publishers, the honour to creak on its hinges: for it had been foretold that on that day a new planet—a star of modernity, a yellow asteroid, in fact—should swim into the ken of the nation which hitherto had sat in a most lamentable darkness. Never was the way of a magazine made so plain before it as The Yellow Book's judicious advertisements planted and injudicious interviews watered. HTML PDF XML

	From The Westminster Gazette: "The Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed The new quarterly, which calls itself the Yellow Book, contains about half-a-dozen of the silliest articles that have appeared anywhere for many months, and another half-dozen that are quite admirable. Among the latter are Mr. Henry James's short story "The Death of the Lion," Mr. William Watson's two sonnets, the "Fool's Hour, a Fragment of a Comedy," which is the joint work of Mr. George Moore and John Oliver Hobbes, and Mr. George Sainsbury's "Sentimental Cellar," which is a pleasant conceit. HTML PDF XML

	From Vanity Fair: Rev. of The Yellow Book 1 ~ Unattributed From Messrs. Elkin Mathews and John Lane there comes volume I. of the much-expected new quarterly, "The Yellow Book" and it comes in a wondrous ugly cover. It will be studied with subdued but none the less earnest joy by the New School of Art, or the New Schools, or individuals who magnify themselves into schools for is it not a precious thing? HTML PDF XML

Volume 10

	From Pall Mall Magazine: Rev. of The Yellow Book 10 ~ I. Zangwill The Yellow Book (Vol. X.) seems much better worth its price than most books of other colours. HTML PDF XML

Volume 2

	From Atlantic Monthly: Comment on New Books ~ Unattributed Literature and Criticism. The Yellow Book, an Illustrated Quarterly. (Copeland & Day, Boston.) The merry-go-round of literary history brings back the old illustrated annual in this Yellow Book. HTML PDF XML

	From Chap-Book: The Yellow Book ~ Pierre La Rose "TALKING of an acquaintance of ours," writes the most quotable of biographers, "whose narratives . . . were unhappily found to be very fabulous I mentioned Lord Mansfield's having said to me, 'Suppose we believe one half of what he tells.''JOHNSON— 'Ay but we don't know which half to believe.''" HTML PDF XML

	From Chicago Daily Tribune: Two Original Periodicals ~ Unattributed The Yellow Book, the second volume of which is just out, is thoroughly enjoyable. (London: Elkin Matthews & John Lane. Boston: Copeland & Day.) The ridicule heaped on this novelty in periodical literature seems to have been earned by its originality. HTML PDF XML

	From New York Times: A Disappointing Book ~ Unattributed If to be incomprehensible means literary perfection, then the major part of the text of “The Yellow Book" accomplishes its mission. The most ambitious article is “The Coxon Fund," written by Mr. Henry James. After many hours of serious toil, it is possible that a clever reader may discover that in Saltram the author wants to develop some passing episode in the life of a social sponge. All else is twaddle, meaningless, and waste of paper. HTML PDF XML

	From New York Times: Current News of the Fine Arts ~ Unattributed The second volume of the Yellow Book has more amusing illustrations by the British artists who are trying to outdo Rops, Jossot, Iwels, and other Parisian fantastics. HTML PDF XML

	From Pall Mall Gazette: The Second "Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed IF the editors of the Yellow Book were not so wantonly anxious to be new and aggressive they would make a better product of their venture. Though the second number is an improvement upon the first, there lies upon it still the original taint of the idea which gave the quarterly birth. The editors seem to face the public and the world of letters with a grinning complacency in their own boldness. HTML PDF XML

	From Poet-lore: Some Literary Tendencies: 'Philip and His Wife and 'The Yellow Book' ~ Unattributed Maeterlinck's influence would seem to be felt in art, also, to a certain extent. I am sure anyone would be justified in taking the face which adorns the cover of the Yellow Book for a portrait of Mélisande, or rather of Mélisande's hair. HTML PDF XML

	From St. James's Gazette: The Yellow Book ~ Unattributed OF the second number of the Yellow Book it may at once be acknowledged that it is a distinct improvement on the first. Mr. Aubrey Beardsley tries to frighten us with an ugly frontispiece but inside there will be found some altogether charming and pleasing specimens of Art. HTML PDF XML

	From The Academy: Magazines and Reviews ~ Unattributed The second number of the Yellow Book (Matthews & Lane), though too bulky to be convenient, and far too full of "short" stories which are too diffuse to be short, is in some respects an improvement on the first number but the improvement, we are bound to say, is far more marked on the pictorial than on the literary side. HTML PDF XML

	From The Bookman: Rev. of The Yellow Book 2 ~ Unattributed That the Yellow Book does not mean to represent any special school is the promising feature revealed by the second volume. HTML PDF XML

	From The Critic: London Letter ~ Arthur Waugh The second number of The Yellow Book is to be out next Monday, and it is reported that it will be great improvement upon the first. For one thing, it is to be 100 pages larger. HTML PDF XML

	From The Daily Chronicle: The New "Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed The second Yellow Book is better than the first. That is saying much or little, according to what one thought of the first. The fact is therefore better stated absolutely than relatively. So we may pronounce the second volume of this "illustrates quarterly" a publication of far more than usual interest. HTML PDF XML

	From The Dial: Second Number of "The Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed The bits of genre which largely serve for fiction in "The Yellow Book" (Copeland & Day) are not, as a rule, very attractive or stimulating. They are often amateurish in their impressionism, and have too marked a flavor of preciosity. HTML PDF XML

	From The Literary Digest: "The Yellow Book" on Modern Literature ~ Unattributed The most advanced writers of England established a few months ago a periodical of their own, The Yellow Book, an illustrated quarterly, which was to be the mouthpiece of modern literature. The sensation created in the first number was enormous. The second, just issued, bids fair to create no less stir by its radicalism and its outspoken defiance of the old novelists. HTML PDF XML

	From The National Observer: Dulness in Yellow ~ Unattributed If The Yellow Book holds to its present path it will soon be amongst the most respectable and the most insignificant of our magazines. The second number bids almost impudently for the suffrage of the suburbs. Mr. Philip Gilbert Hamerton, L.L.D., has been engaged to explain away the alarums and excursions of the first, and right morally he has fulfilled his task. HTML PDF XML

	From The Saturday Review: Rev. of The Yellow Book 2 ~ Unattributed The new Yellow Book (Mathews & Lane) is as undistinguished as the first issue, or, if distinguished in any way, is distinguished precisely as the first volume is distinguished. Mr. Henry James in "'The Coxon Fund" is much more diffuse and much less amusing than in his former contribution. HTML PDF XML

	From The Spectator: The Yellow Book ~ Unattributed THE new Yellow Book is a ponderous affair. There is more "Literature" than in the first volume, and double the amount of "Art." Mr. William Watson contributes a short four-line epigram. HTML PDF XML

	From Times: Rev. of The Yellow Book 2 ~ Unattributed The second volume of the YELLOW BOOK (Matthews and Lane) will not have the same succès du scandal that fell to the first, but it will be better liked by the people who still think that in literature and art it is well to draw the line somewhere. HTML PDF XML

Volume 3

	From New York Times: Another Yellow Nuisance ~ Unattributed One William Hogarth over a hundred years ago gave us the full face, the side one too, patches and all, of the fallen woman of his time, and as far as outline goes Mr. Aubrey Beardsley is only a poor copyist. If there be talent in an artist because he possesses the power of irritating one's eyes, so merit may be accorded to certain files for the reason they can produce blisters. HTML PDF XML

	From Pall-Mall Gazette: The Brazen Yellowanthus ~ Unattributed THERE was once a very small boy who said to a man grown old in his sins, "I'm awfully fond of swearing I know a frightful oath": and straightway he climbed that middle-aged sinner's knee and whispered him a blood-thirsty, hair-raising anathema. It seems to us as if all, or nearly all, the contributors to the Yellow Book know something in the swearing line that—if we may chance the vulgarism—can give your mere Ernulphus fits. HTML PDF XML

	From Studio: New Publications ~ Unattributed The Yellow Book. Volume III. (London: John Lane. Price 5s. net.)— The art of The Yellow Book is the art of Aubrey Beardsley. The Yellow Book without Aubrey Beardsley would lose its chief individuality. It is evident that The Yellow Book pins its faith to Aubrey Beardsley, and is ready to stand or fall by him. HTML PDF XML

	From The Bookman: Rev. of The Yellow Book 3 ~ Unattributed Its promise to provide permanent literature the ‘Yellow Book'''fulfils in its third volume by Mr. William Watson's charming love-song, and Mr. John Davidson's "Ballad of a Nun." The fiction is rather less good than in the earlier numbers, though in Mr. Ernest Dowson's "Apple Blossom in Brittany," and in the editor's "When I am King," there is excellent workmanship. HTML PDF XML

	From The Critic: A Yellow Bore ~ Unattributed ONE IS BEGINNING to dread the coming around of the quarters of the year. Not because they mark the flight of time, but because they announce the coming of The Yellow Book. HTML PDF XML

	From The National Observer: A Xanthopiate ~ Unattributed Even the best of men, when he knows a good story, likes to tell it. And the writer of this review knows a good story. But he is not going to tell it. His present duty is to criticize the Yellow Book and he means to live up to the dignity—or impudence—of the occasion. Not that this is as easily done as you might think. HTML PDF XML

	From The Saturday Review: Rev of The Yellow Book 3 ~ Unattributed With the lapse of time The Yellow Book has not acquired tone, which is the gift of time. The amateurishness of the present number is more pronounced than ever. The note is struck in the extremely flimsy article, "Women— Wives or Mothers," with which the hook opens. HTML PDF XML

	From The Spectator: The Yellow Book ~ Unattributed THE third volume of The Yellow Book is the first that has been issued by Mr. John Lane at his new sign of 'The Bodley Head.''When a publication of this kind reaches its third number and can no longer be looked on as a novelty or a "sport" of the literary genus, it is time to ask seriously what place it takes among contemporary literature, and of what value it has as an exponent of art. HTML PDF XML

Volume 3 and 4

	From The Dial: One Year of the "Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed "The Yellow Book" always contains such a variety of things that it would go hard were there not a few of considerable merit among them all. Indeed, one can hardly look over the contents of one of these staring octavos, without a dim sense of wonder that the editors should have unearthed so many acceptable writers and artists hitherto unknown to the public, for familiar names are by no means the rule. HTML PDF XML

Volume 4

	From Current Literature: Rev. of The Yellow Book 4 ~ Unattributed The fourth volume of the Yellow Book is out, and doubtless, says the New York Tribune, there is joy in the hearts of its makers and readers because this precious bantling has weathered its first year. HTML PDF XML

	From Graphic: "The Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed The bright lights of The Yellow Book show no signs at present of failing. Some of the soberer spirits who lent it dignity in former issues are now absent, but the particular stars whose genius it was called into existence to exploit are still here to support it towards its first year of life. HTML PDF XML

	From New York Times: That Yellow Nuisance Again ~ Unattributed The character of the Yellow Book may be generalized as not nice, but nasty. There is the leading story, the first one, "The Bohemian Girl," but she is not as Bunn and Balfe constructed her. Mr. Henry Harland makes an emancipated young person, who is a mademoiselle, and mademoiselle is the mother or the little Camille, and presumably the papa was a Brazilian. HTML PDF XML

	From The Bookman: Rev. of The Yellow Book 4 ~ Unattributed There is greater average merit in the latest number of the Yellow Book than in the former ones, but there is no one feature that stands out prominently, unless it be the fearsome picture of Mr. George Moore, which is calculated to justify all the obstinate prejudices of librarians. HTML PDF XML

	From The Critic: A Yellow Indecency ~ Unattributed THE EDITORS OF The Yellow Book attracted attention to that quarterly at first by the novelty of its make-up, if not by the originality of their ideas. People laughed at the thing, but they bought it and they found some things between its covers that were worth reading. HTML PDF XML

	From The Literary World: London Letter ~ Katherine Tynan Hinkson In the latest issue of the Yellow Book Mr. John Lane gives a drawing by a young man of genius, Mr. Patten Wilson. This is the first of his work to see the light. HTML PDF XML

Volume 5

	From Chicago Daily Tribune: Rev. of The Yellow Book 5 ~ Unattributed Kenneth Grahame is one of those delicate humorists, with Mr. Le Gallienne at their head, who cultivate a precocity in style. But Mr. Grahame has manliness united with his delicacy, and he writes charmingly of children, which is his favorite subject. HTML PDF XML

	From Chicago Daily Tribune: With the Novelists ~ Unattributed GROUP OF VARIED AND INTERESTING STORIES OF THE WEEK In the fifth volume of the Yellow Book, which is now out, there is in "The Pleasure Pilgrim" an outlining of an Englishwoman's notions of what an American girl really is. The author's name is Ella D'Arcy. HTML PDF XML

	From The Bookman: Rev. of The Yellow Book 5 ~ Unattributed Certain occurrences in London of recent date, which it is not necessary to mention more specifically, have had a very marked influence upon the tone of the present number of the Yellow Book. It is not only free from any suspicion of moral slime, but, in its literary features at least, appears to have abandoned its former eccentricity. HTML PDF XML

	From The Dial: The Fifth Issue of the "Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed "The Yellow Book" has been made the victim of a good deal of abuse on account of its decadent tendencies in both literature and art, the abuse, although extravagant, not being entirely unwarranted. HTML PDF XML

	From The New York Times: The Fifth Yellow Book ~ Unattributed There is really little of Mr. Aubrey Beardsley in this volume. Possibly the outside cover is his, and a young woman who reclines on a striped lounge. HTML PDF XML

	From The Westminster Gazette: The May Magazines ~ Unattributed The new number of the Yellow Book (John Lane) is notable for a fine poem by Mr. William Watson. It is called a "Hymn to the Sea," and is a very successful essay in the elegiac metre. HTML PDF XML

Volume 6

	From The National Observer: Rev. of The Yellow Book 6 ~ Unattributed The Yellow Book continues to sober down. It is impossible to take objection to any of the contributions on the point of colour. A dull gray is the prevailing tone. Mr. Henry James has the first place with a subtly written story called ‘The Next Time.’ There is not much story in it, but so skillfully is it written that you do not feel the want of it until you have finished and set yourself to remember what it was all about. HTML PDF XML

Volume 7

	From The National Observer: The Yellow Book ~ Unattributed The Yellow Book has sadly fallen from that estate in which it was created. We said so of the volume which preceded this, and we are not going to harp on the matter. Mr. Le Gallienne opens with something that seems midway between a personal recollection and a fantasy on sausages and Tintara. HTML PDF XML

	From Saturday Review: Rev. of The Yellow Book 7 ~ Unknown Some people dislike journalistic condemnation of themselves of their works, other are indifferent to it, and yet others enjoy it. We belong to that last class. HTML PDF XML

	From Sketch: "The Latest "Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed For some reason or other the Yellow Book has always been treated from the first with a certain parti pris somewhat lacking in fairness. HTML PDF XML

	From The Bookman: Rev. of The Yellow Book 7 ~ Unattributed The latest Yellow Book, just issued by Messrs. Copeland and Day, lays more serious claim than any of its previous numbers, perhaps, to our studious at- tention. HTML PDF XML

	From The Critic: The Lounger ~ Unattributed The Yellow Book is shorn of its yellowness: it is nothing now but book. Some of the old writers are to be found in its seventh number, but they are not their old selves, except Miss Ella D'Arcy, but then, she never was yellow. HTML PDF XML

	From The Dial: Briefer Mention ~ Unattributed There are good names, such as those of Dr. Garnett and Mr. Kenneth Grahame—names that give promise of entertainment, such as those of Mr. Henry Harland, Mr. A. C. Benson, and Miss Ella d'Arcy HTML PDF XML

Volume 8

	From Our Library Table: "Athenaeum" ~ Unattributed Rosalind: the Story of Three Parrots, by E. M. Harris (Redway), is of the company of books that are often said, by the lover of sensational writing, to have "nothing in them." HTML PDF XML

	From The Critic: "The Chicago Letter" ~ Lucy Monroe THE EXHIBITION which was opened last week at the Art Insti- tute is much the most interesting that has been held here since the Fair. It contains 116 paintings by the Glasgow men, 36 by Danish artists, and a few by Dagnan-Bouveret, Degas, Thanlow and Whistler. HTML PDF XML

	From The Critic: "The London Letter" ~ Arthur Waugh NOW IS the hour of the lecturer. With the lengthening of the evenings, local Athenaums take on a studious habit, and promi- nent men-of-letters are invited down into the provinces to dis- course sagaciously upon topics kindred to their profession. HTML PDF XML

	From The National Observer: "The Yellow Book" ~ Unattributed This interesting quarterly has not yet ceased to transform itself with each issue into something new and strange. HTML PDF XML