Fascinating.

So far I'm only up to Leaves of Grass, but I'm struck by the prose style of the earlier reviewers. Even the most pompous and pedantic of today's book reviewers would never write like this:

But multitudinousness cannot make the spectacle of his morbidness any more acceptable. It cannot palliate the gross impropriety of which he is guilty, in publishing what is unfit for repetition; an impropriety doubled by the retention of this disgusting stuff in a new edition issued after many years, during which the author has had ample opportunity to free himself from his youthful crudities.

though whether this is an indication of the dumbing down of the audience or merely some restraint on the part of overeducated book reviewers is unclear.