A SHORT HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM.

By Vernon Hall Jr. NewYork: New York University Press, 1963.184 pp. $5.00 cloth, $1.95 paperback.

Professor Hall has written an extremely useful book for the beginning student of literary criticism who is confronted with the usual selections from Aristotle, Horace, Castelvetro, Boileau, etc., but who has little or no idea of the historical facts and relationships which lie behind these selections. The book is intended to be read as a companion to a good anthology of European literary criticism. So used, it provides helpful information concisely and clearly presented.

Professor Hall is an authority on 16th-century literary criticism, particularly that of the Italians, and his book clearly shows this. Chapter Seven, "The Renaissance Critics," is rich and skilfully concentrated. Unfortunately, as the book moves into the 19th Century one feels that its author is being defeated by the sheer bulk of the material he is required to master. Such chapters as those on "Darwinism and Literature" or "Marxism and Literature" seem thin and inadequately worked into the whole book when one comes to them from earlier chapters.

One of the most useful features is the bibliography appended to each chapter. Although the book is primarily designed for the student beginning the study of literary criticism, nevertheless these bibliographies will be valuable to more advanced students. Consequently they add greatly to the book's interest and usefulness.

Professor of English