This is a detailed and iluminating treatment of a subject that has had little attention in English: the history of the literature of our neighbors to the south.
Throuh a skiilful compression of detail, Torres-Ríoseco spans four and a half centuries and a wide range of subject matter, from the hroic epics of the early colonial period to the modernist poetry and psychological novels of the twentieth century. He writes with contagious but discriminating enthusiasm for the works treated and with a firm, scholarly grasp of the main currents and movements. He makes penetrating comparisons with our own and European literature, and, to whet the appetite further, gives generous and sensitively selected quotations from the literature itself, not in Spaish or Portuguese but in English translations.
The reissue of this volume will be welcomed by students and teachers of Latin American literature, culture, and history, but the lay reader, too, will come away from it with a deepened understanding of our nextdoor neighbors and a heightened perception of the importance of international good will.
Arturo Torres-Ríoseco, Professor of Lain American Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, is author of numerous books dealing with the literature of the New World.
