confrontation between the realm of heritage and the realm of disinheritance, is not as basic as Baranczak claims, since the speaking voice is situated, as it were, at a level deeper than both and views the latter as a predicament rather than as a value. Nor does it generate the truly opposed sets of values, as is illustrated by Baranczak's antinomy between "the ornamental" and "the true," with the first being on the side of heritage and the second of disinheritance, which must strike one as a reductio ad absurdum of Baranczak's method. At best his structural ap- proach shows the existence of a sub-system of categories in some of Herbert's poems whose significance is doubly limited, both by their incidence and in a conceptual sense. Baranczak's chapters on some of the salient features of Herbert's poetics are the first scholarly treatment of the subject, and here his analysis has much to offer that is of real critical and interpretive value. While the chapter on metaphor arguably deals not so much with typology as with the function of some of Herbert's metaphors (their "unmasking" capacity), it nevertheless initiates a line of inquiry which should eventually lead to a better appreciation of Herbert's poetic art. More substantial is the chapter on Herbert's use of the speaking voice, and the nature of his irony, both of which are clearly interconnected. Again, there is some room for disagreement, but of a fruitful kind: for instance, the stereophonic character of the speaking voice in at least some of Herbert's poems eludes Baranczak's analytical acuity, and so does the richness of the functions of the persona of "Mr. Cogito," which Seamus Heaney described in a recent article as "the poet's alibi/alias/persona/ventriloquist's doll/permissive correlative," without probably exhausting all "his" functions. Altogether Baranczak's "structuralist" commitment makes him less than fully sensitive to that aspect of Herbert's poetry which is one of its saving graces (given the fact that Herbert is a moralist), viz. its playfulness and penchant for mischief. Baranczak's book is useful in yet another way to the student of Herbert's poetry, in that it contains analyses and interpretations, some quite extensive, some in the nature of pointers, of more than a hundred of Herbert's poems. Though some of the interpretations are questionable (e.g., those of "Substance," "Inner Voice"), many are illuminating, and several brilliant. The book is elegantly produced, the translations are often first class, and the footnotes contain not only interesting bits of polemic, but a comprehensive bibliography of critical literature both in Polish and English.

Bogdan Czaykowski University of British Columbia

Anton Chekhov Rediscovered: A Collection of New Studies With a Comprehensive Bibliography. Edited by Savely Senderovich and Munir Sendich. East Lansing, Mich.: Russian Language Journal, 1987. viii, 351 pp. $25.00.

In many ways similar to the anniversary issue of the Russian Language Journal devoted to Chekhov (Vol. 39, Nos. 132-34 [1985]), this collection of articles marks an important turn in the study of Chekhov's oeuvre toward penetrating ex- amination of his poetics, his language, and the hidden subtext contained in his works. The authors strive to reveal deep layers of meaning which are not immediately obvious from a first or second reading of the text. They assume the "complexity of Chekhov's works as an axiom" (p. 2} and explore the nature of that complexity in a number of approaches, each of which succeeds in exposing the depth of Chekhov's thought and works. Republished here from the earlier volume of RLJ, Harai Golomb's "Communicating Relationships in Chekhov's Three Sisters" provides an insightful interpretation of what is said, and unsaid, in the play; this is an en- lightening interpretation even for experienced Chekhov scholars familiar with previous analyses of this work. Robert Louis Jackson's "'If I Forget Thee, 0 Jerusalem': An Essay on Chekhov's 'Rothschild's Fiddle'," was first published in 1978, but in a relatively scarce journal, so that its presence in this volume is welcome. In a fine reading of the story, Jackson not only demonstrates its basis in Psalm 137 but shows Chekhov's sensitive treatment of the cultural interaction be- tween Russians and Jews, their complicated attitudes and interpersonal relations. His second article included in this collection, "'The Betrothed': Chekhov's Last Testament," is also a reprint of an earlier version (1982), but inasmuch as it lays to rest interpretations of the story which claim it heralds the dawn of a new era, it is an important contribution and deserves renewed notice. Concentrating on the final paragraph, Jackson demonstrates that Chekhov's "theme of a radical change in one's life points to a more fundamental, hidden theme of inescapable return" (p. 185). In her intriguing "Chekhov's 'Kashtanka': Metamorphoses of Memory in the Labyrinth of Time (A Structural-Phenomenological Essay)," Marena Senderovich examines the story's time and space to reveal that its dominant sym- bolic theme is the image of the labyrinth. The second article included by this author included here, "Chekhov's Existential Trilogy," convincingly demon- strates that the stories "The Steppe," "An Attack of Nerves," and "A Dreary Story," are very likely interrelated. She argues that they were composed during the period when Chekhov was most concerned with writing a novel, and that, taken together, they should be read as representing protagonists on the threshold of three stages in life, childhood, budding maturity, and old age: Egorushka is setting out on a journey towards his education; Vasiliev, the innocent student, goes to S. Street in Mosoow for a confrontation with a previously unknown reality; and the celebrated scholar, Nikolai Stepanovich, is sent on a trip by his wife, where he finds himself in a strange city awaiting the final journey, death. Michael Finke's close reading of "The Steppe," easily surpasses most earlier analyses, and its scope and detail will provide new understanding of this story. Savely Senderovich's two contributions, each published previously (1980; 1985), likewise make for rewarding reading. The first, "Poetics and Meaning in Chekhov's 'On the Road'," examines a number of semantic fields and motifs to illuminate both the text's structure and its depth. The second, "Anton Chekhov and St. George the Dragonslayer (An Introduction to the Theme)," is a somewhat abbreviated version of the Russian original published in RLJ. While the latter is original, and certainly the most detailed and informative examination to date of the central role played by the myth of St. George in Chekhov's life and works, the shorter version in this volume is laden with information which will be new to those who have not read the fuller Russian text. Finally, there is Munir Sendich's comprehensive bibliography (pp. 189-349, including an index of authors) published in the earlier volume of RLJ. Covering critical literature from the years 1889-1984, and listing all known translations and collections of Chekhov's works in English, it is an important resource for