'Hopkins' Achieved Self' will attract the attention of specialist students and scholars, be they in fields of theology, religious literature or linguistic philosophy.

- Tray E.A. Martin, Notes and Queries

I find particularly original and significant Prof. Downes' critique of the denigration of 'selving' in Modernism...I am also persuaded that applying Ricoeur to Hopkins in this context is original and that insufficient attention has been paid to Hopkins' philosophic exploration of 'selving.'

- Reviewer, Catholic University Press of America

The book is new and original...It joins the notions of selfness and selving that the Victorian Hopkins sketched in his poetry and prose with the thought of Ricoeur...This is a challenging study.

- Michael Allsopp, Christianity and Literature