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CHOICE Review

As academic programmers and futurists reconstruct Western civilization courses to accommodate formerly peripheral works, they are well advised to turn to this South American treatise on the aesthetic life. First published in Spanish in 1900 by the Uruguayan Jose Enrique Rodo, Ariel projected a moral and cultural debate that was to engage two generations of Latin American intellectuals. In this 100-page essay, abundantly suffused with references to European social thinking of the day, Rodo keeps a critical, if occasionally admiring, eye on North American utilitarianism and advises his Hispanic colleagues to imitate it only to the extent that its material successes free the soul for more fruitful pursuits. Shakespeare's Ariel, explains Rodo, is the symbol of Latin idealism, while gross Caliban, insensate lout, embodies the threat of Anglo-Saxon materialism. This Margaret Sayers Peden translation, which so improves on the original as to make Rodo actually exciting to read, is also usefully and handsomely put forth. Framed with introductory material by former US chief of protocol James Symington and Latin American cultural spokesman Carlos Fuentes, and an annotated listing at the end of the authors referred to by all three men, this new English-language edition of one of Latin America's most influential books can only help the US to achieve a long-overdue understanding of its southern neighbors. Ariel is therefore recommended for all readers from secondary to graduate students. B. L. Lewis Texas A & M University