With the publication of English Criticism, 1900-1950 and American Criticism, 1900-1950—volumes five and six of his projected seven-volume A History of Modern Criticism, 1750-1950[1]—René Wellek is nearing the end of one of the most impressive projects in the annals of American literary scholarship. (The seventh volume, Continental Criticism, 1900-1950, is tentatively scheduled to appear in 1988.) Something like the full dimension of his achievement in this history of modern criticism is becoming apparent to anyone who will study these new works in the context of the previous four volumes. Taken together, they constitute a comprehensive selection, organization, description, analysis, and evaluation of literary criticism in Europe and America in the indicated two centuries. Encyclopedic in its range of reference, judicious in its selection of critics, concise yet packed with information, and fair-minded but intellectually penetrating in its evaluations, Professor Wellek’s work bids fair to stand as the definitive history of modern literary criticism in Europe and America. What does the present pair of volumes contain?

As the titles indicate, Wellek’s subject here is the history of the practice of English and American literary critics in the first fifty years of the twentieth century. The dates are somewhat arbitrary, of course, but they seem justified by the contours of the material; and though the separation of critics by nationality may seem to obscure their intellectual interaction, this is not in fact the case. A single introduction is provided in Volume Five, and continual comparisons are