Fowlie portrays Claudel as a versatile spirit, synthesizing his interests in politics and art in his religious concern. Especially interesting are the remarks on Claudel's theories of art, in which the religious poet particularly functions as the interpreter of a deeper imaginative self. Fowlie's criticism of the poems and plays throws welcome light on works whose meaning is not easily made luminous.--A. J. S.

The major periods of Rimbaud's life are seen as parts of a whole, united by the theme of a necessary and hopeless struggle for an impossible adequacy--as man, as poet, as trader. Hackett effectively presents the case that Rimbaud is the greatest French poet after Baudelaire.--A. J. S.

This book is composed of seven essays on diverse ethical themes. C. H. Hamburg's essay on the task of the contemporary psychoanalyst in giving criteria for judging psychic health, Louise Roberts' discussion of "better" as a primitive ethical term, and R. C. Whittmore's "Does the Neo-intuitionist theory of obligation rest on a mistake?" are the most valuable.--A. J. S.