But it is not so much beautiful imagery, not so much interesting people, that distinguish _Fortitude_ and make it a great-hearted book, as the courage for life, the demand for fortitude.
"_Fortitude_ is a book in which the writer has put much passionate intensity of thought and conviction. It has no faults of insincerity, weakness, nor poverty of mind or heart. It is fascinating. It is the expression of a born writer. One reads it all. There is humor, there is generosity; as of some big man overflowing with ideas. There is a noble spirit in the book that blows fresh upon one, like a wind from the sea. The wind may have blown through desperate places and seen bitter things, but it is clean and bracing, and one is glad of it."--_Hildegarde Hawthorne In The New York Times_.
"_Fortitude_ is a story that one will like to linger over after it is read. It is reminiscent of Thackeray at his best, mellowed with the charity of well-proportioned truth."--_New York American_.
"_Fortitude_ is impressive. Its revelations of life strike deeply into those springs of youth from which are filled the wells of manhood."--_The New York World_.
"This novel is a genuine performance. All is worked out in the finest detail, like the careful etching of a great, stone-made cathedral."--_The Chicago Evening Post_.
"Hugh Walpole is a literary force to be reckoned with. He knows life; he is not afraid to depict it. He can be sympathetic without being sentimental. He is afraid neither of pleasure nor pain--nor of seeming to fear the conventionalities. He has the true idea of romance. He knows that the enchanted land of adventure may be found in a London boarding house as surely as on stormy seas or in deep hidden gold mines. He knows that man’s fiercest battles seldom are fought to the accompaniment of cannon. He knows that loneliness is one of the hardest, one of the most universal of humanity’s tests and sorrows. _Fortitude_ is a book to read more than once, to ponder. Instinct with life and vigor, lovers of sentiment, fighting, psychology, romance, realism, each will find it worth while."--_The Chicago Record-Herald_.
"_Fortitude_ is a book of splendid strength and significance. It is done with much care for workmanship and with a large understanding of the meaning of life, so proving doubly worth while.... Throughout the book is marked by a penetrating knowledge of humanity, so that it brings one continually into touch with real people and real human crises."--_The Continent_.