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This collection of twenty-two previously published essays by John Keller, in honor of his seventieth birthday, was conceived as the second of two tributes to his long and illustrious career at the University of Kentucky. In many respects it complements the homage volume published by Juan de la Cuesta in 1980.

Few readers of Hispania need an introduction to the varied writings of John Keller. He is of course well known for his numerous critical editions and translations of medieval Spanish texts, his monographs on Gonzalo de Berceo and Alfonso X el Sabio (both in the Twayne World Author Series), a full-scale assessment of pious narrative in medieval Spanish and Galician, and an ambitious study of the relationship between iconography and narrative art in pious narrative, co-authored with Richard Kinkade, not to mention a long list of pioneering articles on brief narrative fiction.

The particular essays selected for this volume, which reflect the breadth of Keller's research on medieval Spanish brief narrative, betray a wide range of themes and approaches (see the bibliography in the aforementioned Festschrift for additional related studies). The editors have arranged the essays categorically rather than chronologically. Nos. 1-2 treat the role of folklore in the Hispanic world; nos. 3-6, various exempla texts; nos. 7-8, the pilgrimage rivalry between Santa María de Villa-Sirga and Santiago de Compostela in Alfonso's Cantigas; nos. 9-10, the popular appeal of cuaderna vía in medieval Spain and the enigma of Berceo's Milagro XXV, respectively; nos. 11-14, narrative techniques in the stories of don Juan Manuel; nos. 15-22, diverse topics related to the Cantigas.

The essays reflect both the earliest period of John Keller's research in this domain and his most recent contributions. Seven of the essays were originally published in the 1950's, another seven in the 80's. Several of the articles have been updated and additional comments incorporated in both the text and footnotes by either the author or the editors. Thus, the reader is often made aware of recent critical studies, new and forthcoming editions, original oversights, and the like.

The editors have noted that «John Keller's scholarship has always tended toward fundamental analyses of a given work» (p. ix). This observation justly characterizes most of the essays in the volume. In one, for example, the author describes the different types of white magic present in medieval exempla repositories. In another he studies the stylistic and conceptual differences between two extant mss of El libro de los engaños. Other essays examine the presence of folkloric motifs, the portrayal of daily life, the art of illumination, and the role of the Blessed Virgin as matchmaker in the Cantigas. While all of the essays betray a penchant for rigorous textual analysis, those on narrative technique in the Conde Lucanor stories are among the best in the volume. Not only do they provide an insightful look into the artistry of the tales, they lay some of the groundwork for timely analyses based on narratological and reader-response theories.

John S. Geary

University of Colorado, Boulder

Se recogen en este volumen, conmemoración del primer centenario del nacimiento de Américo Castro (1885-1972), veintidós de las ponencias leídas en dos simposios celebrados en octubre de 1985 en Syracuse University y en Princeton University. En la introducción, Edmund L. King da el tono a la obra con una breve pero enjundiosa semblanza biográfica de Américo Castro, que enmarca apropiadamente el contenido del libro. King muestra en ella afecto y profundo conocimiento del hombre y del intelectual.

Los editores han estructurado con mucho acierto los veintidós estudios en cinco secciones, que en sí mismas significan ya una proyección que nos transporta de la intimidad del intelectual en su trabajo a la repercusión que su obra tiene en las nuevas direcciones del hispanismo actual. En la primera, «Remembering Américo Castro» (39-70), se incluyen los ensayos de Julio Rodríguez Puértolas («Entre la memoria y la esperanza»), Robert Kirsner («Semblanza de Américo Castró»), Juan Negrín («Recuerdos inéditos sobre Don Américo y su medio ambiente») y Stephen Gilman («The Last "Don Quijote" of Don Américo»).

La segunda sección, «Américo Castro at Work» (73-113), recoge tres de los estudios más sólidos del libro: Samuel G. Armistead («Américo Castro in Morocco: The Origins of a Theory?»), Joseph H. Silverman («Américo Castro and the Secret Spanish Civil War») y Rafael Lapesa («La huella de Américo Castro en los estudios de lingüística española»).

Los estudios que se agrupan en la tercera sección, «Américo Castro and Historiography» (117-159), intentan una aproximación a los presupuestos teóricos que fundamentan la tesis historiográfica de Castro: Edmund L. King («The Problem of Determinism in Américo Castro's Historiography»), Francisco Márquez Villanueva («Américo Castro y la historia»), John Beverley («Class or Caste: A Critique of the Castro Thesis») y Aniano Peña («Américo Castro en la polémica de la ciencia»). Si exceptuamos el ensayo de Peña, que por su contenido no encuadra en esta sección, los otros tres estudios muestran implícitamente por qué las teorías de Castro no han conseguido la repercusión que merecen. Sucede con Castro algo semejante a lo que le aconteció a Ortega con los «orteguianos». Se pretende tener una interpretación ortodoxa del pensamiento de Castro, mientras se ignoran o silencian aquellos trabajos que dialogan con su obra. La polémica que surgió en torno a las tesis de Castro fue una etapa quizás necesaria, pero que en cualquier caso pertenece al pasado, y no se puede ya seguir afamando, como lo hace King al tratar de la «morada vital» y la «vividura», que «the arguments to the contrary make no effort to meet Castro on the serious level of the theory of history» (118), y al mismo tiempo silenciar todo lo que hasta la fecha se ha escrito al particular:

En la cuarta sección, «Cristianos, moros y judíos» (163-200), se incluyen cuatro estudios que representan otras tantas calas en aspectos ya enunciados por Castro, pero que él no llegó a desarrollar: Adriana Lewis Galanes («Fray Luis de Granada y los anuzim novohispanos a fines del siglo XVI»), A. A. Sicroff («The Arragel Bible»), María Rosa Menocal («And How "Western" was the Rest of Medieval Europe?») y Vicente Cantarino («Américo Castro: Un aspecto olvidado de la polémica»). El ensayo de Menocal es un profundo e incitante análisis que nos proyecta a nuevas perspectivas llamadas a tener gran repercusión en el actual replanteo del concepto de lo «europeo». Destaca Menocal la riqueza de la obra de Castro y la necesidad de superar el nivel polémico y de acercarnos a ella como a la de un clásico. Esto es, precisamente, lo que se consigue en la quinta sección. Se incluyen en ella siete estudios: Ángel L. Cilveti («Américo Castro y Santa Teresa»), Mary Gaylord Randel («Américo Castro y el lenguaje de los estudios literarios»), Helen H. Reed («Américo Castro, Cervantes, y la picaresca»), Daniel P. Testa («El Guzmán de Alfarache como modelo y anti-modelo del Quijote»), Alix Zuckerman-Ingber (A «Most Ingenious Paradox Castro and the Comedia»), Manuel Durán («Américo Castro and the Contemporary Spanish Novel») y Joaquín Rodríguez Suro («La huella de Américo Castro en Terra Nostra»). Se parte en la mayoría de estos últimos trabajos de una asimilación de la obra de Castro. Se trata de una nueva generación que lo asume -para ella la obra de Castro no es ya algo problemático- y así lo supera en un nuevo replanteamiento donde las ideas de Castro encajan en la perspectiva de la historia de nuestras ideas.

Américo Castro: The Impact of His Thought es más que una colección de estudios; representa ante todo una dinámica visión de Américo Castro, el hombre y su obra, y una apertura a la problemática que enfrenta el hispanismo actual. Complementa el volumen una excelente bibliografía anotada de las obras de Castro, preparada por Albert Brent y Robert Kirsner.

Jose Luis Gómez-Martínez

The University of Georgia

In A Patron and a Playwright in Renaissance Spain, Ann Wiltrout approaches her text as logically dividing into three separate but closely connected subject matters. The first is the life and work of the sixteenth-century Spanish playwright, Diego Sánchez de Badajoz, the second is the nature of his patrons, and the third, the intricate interrelationship of patron and playwright. As such, the book is tripartite in structure: Chapters 1 and 2 are devoted to a history of the patrons (House of Feria), chapters 3-5 to a study of the playwright's life and work in general, and chapters 6-8 to a discussion of specific performances of individual plays and the roles of the patrons in each, that is, to establishing the importance of one for the other. A chapter (9) on dating and chronology concludes the work.

Wiltrout's analysis of the playwright's work (twenty-eight farsas, twenty-five of them religious) emphasizes the role of the shepherd as fundamental in all of them, and in the later farsas, the introduction of Christian allegorical elements. In her opinion, the shepherd is not well integrated into the later plays because within their allegorical framework he loses that very flexibility which makes him so intriguing as a dramatic character. Her presentation of the nobles from the House of Feria stresses their interest in supporting religious works especially and by doing so in maintaining the status quo and preserving medieval tradition.

This book is fascinating for its wealth of detail regarding the times, the inner workings of the House of Feria and the specific characteristics and productions of the playwright's works. Its approach is mainly biographical, historical and sociological, which is absolutely appropriate for the subject matter

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and the focus given it. Thoroughly researched and documented, carefully prepared and organized, Wiltrout's book helps to establish the real significance of a playwright like Diego Sánchez and his work (considered a forerunner of the auto sacramental), in addition to the importance of his patrons, without whose nobility and generosity he could not have flourished.

Beyond providing extensive factual information, Wiltrout's work is important for the larger questions it explores, such as the relationship between playwright and patron and that between character and audience. The chapters that treat these topics are of special interest. From a historical and sociological point of view, the patron-playwright association is a crucial one, and it is researched and presented here as one of mutual benefit for the parties involved, who through it worked to achieve a common goal: the preservation of a conservative, religious sixteenth-century feudal ambience.

Of even greater interest in terms of literary theory is the discussion of Diego Sánchez's dramaturgy in general, and especially that of the nature and ever-changing, constantly ambiguous role of its primary character, the shepherd. Chapter 4 is noteworthy in this respect for it examines at length the function of the shepherd vis-a-vis the play, the audience, and the religious idea under consideration, all in relation to the concept of aesthetic distance. According to Wiltrout and as supported by her examples, the shepherd becomes less successful as an artistic creation when utilized in the service of allegorical doctrine, as occurs in the later plays.

From various perspectives then, this book achieves much more than what is explicitly stated in the title. It presents a fascinating portrait of the times, a background against which the playwright, his work and his patrons can be set. It offers a very vivid and detailed description and analysis of one man's life and work; it explores the nature of and reasons for the very intimate relationship between playwright and patron in a particular time period; and, it enters into a sophisticated theoretical discussion of the notion of aesthetic distance based on the shepherd's protean role within the playwright's different works. This book is to be highly recommended as a text vital to the historical, sociological and literary study of early sixteenth century Spanish drama. Above all, it is captivating reading.

Anne M. Pasero

Marquette University

In this collection of essays, Bruno Damiani focuses on six prose works of the Spanish Golden Age in order to underline their didactic elements. This concern for «moralidad y didactismo» could be seen by some as critically anachronistic in a post-modernist era where dissemination, subversion and other notions serve to undermine traditional approaches. But Damiani links his didactic concerns to the belief that in Spain, Christian elements overshadowed many of the central conceptions of the Renaissance. In arguing for the continuation of the Middle Ages during the Renaissance, this volume actually mirrors what Umberto Eco labels as a new trend, the renewed interest in the Middle Ages which he has noticed both in America and in Europe. In Travels in Hiperreality, Eco also claims that, immediately after the official ending of the Middle Ages, European literatures began reflecting a nostalgia for the past epoch. Cervantes figures prominently among Eco's examples and Damiani includes an essay on charity in Don Quijote, arguing that: «La caridad es la cualidad moral que más resplandece en don Quijote. Es asimismo la virtud que le califica sobremanera para ser llamado caballero según los requisitos que se exigían a quien deseara honrar la caballería, según textos antiguos como el Livre de Cavallería y el Amadís de Gaula» (133) .

Charity plays a central role in four of the six essays included in this volume. According to Damiani, it is the central virtue in Montemayor's La Diana, although this pastoral novel also foregrounds prudence, faith, justice and moderation. Charity also appears in Cárcel de amor under the form of pietas (17), the pity that Laureola feels for Leriano. Here, Damiani could have delved more deeply into why he labels Laureola's emotion as pity and not love. Finally, charity is perceived as «la plenitud de la piedad de Dios hacia todos los penitentes» (123) in Malón de Chaide's La conversión de la Magdalena. Indeed, charity could well have been an organizing element in this volume. This and other elements could have been woven together to present a more cohesive text. Lack of editorial care is also evident in the fact that the beginning of the first chapter repeats much of what is said in the introduction.

Although Damiani stresses Christian morality and didacticism, he also interweaves a number of concepts and images from classical literature. For example, when he stresses the Christian ideals that pervade San Pedro's Cárcel de amor, he is careful to balance his approach by studying «ciertos ideales cristianos tales como la humildad y la compasión, dentro de un marco humanístico de contexto caballeresco» (13). In fact, many of his essays are permeated with classical erudition and clearly evince a strong concern with the classical tradition in sixteenth century Spain, although the pagan «mysteries» are used to reinforce Christian beliefs. Even in his discussion of paradisiacal images in Cervantes's La Galatea, Damiani interweaves Ovid and the Apocalypsis, the muses and the saints. In some texts the didactic element emerges through the

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presentation of vices rather than virtues, but even here the classical tradition is prominent. La lozana andaluza, Damiani claims, is modeled after Juvenal's satires and Aristophanes's comedies. Here Delicado depicts the amorality of Rome where «el egoísmo, la deshonestidad, la soberbia y la vanidad son normas de conducta para todos» (46), and where the search for sensual pleasures leads to disaster.

In conclusion, this collection brings together five previously published essays along with a piece on La Galatea in order to foreground the role of Christian morality and didacticism in Spanish Renaissance texts. In this way, Damiani seeks to defend Vossler's dictum that Spain was «la maestra moral de Europa». Scholars interested in the prose of the Spanish Golden Age should be grateful to Damiani for malting these thought-provoking pieces accessible in a single volume.

Frederick A. de Armas

Pennsylvania State University

Although John Weiger is not a Derridean deconstructionist, his monograph In the Margins of Cervantes focuses -as does Derrida's Marges de la philosophie- on analogies, passages, notes, and other marginalia that have been overlooked unjustly, and he shows that such materials are not of marginal consequence by any means. To this exercise, Weiger brings his vast experience as a close reader of Cervantine works and his familiarity with Cervantes criticism, especially that of the last two decades. While devoting most of his attention to Don Quixote, Weiger expands the limits of the masterpiece, making numerous references to other Cervantine works, engaging his readers in the intertextual process of reading, and demonstrating to them that the reader is an essential component of the production of meaning in spite of and because of the instability of the text.

Weiger presents in «Prologues and Prologuists» his most complex essay, one to which he will refer repeatedly as he draws together a collage of Cervantine marginalia throughout the remainder of the study. Weiger underscores the significance of the marginal notation extraneous to the historian Cide Hamete's text (I, 9) in which Dulcinea del Toboso is described as having the best hand for salting pork in La Mancha. He shows that this note calls into question the historian's ability to authenticate his «true history». Moreover, the marginal comment -made by a reader of Don Quixote- draws attention to the problem of authorial identity and to the interaction of multiple authorial voices with the readers within and without the text. Weiger cogently observes that the «author» of the marginal note functions on the same level and with the same methodology as does the authorial voice of the 1605 prologuist for part I. Denying that the prologuist is Cervantes himself, Weiger points out that it is the prologuist's friend who first says that Don Quixote is a funny and parodic book. Cervantes, on the other hand, remains hidden and allows his authorial voices to confront the reader with the unstable writing of history and fiction in the text. Weiger contrasts earlier and later Cervantine prologues with that of 1605 to demonstrate Cervantes's particular concerns with history, fiction, authoring, and reading just after he had written Don Quixote I.

In «Inimical Friends», observations on Cervantes's own preoccupations about a supposed lack of friends are intertwined with comments about fictional friends who are readers and writers in Cervantine texts. A related theme is treated in «Failed Readers and Failed Writers» where Cervantes's sensitivity to the risks of publishing his works is discussed in the contexts of several Cervantine characters as writers and readers. On such character, Don Diego de Miranda, is considered to be an anti-reader of histories and devotional works. Curiously, in Miranda's case Weiger equates history with a lack of invention, and -contrary to the use of «history» elsewhere in the monograph- he does not account for the uses of fiction in historical writing.

As Weiger points out in «Don Quixote's Alienation from his Book», the protagonist is a non-reader of the actual material book about himself, but most of his actions in part II are reactions to his «reading» of other readers' readings of part I. Weiger also observes that the writing experience is often dreamlike for Don Quixote and other Cervantine authorial figures who attempt to stimulate the mind of the reader. He creates a unique quantifying system to show how the reader is drawn into the writing process by the delayed naming of characters. Contrasting with other contemporary critics, Weiger denies in «Closure» that Cervantes gains more authorial control in his later works. Weiger returns to the prologuist of Don Quixote and concludes that rather than being metafiction -a novel about novel writing- it is a fiction about a history which is, of course, a fiction.

Weiger has called attention to overlooked aspects of Cervantes's texts, discussing them with regard to textual instability and the interrelated roles of writers and readers. In a study highlighting the act of reading, however, a model or models of what Weiger really means by «the reader» would have been beneficial. On most occasions the implied reader in Weiger's monograph seems to be a highly skilled one, perhaps a Cervantine critic like himself. While Weiger denies that a seventeenth-century reader could produce the sort of reading that he does of Don Quixote, he implies that a seventeenth-century writer and reader -Cervantes himself- could read like a twentieth-century critic. In addition, Weiger sometimes notes

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that many of the «readers» in the texts he discusses are really listeners. As a whole, however, there is no account in his study of the profound differences between listening and reading or between speaking and writing. These remarks are not meant to detract from Weiger's enlightening monograph. Such matters remain to be revealed in future Cervantine criticism, and Weiger's In the Margins of Cervantes will be one of the critical works on which such approaches can be based.

Catherine Swietlicki

University of Wisconsin-Madison

N. D. Shergold y J. E. Varey con la colaboración de Charles Davis han publicado dentro de la colección de Fuentes para la historia del teatro en España este nuevo volumen sobre los arriendos de los corrales de comedias de Madrid. El estudio cubre el período que transcurre entre 1587 y 1719, es decir; unos ciento treinta y dos años en que se examina la importancia económica que tuvieron de acuerdo con su actividad y el engranaje administrativo por el que se rigieron. El libro consta, en primer lugar, de un prefacio explicativo de la labor realizada en el que se detallan pormenores sobre los documentos consultados así como diversos aspectos de algunas otras publicaciones sobre el tema. En segundo término aparece una tabla de referencias que da paso a las tres partes básicas en que está dividido el trabajo.

La primera es una extensa introducción en que se discute el desarrollo que los arrendamientos fueron sufriendo hasta su desaparición en 1719 que coincidió con los cambios que produjo la guerra de Sucesión y la consecuente llegada de la nueva familia reinante. Estos hechos y las modas y maneras de hacer que se introdujeron en España, unido a la grave crisis económica de aquellos años y la mala conservación de los edificios, fueron las causas que acabaron con el sistema que había prevalecido hasta esa fecha.

La segunda parte consta de cuarenta y seis documentos de arriendo no sólo sobre los locales sino también sobre la venta de fruta y agua y otros servicios. A ellos se añaden otros sobre las representaciones de los autos sacramentales por volatines y títeres. Se termina con un apartado consistente en un cuadro que constituye un catálogo de arrendadores, fiadores y precios para terminar con un índice general.

El trabajo de Varey y Shergold es, sin duda, valioso para el estudio de la historia del teatro en su momento de mayor apogeo. Nos ofrece un ángulo que por ser poco popularizado es interesante para adentrarse en toda la tramoya de la actividad teatral de la época y conocer su organización interior.

Cuando se habla o se lee sobre el teatro del Siglo de Oro generalmente no se penetra detrás del andamiaje escénico que, sin embargo, es lo que hace posible la representación. La figura del Comisario, encargado de los libros de Manual y Caja, y del Mayordomo, su agente, son cargos que tuvieron un importante significado cuando las Cofradías de la Sagrada Pasión de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo y la de la Soledad de Nuestra Señora adquirieron el local de la Calle de la Cruz en 1579 y en 1582 el de la Calle del Príncipe. Este sistema de explotación sufrió cambios cuando se publicaron los Reglamentos de teatros que reformaron su administración debido a un apogeo extraordinario de la vida teatral que surgió al mismo tiempo que un crecimiento importante de la misma ciudad de Madrid. Hacia 1635 cuando las Cofradías cedieron la administración de los Corrales al Ayuntamiento, el arrendador se convirtió en empresario y adquirió un nuevo papel en el desarrollo de la labor teatral.

En definitiva, se trata de un libro que no sólo al especialista sino a todo curioso del teatro le interesará conocer por su contenido, la información que encierra y los detalles reveladores sobre lo que era el teatro en ese tiempo. Desde el principio se nota la detallada investigación y esfuerzo que los autores han realzado así como la meticulosidad que han puesto en ella, lo que hace que el volumen sea atractivo desde cualquier punto de vista.

Enrique Ruiz-Fornells

University of Alabama

About 345 years after Quevedo's death, the three recent publications reviewed here attest to the enduring value of one of Spain's greatest writers.

Lía Schwartz Lerner's book is a collection of ten studies, six of which have been previously published in journal articles and the remaining four were written for this book. It is divided into three sections of studies: l) Quevedo's well-known satirical style, which encompasses word play, «dialectos sociales y poética barroca», proverbial discourse dealing with madness, and metaphor and ideology regarding the loss of justice in 17th-century society; 2) intertextuality in baroque texts, by which she means the relationship between many of his own texts and those of such classical writers as Martial and Juvenal, and how he manages the commonplace imitatio with respect to «imitación de objetos e imitación de modelos artísticos» (191); and 3) a section entitled «Representaciones» which deals with the comparison of Quevedo's literary

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portraits with those of Theophrastus, and Quevedo's adaptation of the traditional cultural sign of la barba as the equivalent of wisdom.

Schwartz Lerner knows a lot about the many classical writers she uses and is well conversant with Quevedo's prose and poetry and many of the scholarly studies on this author. The studies in her book appropriately focus on Quevedo's style, which is probably the most creative and significant aspect of the corpus of his works. She contributes many useful examples to demonstrate Quevedo's stylistic virtuosity and his linkage with writers of the past, thus amplifying much of what Quevedo specialists already have seen in his writings.

This reviewer, however, feels obliged to point out several reservations. The author displays her erudition in adducing Quevedo's indebtedness to writers of classical antiquity but it is very difficult if not impossible to ascribe his stylistic technique directly to certain specific writers. We recall that it was customary for many writers of the Golden Age to cite numerous classical writers in order to lend more authority to their own writings, but much of their «classical» knowledge was in the public domain Consider, for example, the author's fourth chapter in which she provides many examples of Quevedo's complaint about the absence of justice in his day. She states that Cervantes, in the episode of the galley slaves, «prefigures» Quevedo's ideas on justice. Not only did Quevedo and Cervantes write some of their best works during the same fifteen years, but, in addition, the lament over the loss of justice and a yearning for a paradise regained, which have been with us since the time of ancient Greece, was commonly found in Spanish Golden Age literature (see Frederick A. de Armas' The Return of Astraea, Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1986, 1-58). Cervantes, Quevedo and Gracián, among others, wrote about a return to a just society.

It would have been helpful to include a bibliography at the end of the book. A vast amount of bibliography and explanations appears only in footnotes and the reader may wonder whether all this is necessary. In Chapter 3, which relates to proverbial discourse on madness, it is surprising that about one third of the space is devoted to Quevedo and the remainder to Erasmus, Cervantes, Gracián and other authors. Finally, a reader usually expects a conclusion which would lend cohesion to the author's studies.

Alva V. Ebersole's edition of Quevedo's Sentencias filosóficas is the third in a series of Clásicos Albatros, making accessible Spanish classical works of literature. The work of Quevedo was first published by Aguilar in 1932, and apparently no other edition of it has appeared until now. The book provides interesting insights into Quevedo's thought as he neared the end of his hectic life. Ebersole furnishes a chronology, an introduction on Quevedo and his style, a useful list of literary terms and a bibliography. This edition, as others in the series, is typographically attractive.

James Iffland's edition of El buscón is a first-rate piece of scholarship intended for serious students of this exemplary picaresque novel. The text that he has reproduced is Fernando Lázaro Carreter's critical edition published in 1965. The princeps of 1626 was not chosen since Roberto Duport published it without Quevedo's permission. In his widely accepted critical edition, Lázaro tried to establish the second, revised version of El buscón as the most reliable one since he believed that the author personally made changes. He admits that it is impossible to prove Quevedo's intervention but conjectures that any reader familiar with his style could not fail to notice that Quevedo was responsible for the alterations.

Iffland's useful introduction to his edition provides a synthesis of several issues on which critics have taken divergent stands. The essential issue seems to be «the degree to which he [Pablos de Segovia] coheres as a character and as the narrator of his own life» (viii-ix). If they do not agree on Pablos' characterization, they generally concur that all other characters are stereotypical. Critics also have differing views regarding the novel's structural unity. A hotly debated question is whether the work has a moral intent. Another point of contention revolves about the nature of the novel's social or ideological message. Iffland generally does not side with one faction or another since he believes that his function is mainly to point out to readers the contrasting perspectives of those critics who have wrestled with the issues. The Introduction is replete with valuable notes and bibliography and Iffland also includes a brief supplementary bibliography.

The edition itself contains a plethora of footnotes that translate and explain difficult words and phrases and his historical and cultural notes are illuminating. This meticulously crafted book is highly recommended.

Donald W. Bleznick

University of Cincinnati

This work, also published as volume 15 of the series Textos y Estudios del Siglo XVIII by the Centro de Estudios del Siglo XVIII of the University of Oviedo, is an impressive analysis of Meléndez Valdés's poetry. It utilizes data provided by the equally significant critical edition of Meléndez Valdés's poetry prepared by Polt and J. Demerson (Oviedo: Cátedra Feijoo-Centro de Estudios del Siglo XVIII, 1981-83) and serves as a companion piece to the earlier two-volume work.

Fortunately for the author, Meléndez Valdés left abundant material for a thorough analysis of his poetic style. The various manuscripts and editions

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allowed Polt to establish approximate dates of composition and, therefore, to follow the trajectory of the poet's creative process through his many corrections.

While one might expect that this work includes all of Meléndez Valdés's production, Polt chose to limit his study in order not to extend his work excessively and for reasons of time. This decision explains why he has called his work studies rather than a study of Batilo's poetry. Polt examines anacreontic poems including those of La paloma de Filis, the romances, and the early odes. He focused on the early poems because Meléndez revised them often and they, therefore, better demonstrate his changing poetic sensibility and his creative process. While the primary interest is in stylistic details, Polt also treats themes and sources in order to reach a better understanding of how Meléndez worked and the poetic path which he followed.

In the longest and perhaps the most impressive chapter, Polt studies the anacreontic tradition, choice of vocabulary, syntax, rhyme, rhythm, rhetorical figures, tropes, motifs, themes, narrative voice and the addressee. His careful evaluation of the rhythmical patterns of the anacreontic odes is especially praiseworthy. He shows that rhythm, whether conscious or not on the part of the poet, is a particularly important element in these poems, and that the greater utilization of dactylic rhythm is on e of several manifestations of the poet's tendency to become more classical.

Polt carefully analyzes selected poems from the anacreontic odes. Ode XXXIII, for example, probably written before 1775, appeared in seven different versions but still consisted of twenty-four verses. In the 1820 edition, however, forty additional verses were included. Polt's detailed history of the changes which occur in this poem and his highly rewarding evaluation of the effect that these emendations have on the poem give the reader much insight into Meléndez Valdés's esthetic values. Polt argues that the 1820 version of the poem became more explicitly «clásico en sus motivos y su lenguaje» (36). This tendency which Polt finds in the poetry of Meléndez Valdés as a whole is contrary to the traditional view of him as a poet who moved toward a more romantic world view as his career progressed.

Each of the four chapters is devoted to a different group of poems but all follow the general pattern of Chapter 1 with appropriate emphasis on certain aspects of the creative process. Rhythm is granted more attention in the opening chapter than in those that follow, and Chapter 4 provides much information on the Renaissance and classical sources of the early odes studied in that chapter. The later odes, primarily those with a philosophical and religious theme, are not neglected. Polt considers the well-known recommendation of Jovellanos to write on more serious topics than those of the anacreontic poems. While Meléndez continued to write anacreontic verses, Polt shows that the poet tended to eliminate or temper erotic elements in his later works. Apparently his friend's advice, his readings of contemporary foreign authors, and the death of his brother motivated Meléndez to reconsider the ode as a form. He succeeded in purifying its language while elevating and renovating its themes. Polt observes that the new direction can also be seen in the romances and the anacreontic poems, although the change is more decisive in the odes.

This work is clearly a valuable contribution to eighteenth-century studies, and merits its simultaneous publication in this country and in Spain. We now have a much better understanding of the poet's creative process.

Edward V. Coughlin

University of Cincinnati

In their study of the life and works of Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa (1787-1862), a man of letters who bridged two epochs in Spanish history and literature, the Mayberrys follow the familiar format of the Twayne Spanish Literature series, edited by Janet Pérez. As is the case of many other Spanish writers, it serves well as the only available book-length study in English of an author known to few readers who are not Hispanists.

Martínez de la Rosa was one of the most distinguished public figures of his generation. Born in Granada in 1787, the next to the last year of the reign of Carlos III, he grew up in the Spain of Carlos IV, María Luisa de Parma, and their favorite Manuel Godoy. He was twenty-one in 1808, the year that Napoleon's troops invaded the Peninsula and brought an end to the ancien régime in Spain. He wrote patriotic articles against the French, undertook political missions to England, and was elected to the Cortes of Cádiz. Under the repressive regime of Fernando VII, he suffered imprisonment in north Africa but was released in time to participate in political life during the constitutional triennium of 1820-1823, becoming prime minister briefly in 1822 . With the restoration of Fernando as an absolute monarch, Martínez again went into exile. After the «ominous decade», he returned to Spain, became prime minister in 1834-1835, and wrote the Estatuto Real, which was in effect a new constitution. In the years that followed, he became the elder statesman of Spanish politics and letters: president of the Ateneo, director of the Royal Spanish Academy, foreign minister, ambassador to France and to Italy, president of the Lower Chamber of Deputies.

Martínez de la Rosa was a moderate in an age when extremism was the rule, but his was a noble life. The Mayberrys quote an assessment of Martínez by the British diplomat Lord Clarendon, who

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thought him a «just, benevolent and honorable man» (13); but Clarendon, irritated evidently by Martínez the politician, goes on to say: «with that unerring sign of a little mind, he seeks to surround himself with men miserably inferior to himself, who feed his vanity» (13). Was Martínez a moderate in politics and an eclectic in literature as he is so often portrayed? Or was he perhaps a mediocrity in both as Clarendon's assessment suggests?

The Mayberrys treatment of his oeuvre will not answer the question. True to the requirements of the Twayne books, they deal evenhandedly with the whole of Martínez's works ranging from El cementerio de Momo, a youthful collection of satiric epitaphs, to his monumental historical work El espíritu del siglo in ten volumes. Martínez de la Rosa, it appears, will continue to be known best for his historical dramas, the most important of which are La conjuración de Venecia and Aben-Humeya, and for his essay, «Apuntes sobre el drama histórico». Yet a reading of the Mayberrys' book suggests ideas whose pursuit might lead to a revision of Martínez's place in the intellectual history of Spain. For example, his initial comedy, Lo que puede un empleo, was first played in Cádiz in 1812 while the French were besieging the city. It is said that a bomb narrowly missed the theater during a performance but that the absorbed audience remained to see it through. Martínez wrote that his object was «to present in the theater a certain kind of political hypocrite who, under cover of religion, opposes beneficial reforms» (67). What we have is an anti-clerical statement that extols freedom of the press and the new constitution that was being written in Cádiz. Studies that are able to exploit the linkage between Martínez the historian, politician, and creative writer, and the age in which he lived and wrote, would seem to offer a fruitful direction for a reassessment of one of the most attractive figures of the age.

John Dowling

University of Georgia

En el Prólogo a este reciente libro comenta su autor sobre la creciente importancia filosófica y literaria de Miguel de Unamuno en las cinco décadas pasadas desde su muerte. Observa también cómo la crítica -centrada durante años en su obra ensayística y filosófica- se ha desplazado, en los últimos tiempos, hacia su labor como novelista, dando lugar a una enorme cantidad de estudios que «hacen hincapié en temas y elementos biográficos» (9) Menos atención, sin embargo, han recibido los aspectos estrictamente literarios, circunstancia que aduce Nicholas para justificar esta nueva contribución a la ya ingente bibliografía unamuniana. Su libro aspira, pues, a llenar lo que estima como un cierto vacío crítico con «un estudio de síntesis sobre el desarrollo artístico de las novelas de Unamuno» (10).

El estudio se divide en cuatro capítulos que se titulan: 1) El personaje de ficción (Amor y pedagogía, Niebla); 2) El personaje como narrador (Abel Sánchez, Tulio Montalbán y Julio Macedo); 3) El personaje-símbolo y el símbolo- personaje (Tres novelas ejemplares y un prólogo, La tía Tula); 4) La ficción del personaje (Teresa, Cómo se hace una novela, San Manuel Bueno, mártir, La novela de don Sandalio, jugador de ajedrez). En el análisis de cada novela, Nicholas se encamina a destacar las técnicas narrativas de Unamuno, las que considera como el resultado de la visión existencial del escritor. De este modo revela la inseparable fusión de forma y fondo en un creador con «un dominio absoluto del arte de novelar» y que «escribió novelas de gran unidad artística» (129). Precisamente lo que da unidad a este estudio parece ser la tesis central del vínculo entrañable entre literatura y vida en Unamuno, relación que Nicholas examina no tanto como tema o motivo filosófico, sino como consecuencia de los recursos formales empleados en la estructuración y composición de las novelas.

Aplicando un método, según él mismo afirma, de «dentro afuera» y «sin aplicar a priori ninguna preceptiva» (136), el autor de Unamuno, narrador se ha concentrado en el análisis de los complejos juegos de la escritura y la lectura (múltiples perspectivas y variados niveles narrativos) que ponen de manifiesto la dialéctica de personaje-narrador-autor-lector. Pero, a pesar de su insistencia en los aspectos formales, su análisis conduce a cada paso al sentido existencial de la literatura en Unamuno. Es aquí donde el libro de Nicholas deja la impresión de lo reiterado, escollo difícil de salvar a estas alturas de la crítica unamuniana. No poco de lo que Nicholas dice sobre el pensamiento de Unamuno, e incluso de algunos de sus recursos formales, ya se ha dicho; por lo cual resurgen conceptos tópicos de la crítica, tales como «espejismo narrativo», desdoblamientos, la dialéctica de saber/ser, de ser/no ser. Terminamos la lectura no con una interpretación radicalmente nueva del novelista, sino más bien con la imagen generalizada por la crítica precedente: un Unamuno existencial que se busca a sí mismo en la creación novelística.

Con lo dicho no se pretende, de modo alguno, quitar méritos a un trabajo que en muchos aspectos es excelente: serio, riguroso, bien organizado y con abundantes juicios agudos sobre el quehacer literario de Unamuno. Trátase, simplemente, de limitar las expectativas en cuanto a «novedad» se refiere. Sí quisiera además señalar que, en mi opinión, sobran los esquemas argumentales de novelas tan leídas y comentadas por los expertos.

Por otra parte, debe elogiarse la claridad expositiva del autor, su manera diáfana y precisa de expresar sus ideas sin necesidad de recurrir al excesivo uso de terminología técnica que caracteriza a una parte de la crítica contemporánea. Como visión de conjunto, que atiende a la intrincada unidad

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de sentido y forma en la novela, este libro ofrece una buena introducción a esa faceta de la labor creadora del genial escritor vasco.

Gemma Roberts

University of Miami

Wilcox's book is an analysis of five poetic texts dealing with images of selfhood during three periods (approximately 1900-1913, 1914-1936, and 1936-1956). He gives for each text modern (Anglo and American Formalist, European structuralist), post modern (semiotic, psychoanalytic, deconstructionist), and specialist (traditional academic) readings. The first period, the pre-Modern, is dominated by «lunar aestheticism». The second period is the Modern, the period of «solar aestheticism». Wilcox characterizes the final period, the post-Modern, as «an aesthetic for twilight». The author sustains that during these periods Jiménez's Obra reveals «a struggle between two actants» (xi), the «bright» Dr. Jekyll and the «dark» Mr. Hyde.

After explaining his three reading strategies and introducing his thesis in the first chapter, Wilcox devotes the following two chapters to a study of the pre-Modern phase of lunar aestheticism. Chapter 2 presents a most interesting analysis of the poem «¿Soy yo quien anda esta noche?» from Jardines lejanos (1904). For Wilcox, the poem is an «actantial drama» in which the «bright» Dr. Jekyll -«an innocent pantheist» who will evolve into a Modern poet- struggles with a «dark» Mr. Hyde, tormented by a post-Modern «condition of différance» (51). Chapter 3 studies various manifestations of Mr. Hyde's domination of the first (pre-Modern) phase of the Jiménez Obra. Among these manifestations are such polysemic lexemes as «sol», «luna», «perro», «pájaro agorero», «cuervo», «corneja», «sapo», «troncos», «hombre enlutado», «sombra», «fantasma», and «mendigo». These negative lexemes, which Wilcox describes as a sub-text, are «signs of an inner darkness of an other which the poet could never confront» (75).

The two chapters which follow analyze the Modern phase of affirmative solar aestheticism. Chapter 4 concerns itself primarily with the poem «Golfo» from Diario de un poeta recién casado (1917). Wilcox states that this poem can be read as «a poet's reflections of his changing aesthetic» (106) Jiménez's awareness of being imprisoned in a «gulf», between «the secure and the same» and the «nebulous, indeterminate, unknown» (107). Chapter 5 explicates the «contorted sonnet» (127) «Yo y yo» (Piedra y cielo, 1919), which vibrantly affirms selfhood until its presentation of self as image in the «dark», deconstructive closure.

The two concluding chapters study Jiménez's post-Modern phase, which the author describes as an «aesthetic for twilight» (129). Chapter 6 analyzes the lengthy prose-poem «Espacio», composed of three «fragments» and dated 1941-1942-1954. This work constitutes a synthesis of both positive and negative elements, «manic highs of ecstasy and extreme lows of despair» (153). Chapter 7 presents Wilcox's «fictionalized reconciliation of the [Jiménez] Obra» (155); here he recapitulates his view that the exalted idealism shown in the Modern phase of the Obra changes to an «awareness of the process of anti-idealization» (160), which is developed in the «contradictory impulses (terrestrial and celestial)» (167) of the final post-Modern phase. A brief «Postscript» summarizes Wilcox's concept of the Jiménez Obra as composed of successive movements which reveal Juan Ramón's poetic persona as that of an «engulfer» whose writings present to the reader a complex blending of «bright» and «dark» personae.

Wilcox's study is a significant contribution to Jiménez scholarship, as well as an interesting experiment in the incorporation of different reading strategies. The detailed analyses of individual poems may well constitute the most valuable portions of the work; one could even wish for a greater number of such analyses, which would also serve the purpose of strengthening further the author's central thesis. One small objection the terms «Dr. Jekyll» and «Mr. Hyde» are perhaps too strong to characterize the conflicting personae revealed in the Jiménez Obra; Juan Ramón lived a long life, and it is only natural that there would be changes in images of selfhood during more than half a century of intense poetic activity.

The book, with its dustcover reproduction of the 1903 Sorolla portrait of Jiménez, is attractive and contains few typographical errors. A list of Works Cited and an Index follow a section of Notes which also contains material of interest.

Carole A. Holdsworth

Loyola University of Chicago

La profesora Richmond está acostumbrando mal al lector. La obra que nos toca reseñar contiene no sólo la deseada reedición de una de las mejores novelas del vanguardismo hispánico en los años 20, sino el mejor y más completo estudio monográfico que sobre ella se ha publicado. El estudio ocupa 112 páginas. A lo que hay que añadir que no son raras las páginas del texto novelesco en las que la mitad está cubierta de notas aclaratorias. Ni es la primera vez que Richmond contribuye tan atinadamente a invalidar su propia afirmación de que Gómez de la Serna es uno de los escritores peor estudiados. Su anterior edición de La quinta de Palmyra (1982), contenía un estudio de 150 páginas como preludio a una novela de 154.

Richmond comienza por situar la novela camoniana en su contexto geográfico, histórico y literario, revisa la recepción de la obra desde el momento de su aparición, todo ello con datos de primera mano. Tras el examen de la «circunstancia», se adentra en el estudio del texto, revelando el «arte novelístico» de Ramón, que no es, como se nos solía decir hasta ahora, una mal ensartada cosecha de greguerías en torno a un tema o a un objeto, sino un auténtico experimento novelesco en el que se imbrican y trenzan diversos proyectos y recorridos narrativos. Como nos muestra Richmond, en esta novela hay una historia erótica de broncos perfiles y, a la vez, el drama de la evolución de un personaje que empieza asumiendo un rol de Pygmalión y acaba en desconcertado y voyeurista cocu magnifique. Voyeurismo previsible en un personaje cuya única obsesión, durante años, ha sido la contemplación maniática de la monumental estructura, hasta el extremo de considerarse y ser visto, entre burlas y veras, cronista oficial del Acueducto. De este asedio sensorial y sentimental, erudito y apasionado, brota la tercera rama en que se trenza el texto, constituida por las anotaciones que el personaje va inscribiendo en sus cuadernos monográficos. Notas que, por supuesto, pertenecen a la estirpe ramoniana de la greguería.

No es Ramón, por mucho que el cliché haya circulado, un escritor de superficie, deslumbrador e inauténtico. Esa batería de luces funciona en él, como en tantos otros tímidos grafómanos, a modo de máscara encubridora de unas graves y obsesionantes preocupaciones existenciales. Una de cuyas caras es la reiterada presencia de la muerte, que a través de las mallas, atraviesa la cota protectora, como lo pone acertadamente de relieve el estudio de Richmond (90-95) y que también nos revela su funcionamiento en par contrastivo con la obsesión de la inmortalidad -permanencia de los monumentos, perennidad de la naturaleza. El parentesco filial con Unamuno resulta sorprendente para quienes no conocían a Ramón más que de oídas y de antologías. El acueducto, en un gesto final de justicia literaria que sólo superficialmente puede tomarse como un juego fácil de palabras, es el convidado de piedra que con su peso de gravedad y de eternidad desequilibra y destruye la arquitectura mental del protagonista.

Esta excelente y cuidada edición se completa con una bibliografía necesaria y una documentación (plano de Segovia, reproducciones históricas del Acueducto, portada de la primera edición) que contribuye a situar perfectamente la lectura de esta novela indispensable para el conocimiento de lo que fue el género en los breves y liberados años de la vanguardia.

Ignacio Soldevila-Durante

Université Laval, Québec

Written by university professors from different countries, intellectual traditions and orientations, these ten studies both in Spanish and in English reflect their authors' individual interests as much as their assessments of Ramón Ruiz Salvador, who has studied the role of the «Ateneo», compares Ramón's sometimes erroneous recollections of his Ateneo involvement (in Automoribundia) with documented historical facts. Carolyn Richmond, who is concerned with establishing the dates when Ramón wrote and published El secreto del acueducto authenticates the dates, sources, and references in that work and establishes the precise times of Ramón's visits to Segovia. Soldevila-Durante posits an early, political and «marxist» period in Ramón's life, and theorizes that the disappearance of some of Ramón's early books and articles indicate the writer's efforts to eradicate the records of misguided youthful political involvements.

Contrarily, Victor Oiumette writes of Ramón's «resistance to socio-political and historical concerns» (45), stating that he isolated himself, «insofar as was possible, from history and its motor which is politics» (45). He attributes the basic egocentrism in Ramón's work partly to the writer's continuing desire to cultivate «unity between his fictional world and his persona» (49) and partly to his essentially subjective view of reality.

Morris's even more subjective study on Cinelandia criticizes its «distasteful allusions to Jews and Negroes» (153) and describes it as a work in which «gossip, guidebook, sermon and novel overlap» (153-154), «an indictment rather than a chronicle of Hollywood» (161), and compares it with scenes in Quevedo's Sueños! Morris considers Cinelandia «a work of austere moral attitudes directed against a cataclysmic social phenomenon» (169) -a claim hard to reconcile with the author's persona or his imaginative, fragmented and kaleidoscopic presentation of the Movieland ambience.

Alan Hoyle approaches El secreto del acueducto from a different perspective than Richmond's, seeing it as an extended metaphor which describes «a fundamental link between Don Pablo's libido and his interest in the aqueduct» (175). Hoyle perceives the aqueduct «both as a pure object of contemplation, and as an object of historical and philosophical meditation» (176-177). He notes Ramón's descriptions of it «under varying conditions of fight and weather... in mid-day heat... at night... beneath the autumn rains... in winter...» (183), and compares its changing images with Don Pablo's changing moods.

The mandatory study of Ramón's greguerías is provided by Manuel Durán, who claims that the greguerías had a strong influence on the generation of '27 (116) and backs this contention with minimal examples from Guillén, Lorca, Diego, Altolaguirre, Salinas and Alberti. César Nicolás, also writing on Ramón's imagery and style, makes an important

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observation when he notes the astonishing relationship between Ramón's verbal images and René Magritte's metonymic, surrealistic works of art. Nicolás contends that both, Ramón and Magritte, in their different genres, accomplished «La deshumanización del arte» advocated by Ortega.

«Oppositional criticism» (205) is intentionally provided by Anthony Percival's contribution on the Mujer de ámbar. After reminding the reader of Gómez de la Serna's reputation for playfulness and whimsy, Percival unexpectedly describes this novelas «steeped in obsession, violence and death» (205), reflecting the writer's «bleak vision of reality» (205)! Percival also criticizes Ramón's verbalism as excessive and self-indulgent.

Nigel Dennis's introductory study breaks some new ground in noting the extent to which Gómez de la Serna «functioned as a stimulus and example to other writers» (9) and pointing out the affinities «between the techniques of the greguería and certain images coined by major poets of the twenties» (9). He laments that the quantity, unevenness and «recycling» of Ramón's works together with his long absence from Spain have somewhat obscured his contributions to Spanish literature (17).

The volume contains an excellent bibliography providing an overview of the critical books, articles, and theses on Ramón published since his death in 1963 and listing the author's works in print.

The works in this collection are somewhat uneven in quality and content and overall, contain relatively few new insights. Nevertheless, their timely publication, marking the centenary of Ramón's birth, helps to rescue him from undeserved oblivion and encourage a needed reassessment of his influence on contemporary Spanish literature.

Rita Gardiol

Ball State University

El propósito de las editoras, expuesto en el prefacio del volumen, explica y justifica la orientación y las características de los ensayos incluidos. Su intención fue presentar «to the non-Hispanist the wide variety of talented playwrights offered by postwar Spain». El destinatario potencial es el no-especialista de habla inglesa, hecho que tiende a reducir la amplitud del interés que ha suscitado el teatro español contemporáneo en la crítica académica. El que todos los ensayos estén escritos en inglés es, por supuesto, válido y justificable. No lo es, sin embargo, el que la mayor parte de las referencias bibliográficas sean casi exclusivamente ensayos o libros escritos en inglés y que la bibliografía final (preparada por Wilma Newberry), sólo incluya materiales escritos en inglés y predominantemente publicados en Estados Unidos. Con esto silencia una buena y valiosa porción de la crítica.

De acuerdo con el objetivo propuesto, la colección cumple plenamente su propósito y lo hace con gran dignidad crítica: Los ensayos cubren la mayor parte de los dramaturgos españoles contemporáneos, se tocan temas significativos y se abren perspectivas que pueden interesar. Por otro lado, esta misma orientación puede dejar insatisfechos a los especialistas: las visiones son demasiado generales, hay mucho material que pertenece ya a manuales de literatura española, en cada ocasión que se habla de un autor, se lleva a cabo una presentación general del mismo, se cuentan los argumentos de las obras que citan y se refieren a la obra o la vida del autor. Este pie forzado del volumen se complementa con el interés y la originalidad de muchos de los temas elegidos. Las editoras asignaron varios temas realmente novedosos o no del todo explorados en la crítica anterior, algunos de gran relevancia y que merecerían estudios en mayor profundidad. La mención de algunos de ellos evidencia este aspecto, diría provocador, de los temas elegidos: «The Theatrical Gap between Sastre's Criticism and the Later Plays» (Felicia Hardison Londré), «Plays of Conscience and Consciousness: Psychological Drama in Contemporary Spain» (Phyllis Zatlin), «The Metatheatrical Impulse in Post-Civil War Spanish Comedy» (Marion Holt), «The Politics of History: Images of Spain on the Stage of the 1970s» (Martha Halsey), «Antonio Gala and the New Catholicism» (Robert Louis Sheenan), «Spain: A Recurring Theme in the Theatre of Fernando Arrabal» (Peter L. Podol), «Francisco Nieva: Spanish Representative of the Theater of the Marvellous» (Emil G. Singes), «Avant-garde Spanish Playwrights in the 1970s» (Hazel Cazorla), «A Theater in Transition: From Paternalism to Pornography» (Patricia W. O'Connor).

El volumen en sí constituye una excelente introducción a autores y temas de interés dentro del teatro español contemporáneo. Es posible que sea de gran utilidad para quienes, sin leer español, se sientan interesados por él. Por otra parte, puede ser de gran validez para los cursos sobre teatro español en Estados Unidos, ya sea a nivel graduado o no graduado. En estos últimos, además de la información que proporciona, puede que despierte el interés por continuar con la investigación de los temas esbozados en los ensayos. Es un libro recomendable por su propósito y por la apertura hacia perspectivas y temas de relevancia, aunque el lector informado desearía que se problematizara más lo descrito.

Juan Villegas

University of California, Irvine

This exciting collection of literary essays is a fitting

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tribute to Anson Conant Piper, William Dwight Whitney Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages at Williams College, to whom it is dedicated. The articles, on a multiplicity of topics, are of uniformly good quality. Their collection recalls the root meaning of the word festschrift, for it is a celebration of humanistic studies and a feast for the scholar, particularly the student of Comparative Literature.

Contributors include former students, friends, and colleagues from Piper's more than fifty years' connection with Williams, beginning with his freshman year there in 1936. There are also articles from associates from his graduate school days at the University of Wisconsin. Such selection assures a cadre of distinguished scholars of the maturity and reputation of Roberto Sánchez and Germaine Brée and also of the wit and wisdom of younger writers such as Diana de Armas Wilson.

Literary approaches range from the most recent reader-oriented literary theory and feminist criticism to the more traditional historical and linguistic studies. There is even a tour de force by Irwin Shainman, Piper's friend and colleague of more than thirty-five years at Williams, of Verdi's life, works and significance using his Spanish operas as a focus. In addition, there is a fascinating article on «The Structure of Personal Power: Politics and the Hispanic Novel» by his former student Russell O. Salmon.

The subject matter is as democratic as the approaches used to elucidate the material. There are articles on Spanish, Latin American, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, American, British, and African writers of French expression, writing in a variety of genres.

The style of the essays is sprightly, at times even amusing, but never frivolous. Some of the most enjoyable essays are by former students who initially entered academe and then went into other fields. Writing is now an avocation for them, and their love and enthusiasm for literature radiate. Such a writer is August J. Aquila, a Doctor of Philosophy and a Certified Public Accountant. Author of numerous works on literary and nonliterary subjects, Aquila's essay «The Conquistadores and the 16th Century Spanish Concept of the Ideal Soldier», challenges the negative and stereotypical image of the conquistador. Another such author is Robert L. Mitchell. Now an international advertising executive, Mitchell left academe in 1981. Author of several books on literary figures and also of translations, he tells the reader candidly in his essay that he is writing on Ponge and Valéry because they are two of his favorite writers of the twentieth century. His passion for their writing does not prevent his imparting a balanced, intelligent sense of their poetic process; in fact, it enhances it.

The writers of this volume, as if aware of their diverse audience, orient the reader sufficiently so that even someone unversed in a particular subject can enjoy it. The result is an expansion of the reader's horizons and consciousness and a stimulation to complete much needed scholarship, often suggested by the authors at the end of the various essays.

There is much of Anson Piper in this volume. His receptivity and openness to new ideas, tempered by a humanistic appreciation of those things of lasting value are evident in the subject matter and caliber of the essays. His students and colleagues learned from his man whose «histrionic teaching» they recall with affection. Their articles in honor of him are genuinely interesting and entertaining. They embody the maxim, Prodesse et delectare. There is also much of the wisdom of Piper's old friend Cervantes. Though in the work of Diana de Armas Wilson and other contributors, Cervantes does not seem so much old, as enduring. When De Armas Wilson analyzes Las labores de Persiles, a play built about the old custom of a nobleman having the right to a woman's maidenhead, once she had contracted to marry, we see a very modern Cervantes as he «attempts to legitimate an attack on legalized rape» (65) and «radically... writes from the position of woman as interpreter-as subject or knower» (69).

The editors include the Phi Beta Kappa Address Piper delivered at Williams College on the eve of his retirement. In it we again see the influence of Cervantes in the form of El Quijote. Piper urges his audience to see reality for what it is and to be mindful of the madness that can masquerade as rationality. As a corrective he urges the cultivation of basic sanity and one's inner world or spirit.

«He made things fit into place», says former student Russell Salmon of the life and work of Anson Piper. And From Dante to García Márquez: Studies in Romance Literatures and Linguistics is a fitting tribute to this outstanding humanist. The volume is sure also to earn its place -on the shelf of any truly educated person's library.

Jeanne J. Smoot

North Carolina State University

Este libro contiene las siguientes secciones: Prólogo; el Capítulo Primero. Introducción; Capítulo II. La mitología americana y la grecorromana; Capítulo III. Neptuno, progenitor de América; Capítulo IV. Las aves; Capítulo V. Otros aspectos sincréticos; Capítulo VI. Conclusión; y la Bibliografía.

Desde el breve Prólogo, así como en la Introducción, el autor establece lo que dice que es novedad del libro y su carácter exploratorio: se trata de un estudio «a través del sincretismo cultural, religioso-mitológico» (11) de Sor Juana y sus contemporáneos que permita al crítico actual hacer una lectura americana del Barroco de Indias. Se señala la dificultad que tuvieron algunos autores de la época en publicar sus obras; la represión de parte de los detentores de poder dio paso a una auto-censura más o menos encubierta. Aunque no se explica la transición de modo claro, se pasa de estos problemas, que caen dentro de la variada cultura hispana, al desdén tradicional de la cultura europeizante hacia toda manifestación cultural que se relacione con lo hispano, incluyendo al aborigen americano. En esta primera parte el autor, haciendo un aparte dentro de la cuestión básica, específicamente intenta establecer el inicio del Renacimiento en Europa a través de la escuela de traductores de Toledo (14-15). Esto, sin embargo, nos parece un poco confuso, aunque tiene seguramente razón al decir que no se le ha dado la gran importancia que merece. Esa escuela puede entroncarse directamente con el gran impulso filosófico que alcanzó la Universidad de París en las figuras de Alberto Magno, Santo Tomás de Aquino y otros fundadores de la escolástica. Para relacionarla directamente con el inicio del Renacimiento, o sea del humanismo italiano, debía el autor explicar, de modo más preciso, el criterio en que se basa. Más adelante, se explica cómo se aprovecharon los que escribían en el Nuevo Mundo, fueran o no peninsulares, de creencias y personajes de la mitología greco-romana y del credo cristiano que se pudieran relacionar con los de la mitología precortesiana, dando así origen a un sincretismo religioso y cultural en el que, en todo caso, la cultura europea se valoraba siempre por encima de la americana y daba la pauta en cuanto a la consideración de la «verdad».

En el capítulo IV, se tratan a las aves como elementos importantes en los cuadros religiosos, relacionándolas principalmente con El Sueño de Sor Juana y prestándosele al águila una importancia capital sincrética. No hay duda de que el águila era importante en esas creencias, específicamente en la azteca, lo cual formaba parte de la cultura propia americana del Fénix (así como el de la pirámide que utiliza de modo parecido); pero el lector recibe la impresión de que se la considera como la figura fundamental, papel que no tiene el águila en el poema. En El Sueño se la relaciona, o se la identifica (154), como quiere el autor, con el concepto de «subida» de la protagonista, el Alma, en busca de la comprensión del saber del universo. La figura que le da un carácter único al poema, la simboliza el personaje de Faetón reforzado, al final, por el de la Noche, encarnando los dos el concepto novedoso que, hace del esfuerzo por sí mismo razón suficiente para explicar el deseo de la monja y de todo ser humano inteligente, de la comprensión total del universo.

Aunque el autor habla en más de una ocasión de «la naturaleza virgen» de su trabajo en este libro, y de la obligación forzosa, por tanto, de ser corroborativo (163), hay más repeticiones (a veces en las notas y en el texto, véase la [85] de las que hacían falta. En cuanto a ese carácter que se menciona, faltan, por ejemplo, trabajos publicados hace tiempo como los del padre Garibay y de Jacques Lafaye; éste último (en Quetzatcoatl y Guadalupe), se refiere al sincretismo religioso precisamente en relación con Sor Juana y Sigüenza y Góngora. Se menciona el libro de María E. Pérez (publicado en 1975) puntualizando que llegó a sus manos cuando ya casi había terminado su trabajo para este libro. No aparecen en la bibliografía los trabajos de Henríquez Ureña y de Picón Salas, suponemos que por muy fundamentales y conocidos. Aunque resulta ser un aspecto básico de lo que se trata, no se intenta un análisis definitorio de lo que sea el Barroco americano. En este libro, lamentablemente, se nota una precipitación y desorganización que hubieran podido evitarse y que se trasladan en una redacción descuidada (se abusa de los etcéteras, de y/o, de las citas, de la repetición de la misma palabra o familia de palabras en un corto número de líneas, cf. 20-21 y 119) y en la presentación del material de modo farragoso (en ocasiones no se explican o desarrollan lo suficiente las ideas propias o las relaciones que se hacen con las citas que no parecen ser significativas); sin duda el autor hubiera podido sacar de su libro mayor provecho. En el aspecto positivo puede decirse que, con todo, éste es un trabajo meritorio y de muchas lecturas que sí puede ayudar a explorar de modo intensificado el aspecto americano de los escritores que trata y de la Colonia en general.

Georgina Sabat-Rivers

State University of New York, Stony Brook

One of Puerto Ricos most prolific authors, Enrique

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Laguerre's writings are among the island's most respected for their esthetic value as well as their profound insight into the complex nature of 20th-Century Puerto Rican society. Although Laguerre has written in a variety of genres including drama, short story and the essay, Estelle Irizarry's study focuses on his novels, the genre which truly established his literary reputation.

La novelística... is basically a translation of Irizarry's earlier study, Enrique A. Laguerre published in the Twayne Author Series in 1982. Minor differences between her earlier book and La novelística... include one chapter in the former book on Laguerre's short stories, essays and plays; La novelística... omits that chapter and includes instead a study of Laguerre's most recent novel, Infiernos privados published in 1986. Both books provide a useful bibliography as well as frequent references throughout the text to the opinions of other critics. Estelle Irizarry has written extensively on Laguerre with an additional book on his classical La llamarada as well as articles, bibliographies and special editions of his works.

The eleven chapters of La novelística... study Laguerre's novels within the cultural and sociohistorical context of Puerto Rico. The first chapter relates the author's life to the changing economic and social structure of the island, from its agrarian roots at the end of the 19th Century to the urban society of the present. Throughout this study, Irizarry is careful to point out the influence of history and change as they are reflected in Laguerre's works. Thus, for example, she demonstrates how the profound disruptions in the rural economy of coffee and tobacco farms caused by the introduction of U. S. sugar interests are traced in Laguerre's earlier works, including La llamarada, Solar Montoya and Los dedos de la mano; later novels would examine the social and personal upheavals related to the massive emigrations of Puerto Ricans in this century, as in La ceiba en el tiesto, El laberinto and Infiernos privados which also explores the phenomenon of urbanization and its toll on the individual. Other novels studied are El 30 de febrero, La resaca, Cauce sin río, El fuego y su aire and Los amos benévolos. According to Irizarry, «Laguerre ha sido testigo de profundos cambios en la sociedad puertorriqueña y, como Galdós en la España del siglo diecinueve, se ha propuesto retratarlos en sus novelas, respondiendo a su circunstancia de puertorriqueño de siglo XX de modo afirmativo con su vida y con el ejercicio de un arte que es a la vez responsable y muy personal».

As the subtitle of this study indicates, however, not only does Irizarry situate the various novels (studied in individual chapters) within their historical and political context; she is also careful to establish Laguerre's works within a European and Latin American literary tradition. There are references not only to Galdós, for example, but also to Cervantes, Unamuno, and other European authors, as well as Latin American writers considered by Irizarry as possible influences in Laguerre's novels. And, although Laguerre has been referred to by the critic Concha Meléndez as «un novelista abarcador de la realidad puertorriqueña», Irizarry emphasizes the fact that Laguerre's literary importance extends beyond the island's borders: «Con la publicación de sus novelas más recientes, El fuego y su aire, Los amos benévolos e Infiernos privados, Laguerre pone en evidencia su dominio de recursos técnicos, colocándolo al lado de los otros grandes novelistas de la Nueva Narrativa Hispanoamericana. Está atento a lo puertorriqueño, lo hispanoamericano y lo universal», (15). Laguerre's use of symbolism and metaphor as well as his recurrent utilization of legend, myth and folklore, both local and universal, are carefully examined in her analysis of the novels.

La novelística de Enrique A. Laguerre is a carefully-written study with useful and often enlightening information for those who wish to understand in some depth the novels of this important Latin American author.

Margarite Fernández Olmos

Brooklyn College, CUNY

At a time when women's studies continue to raise consciousness, Gloria Gálvez Lira provides a feminist view of the writings of María Luisa Bombal. As early as the 1930's, Bombal was promoting the feminist cause in her prose works. Gálvez Lira addresses this theme, as manifested in Bombal's employment of the interchange of fantasy and reality as a literary vehicle.

The text is divided into an introduction, four analytical chapters, a conclusion, an appendix and a bibliography. The first chapter gives a biographical sketch, elements of which have been substantiated in a personal interview with the author (reproduced in the appendix). Chapter II places Bombal within an historical framework. Texts of work laws and references in Catholic Church doctrine which signal the subservience of women provide insight into the condition of Chilean women some fifty years ago.

The next two chapters present detailed analysis of Bombal's short stories and novels. Chapter III, which treats «El árbol», «La historia de María Griselda» and «Las islas nuevas», focuses on the flow of reality into fantasy. Perceptive footnotes compensate for the occasional superfluity of plot description. Comparisons of «El árbol» to Carpentier's El acoso and to Ibsen's A Doll's House, for example, offer useful commentary. Chapter IV provides an in-depth examination of Bombal's novels, La última niebla and La amortajada. Among the comparisons made is one between Ana María of La amortajada and the protagonist of La muerte

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de Artemio Cruz, both of whom experience a «reality» somewhere between life and death.

The conclusion, Chapter V, unites the major points of the analysis. An overall definition of woman, as portrayed by Bombal's female protagonists, is attained: each is confused, frustrated and alienated. Alone with her thoughts, Bombal's protagonist resorts to interior monologue to express her anguish. At the same time, the protagonist employs fantasy to «create a new man» who is capable of fulfilling her needs. According to Gálvez Lira, the validity of Bombal's definition today justifies the reclassification of the author's works as universal, rather than regional literature.

The only negative aspects of the study are occasional repetition of quotations and numerous typographical errors. Nevertheless, these minor flaws are far offset by the impeccable research which the work reflects. The bilingual footnotes are insightful, revealing a broad knowledge of world literature and psychology. The bibliography is thorough and up-to-date, characteristic of the diligent preparation noted throughout the study. Finally, the text is readable and holds interest.

María Luisa Bombal: Realidad y fantasía will most certainly appeal to a broad range of readers, among whom are those interested in Chilean prose, Latin American literature, feminism and the human condition. Gálvez Lira contends that Bombal's avant-garde writings helped initiate change in attitudes toward women, both in Chile and in all of Latin America. Based upon this study, one might well agree. At the very least, one gains a greater appreciation of the universality of Bombal's works.

Virginia Brownell Levine

SUNY College at Curtland

El libro consta de una introducción, seis capítulos, conclusión y bibliografía. En la introducción se hace una revisión de las tendencias artísticas y literarias europeas en boga a principios del siglo XX y se examinan los distintos presupuestos de cada uno de los movimientos. Pasa a discutir la situación de las letras en Hispanoamérica y específicamente en Chile. Magali Fernández se propone mostrar como «la obra de esta autora contribuyó a "enterrar al criollismo"; estudiar de qué forma influyeron en ella los "ismos" europeos y concederle el verdadero lugar que se merece entre los otros precursores...» (18).

El capítulo primero da detalles biográficos de la autora. En el capítulo segundo, «Temática de María Luisa Bombal», se hace una revisión del papel de la mujer en la sociedad desde sus orígenes. Estudia las preocupaciones filosóficas y específicamente la conexión entre las que aparecen en las obras de Bombal y A puerta cerrada y La náusea de Jean Paul Sartre. Se propone indagar cómo absorbe la escritora chilena las distintas corrientes europeas y en qué medida sus personajes reflejan las inquietudes que agobian al hombre del siglo XX.

En el capítulo tercero, «Los personajes de las novelas de María Luisa Bombal», Fernández estudia los personajes femeninos, el papel de la sociedad en la conformación de un ideal femenino que no le hace justicia a la mujer y que por el contrario la niega, la deja sin opciones y la condena al ensueño, al delirio y a la alucinación distorsionadora. Primeramente estudia los personajes de La última niebla y luego los de La amortajada.

El capítulo cuarto, «El discurso narrativo (Estructuras y técnicas estilísticas)», empieza con una síntesis de las diferentes clasificaciones aplicables al género novelístico. Fernández estudia lo que titula «Mundo novelesco» de María Luisa Bombal dedicado a La última niebla y destaca los elementos innovadores de ésta. Estudia la función del narrador en la novela realista del siglo XIX en contraposición al usado por Bombal. Entre los otros recursos innovadores cita la economía verbal en la representación del personaje, el uso de la elipsis en la narración, el uso de tiempos verbales y la eliminación de datos no esenciales, la selección de lo narrado en virtud de la subjetividad, el narrador y el uso del tiempo presente. También se destaca la forma subjetiva de selección: organización y presentación del material y la alteración cronológica de los sucesos. El estudio de La amortajada examina el punto de vista y el uso del monólogo interior indirecto en tercera persona.