Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from History of the Church of England, From the Abolition of the Roman Jurisdiction, Vol. 1
There is certainly no falling off in the interest of Canon Dixon's work. His writing is always vigorous, and his style rather improves as he proceeds. Jan. A3rd, 1886.
Mr. Dixon's previous volumes have already established his character for scholarly research and patient investigation. They have also done much to recover for English literature a style of prose writing which is admirably adapted for historical purposes. This last characteristic has met with little recognition. Historical students are rarely heedful of literary merits. Those who are interested in literature seldom look into long histories, unless they have the popularity accorded to the pages of Lord Macaulay. It is indeed a difficult task to write history and preserve any distinctive features of style. Mr. Dixon retains throughout his pages a clearly marked individuality, which is never obtruded, but which speaks in hints. He is serious, sober, even massive but ?ashes of dry humour meet us at every turn. Moreover, he has in a way identified himself with the times of which he writes. His extracts from contemporary papers do not strike the reader as remote or foreign to the narrative; rather the narrative itself bears the impress of the source from which it came. Mr. Dixon's account of theological controversies is not a dry summary, but rather an echo of original voices. All this is done without affectation, or traces of conscious effort. Sometimes, it must be admitted, Latinized words of unfamiliar form and doubtful advantage seem to show that Mr. Dixon was thinking too entirely about the past, and had forgotten the present. But his pages have all the charm that comes from a feeling of dainty workmanship - so dainty that we fear it is but slightly perceived by the hasty reader. His diligence and thoroughness of workmanship is admirable. He is fair-minded and impartial. - Canon Creighton (now Bishop of Peterborough), in the Academy, Feb. 27th, 1886.
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