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La novela de la Revolucin Mexicana. I by Antonio Castro Leal Review by: B. G. D. Books Abroad, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Autumn, 1960), p. 387 Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40115176 . Accessed: 12/01/2013 03:12
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Books
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(For Other Boo\s in Spanish, see "Headliners")

Damaso Alonso. La poesia de San Juan de la Cruz. Madrid. Aguilar. 1958. 230 pages. This illuminating study of the poetry of St. John of the Cross first appeared in 1942 and since that time has achieved wide recognition. Damaso Alonso, one of Spain's foremost literary scholars, presents a lucid, and extremely well written, commentary on the poet considered by many to be the greatest of Spanish literature. The purpose of the study, the author says, is not to further refine the many extant details concerning the poetry of St. John, but, rather, to interpret and to evaluate aesthetically the poetry of this great Spaniard and to communicate as directly as possible his findings to the reader. Leaving aside the question of divine inspiration, Alonso studies the production of St. John in reference to Spanish literary influences of the sixteenth century the influences of the italianizantes Boscan and Garcilaso, the influence of the popular romances and other forms, and influences stemming from Biblical sources, particularly the "Song of Songs." There is a study of style, thematics, and structure which is absorbing, although limited in scope. All in all, this study deserves to be ranked high among the many critical studies that have appeared on Spain's great mystic poet. Leland W. Cross Hillsdale College Antonio Castro Leal, ed. La novela de la Revolucion Mexicana. I. Mexico. Aguilar. 1958. xlv + 1,024 2-col. pages. If the re-edition of literary works, in anthologies or otherwise, is valuable mainly for the background and insights that the editor contributes, this anthology richly deserves notice in these columns. Antonio Castro Leal, after paying tribute to Berta Gamboa de Camino for her interest in and knowledge of the literature of the Mexican Revolution (her death prevented her completing the projected anthology), defines, in his Introduction, the novel of the Mexican Revolution, presents a historical survey of those years of turmoil (including the role the U.S. played), and gives a critical analysis of four types of novels produced: the autobiographical, the novel of scenes and episodes, the essentially epic novel, the novel of nationalist affirmation. These analyses are perceptive and stimulating. ^ There follow a chronological list of the principal events from 1910 to 1928 and a list of the Mexican governments from then until the expiration of the present one in 1964. Preceding the works of each writer is a biographical note and a brief critical note on each of the works included, followed by a bibliography of his other works. This first volume includes: Los de abajo, Los caciques, and Las moseas by Mariano Azuela; El dguila y la serpiente and La sombra del caudillo by Martin Luis Guzman; Ulises criollo by Jose Vasconcelos; La revancha by Agustin Vera; Cartucho and Las manos de mama by Nellie Campobello, all complete. A census of real and fictional persons (with page references), an index of places, a vocabulary (with a bibliography of dictionaries), a general bibliography of 125 items, and an index complete this excellent and beautiful edition, which is enhanced by the frontispiece, a reproduction of Diego Rivera's painting of Emiliano Zapata, and end-papers reproducing a painting by Urozco. B. G. D. Camilo Jose Cela. Recuerdo de don Pio Baroja. Mexico. Studium. 1958. 77 pages. $12 m/mex. Cela knew Baroja and visited him with some frequency during the last ten or twelve years of his life. He gives us, therefore, a picture of the novelist as he knew him, and a sympathetic and affective one it is. This is a talk originally delivered before the Asociacion Espanola de Mujeres Universitarias, and it is good to have it available in book form. It certainly will take its place in the bibliograjia barojiana. I am not really sure that Cela puts his finger quite exactly on what made Baroja great, but at least he avoids most of the usual cliches, both positive and negative. The text of Cela's lecture is preceded by a long extract from J. M. Castellet's Notas sobre literatura espanola contempordnea. This is a defense of Cela's La colmena and an attack on the official reaction to it in Spain. Its peculiar relevance here (it is termed a prologo to our volume) is that Castellet discusses Cela with reference to Baroja, going so far, incidentally, as to speak of "el caso literario Cela-Baroja." We happen to think that this is rather out of proportion, to say the least. David Griffin Washington, D. C. ^

Spanish

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