Suicide: By Emile Durkheim. Translated by John A. Spaulding and George Simpson. Edited with an Introduction by George Simpson. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1951. 405 pp.

Habent sua fata libelli. That so important a classic should not have reached the English reading public until fifty-three years after its publication in French seems baffling indeed. Today, of course, this work by the initiator of classical sociology will appear anachronistic to anyone acquainted with the literature on suicide, particularly to the psychoanalyst; for, as the editor rightly remarks in his Introduction, the development of psychoanalysis has enabled us to gain new insight into the dynamics of suicide. Nevertheless, even for the psychologically oriented reader the book holds more than merely historical interest. One cannot help being impressed by the wealth of knowledge and the perspicacity revealed in it, and there have certainly been few more compact presentations of sociopsychological problems.

So wide, indeed, is the range of topics treated by the author that one can hardly attempt to review it comprehensively. What may be most interesting to the readers of this QUARTERLY is the influence of psychology and psychiatry on Durkheim's thinking. Here