The Marriage of Contraries: Bernard Shaw’s Middle Plays by J.L. Wisenthal (review)

HUMANITIES 403 interest in language; translation into Spanish of certain passages, etc. As a supplement to this basic catalogue, the authors have added two appendices , the first a list of titles and authors cited by Unamuno in his works and which are not included in the main catalogue, the second a list of newspapers and journals cited by Unamuno andl or newspapers and journals in which he published articles. Both these appendices contain only one representative entry from the complete works of Unamuno. Yet this book is more than just an extremely useful handbook, for Mario Valdes has included a brief, concise introduction, which is an attempt to define a systematic methodology by piecing together an apparently disjointed process of intellectual and aesthetic assimilation. Using the marginalia found in the works of some of Unamuno's predilect authors (eg, Pascal and Melville), Professor Valdes tries to demonstrate the parallel between Unamuno's existentialist writings and the structuring of his thoughts and reactions as a reader, especially as a reader of someone he considered to be a kindred soul. Thus, in the case of Pascal, for example, using a 1913 edition of the Pense.s which was liberally annotated by Unamuno, Professor Valdes reconstructs the mental process involved in Unamuno's attempt to isolate those passages of the Pensees which stress the inherent strife of existence. This reading procedure, a quest for fundamental polarities, is related to the Unamunian concept of contradiction as the primary force of existence, as well as to the concept of the dynamic dialogue, or polemic, which ideally defines the relationship between author and reader. In the opinion of this reviewer, this excellent book, the work of dedicated Hispanists, is essential reading for anyone interested in Unamuno and modern Spanish thought. (DEMETRIOS BASDEKIS) J.L. Wisenthal, The Marriage of Contraries: Bernard Shaw's Middle Plays. Harvard University Press, 259, $1.0.00 Shaw, says Mr Wisenthal in his introduction to this study of the middle plays, was in the habit of seeing the world in terms of contraries that can find fulfilment only in union with each other. He demonstrates these contraries in characters of limited outlook and qualities, which may be complementary . The author tells us that this opposition and eventual union of contraries is particularly to be observed in the plays from Man and Superman to Pygmalion and that important variations on the pattern occur in Heartbreak House and Back to Methuselah; the marriage of contraries is best shown in Man and Superman and Major Barbara. Mr Wisenthai believes that this approach to the plays provides interesting and valuable illuminations of the relationships among the plays of Shaw's middle period. What in fact it shows is that Mr Wisenthal has made a careful study of the plays and presented the kind of argument that would sustain a good doctoral thesis. He never overstates his case and he writes with economy and grace. But the tension between contraries has been one of the bases of drama for several centuries, and the study of it in Shaw produces no surprises . This is not really Mr Wisenthal's fault; Shaw is as resistant to conventional criticism as he is rich in unconventional criticism of ideas and attitudes. 50 far nobody has written a truly revealing book of Shaw criticism because the mercurial Shaw produces so many disparate and occasionally contradictory views of his own that it is impossible to know where to have him. To write critically about him is like wrestling with Briareus, who possessed not only fifty heads and a hundred arms, but had the additional advantage of being a Titan. Mr Wisenthal has done well, but he has not put Shaw's shoulders to the mat. Critics of Shaw tend to fall into two camps. There are those, like Eric Bentley, who vainly imagine that they know Shaw's job, and his mind, better than Shaw himself. The valleys of criticism are white with their bones. Others, like Mr Wisenthal, approach their quarry respectfully, intelligently and rearrange some Shavian elements in patterns which, though not surprising, are of interest and value. This looks like a first book, and it is a promising one. (ROBERTSON...