Professor René Wellek's A History of Modern Criticism: 1750–1950 … stands fair to become an important history of criticism, replacing its now half-century old predecessor by George Saintsbury which has long been felt to be inadequate on a number of grounds, including its excessive impressionism and its undue neglect of Continental critics. Both of these faults Professor Wellek abundantly corrects by his own practice, which is true to its announced intention of being written from a consistent point of view and which, if it errs, does so, perhaps, in the opposite direction by giving almost total credit for originality to the Continental—particularly German—critics. In addition to Professor Wellek's great range …, he also exhibits an admirable knowledge and apportionment of minor critics and an awesome thoroughness with the major critics. Whatever equipment one would expect an historian of criticism to bring to his task. Professor Wellek has brought. (p...