Partridge, MR. ERIC–75*

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF UNAMUNO CRITICISM 211 can operate in this sort of vacuum. Mr. Ilie's exclusion of all secondary sources implies that all previous commentaries on Unamuno are irrelevant to his own study. The originality of his analysis is undeniable, but his debt to other scholars - beginning with Marfas - is equally evident. IIie's study of the psychology has very definite critical sources in the books and articles of the commentators who have discussed Unamuno's theory of personality at any length. IIie's analysis of Unamuno's psychology is a major contribution to Unamuno criticism and will undoubtedly have a significant influence on its future development. The theoretical basis for IIie's elaboration of the psychology is beyond reproach; he is obviously well informed on existential psychology as we know it today. The interplay between the psychological positions of Unamuno and his theory of value is less convincing but certainly merits further study. The examination of Unamuno's social criticism - the last third of the book - is by far the most useful and objective exposition of this aspect of Unamuno I have seen. But again this phase merits further study. I do not believe there was any need to place this valuable interpretation of Unamuno on such a weak structure. Without diminishing the extreme concentration he has deemed necessary, or altering the development of his thesis, Mr. IIie could have supplied the reader with a running commentary on the relationship of his findings to specific works of Unamuno. If this procedure would have been too cumbersome and distracting, footnotes could have been used as a minimum assurance by the author that the integrity of the works had not been violated. I agree with Paul Ilie on many of the points he makes but I regret his choice of organization and his exclusion of secondary source documentation. The final consideration of this review is for the future. Where does IIie's book leave us and what should we work for? I believe the needs are more clearly set out than at any time in the past. Unamuno criticism must be opened up to all interested scholars and be taken beyond its narrow academic limitations. To accomplish this we need the following: (I) source books on Unamuno's readings; (2) all of Unamuno's works in accessible forro; (3) a concordance to Unamuno's thoughts on the various problems of philosophy; and (4) critical editions of such major works as The Tragic Sense of Life, The Agony of Christianity, and How a Novel is Made. It is time that the scholar and student interested in Unamuno have the materials for analysis no further away than the library. (Mario J. Valdes) PARTRIDGE, MR. ERIC-75' To those who enjoy the honour and even more the pleasure of knowing Eric Partridge, the thought that on February 6, a few weeks from now, he will be celebrating his seventy-fifth birthday becomes the sort of proposition to which it is easier to give intellectual assent, as the old Puritans used to put it, than to accept it with conviction. The chronological evidence is there, but Eric himself seems to defy chronology. He makes nonsense of the Quam mutatus, and of speculations about the permanency and consistency of the personal identity. 212 He offers to friends (and they are countless) the same warm, relaxed companionship , the same easy generosity, the same rich combination of the lively and the reBective, of the learned and facetious, as he has done these many years. As always, he still speaks of his own work with a genuine, though unwarranted modesty, and of the work of others with unstinted praise. It is when one considers his work, and the extent of his achievement, that one is forced to believe in his birthday, and induced to wonder rather how he has managed it all in one lifetime. The monumental Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, first published in 1937, and corrected, enlarged, and brought up to date in each of its six editions, in the course of which it has virtually doubled its size, would itself be a satisfactory life's work. It is the acknowledged authority on its...