This article is so funny. A small collection of old reviews of books that have since then became famous (the books). But reviews that do not praise these books. In fact, reviews that classify them as disappointments and disasters, or merely as boring books.
“Shall we frankly declare that, after the most deliberate consideration of Mr. Darwin’s arguments, we remain unconvinced?” (On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, 1860).
“There are two equally serious reasons why it isn’t worth any adult reader’s attention. The first is that it is dull, dull, dull in a pretentious, florid and archly fatuous fashion. The second is that it is repulsive.” (Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1958)