SOURCE: “Big Brothers,” in The Saturday Review, Vol. 62, No. 794, August, 1859, pp. 446-48.

In the following excerpted anonymous review, the critic connects Henry Kingsley's writing to that of his older brother Charles, sarcastically commenting on the virtues of familial similarities of mind.

Mr. Kingsley has a brother, and this brother has just published a novel. Of its literary merits, its plot, characters, and general worth, we intend to speak elsewhere. At present we merely notice it as a curious specimen of the way in which the big brother's influence tells in a family, and how cordially and completely the smaller brothers fit themselves into his groove. There is plenty of originality in Mr. Henry Kingsley's book—he takes us to new scenes, and writes with freshness and vigor. But he adopts in a simple, hearty way, the creed of the Rector of Eversley. He has no misgivings. He lays...