313. Harrod to Joan Robinson , 16 August 1933 [a]
[Follows on from 312 , answered by 315 ]
51 Campden Hill Square, W.8. #
I have just finished reading your book [1] and I must write to congratulate you on this tremendous work.
I have been rather late in reading it partly because I took my holiday early this year in Italy--where the heat made any strenuous reading impossible and partly because before that I was reviewing Chamberlin's book (by the bye, you mis-spell him Chamberlain) for the E.J. and I felt it would be unfair to him to read yours before his. I have inserted two or three lines on Duopoly, which plays rather an important part in him. [2]
As for yours, I think it is a magnificent work. Tho' I have finished it, that is by no means the end of it; it is a gravy to which I feel one will be frequently reverting. As I read it I did not run into anything that struck me as wrong; indeed I didnt expect to, for it was most unlikely that any error which a work of yours might contain would be patent on the first reading.
But it will take a long time before it all sinks in and becomes a part of one's own mental furniture. And only then can one begin to feel one knows a book of this sort.
I dont have the feeling that I shall ever become critical of it. It gave me the sense of a very sure grasp indeed.
2. E. Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition (1933). Harrod, "Theory of Monopolistic Competition" ( 1933:8 ). The passage on duopoly is on p. 662.