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250 from ignorance. Sidney P. Albert's "The Lord's Prayer and Major Barbara " provides useful and interesting parallels between the two and demonstrates well how the Prayer is an ironic leitmotif to a variety of themes in the play. David Matual presents a well-balanced discussion of the relationship between The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet and Leo Tolstoy's Power of Darkness (although one would have to agree with Matual's implicit recognition that Posnet is not really central to our understanding of Shaw). The longest piece is Valli Rao's extensive and detailed analysis of Back to Methuselah in terms of Blake's Jerusalem. Rao stresses that the concern of both works is to make Biblical stories relive. I find here some tendency in the author to be descriptive with regard to Shaw, and I suspect Rao is rather more interested in Blake. The collection is rounded out with Daniel Leary's demonstration that Too True to be Good is a "romantic synthesis" and "a religion for our times," and Warren Sylvester's fascinating account of Shaw's correspondence with Dame Laurentia McLachlan, Abbess of Stanbrook Abbey (near Worcester). Other features of Shaw and Religion are reprints of two Shaw sermons and of Israel Cohen's report of the meeting between Shaw and Rueben Brainin. Retained from The Shaw Review are book reviews and the annual checklist of Shaviana. An added (and invaluable) feature is a bibliography which relates to the special topic of Shaw and religion. Although not exhaustive, this bibliography, by Charles A. Carpenter, is extensive and clearly the result of much research and effort. Hopefully, this feature will be retained in future volumes. All in all, Shaw and Religion represents a change for the better, and it might stimulate other journals to rethink and reassess their own positions in the academic field. J. P. Wearing University of Arizona 2. A Loss of Harmony Between Soul and Body Rosemary Sumner. Thomas Hardy: Psychological Novelist (NY: St. Martin's p, 1981). $19.95 Dr. Rosemary Sumner's study of Thomas Hardy concentrates on the psychological aspects of his selection and representation of several fictional characters. Their variety, she contends, enables Hardy to contrast their personalities, so that by examining exceptional people he can demonstrate society's inability or unwillingness to provide for their singular needs. Her study is detailed and careful, particularly in its attention to parallels discovered between Hardy and later psychologists, notably Freud. Society is the chief culprit, rather than any petty deity, Promethean or otherwise. Society dominates those who do not conform and thereby frustrates man's need to achieve the appropriate balance of mind and body. Concentrating on Henchard, Angel, Jude, and Sue, this study asks whether such people are products of society's growth, crucial to solving our modern problems. Or do they exemplify problems and focus our attention on them? Are they exceptions heaved forward by society, alien to their own time in history? Are they rare instances anticipating what will 251 later be frequent occurrences? Dr. Sumner finds that most of Hardy's psychologically disturbed characters , like Boldwood and Henchard, suffer because the flesh and the spirit are not balanced by nature. Boldwood exemplifies Hardy's treatment of a psychologically complex man "trained to repression." The symptoms of his neurotic complaint correspond to Freud's definition of repression as a "turning away something, and keeping it at a distance from the conscious ." By detailing the moments of Boldwood's life when he was troubled by repression, Dr. Sumner concludes that Hardy profoundly understood repression , whether or not he labelled the condition he was postulating. Quotations from Far From the Madding Crowd are numerous and carefully chosen. Typically, each chapter addresses the psychological issue from these three approaches: the psychological condition of a chosen character; the methods Hardy employs to represent this exceptional dimension; and the parallels between Hardy's insights into the personality of this character and Freud's observations about such a person. Although Dr. Sumner insists that the Boldwoods and Henchards are not treated in original ways so as to make them "special cases," it is no less valid to say that Hardy did realize that he...

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