There is the review intended to sell a book -- which comes out immediately after the appearance of the book, or sometimes before it; the review which gives reputation, but does not affect the sale, and which comes a little later; the review which snuffs a book out quietly; the review which is to raise or lower the author a single peg, or two pegs, as the case may be; the review which is suddenly to make an author, and the review which is to crush him. . . . Of all reviews, the crushing review is the most popular, as being the most readable. When the rumour goes abroad that some notable man has been actually crushed -- been positively driven over by an entire Juggernaut's car of criticism till his literary body be a mere amorphous mass -- then a real success has been achieved, . . .

The Way We Live Now (1874-75), Chapter XI