Abstract：A book review is a review on a book. Nevertheless, not all reviews on books are book re-views. This paper introduces a historical insight in the reflection of book reviews in order to understand precisely the nature of book reviews. A book review is a new critical form following modern mass medi-um, its indivisible relation to the latter is the key to understand the nature of book reviews. Otherwise, any notion of a book review would be reduced to formalism. A book revievv does not present itself in the society spontaneously, it is a key during the production of culture industry in modern society. There-fore, both the business motive of book reviews and the confliction between the motive and i1s cultural value must be taken into account. As a special advertisement, the texts of literary criticism in book re-views should not be a sole kind of advenisement. This is the dialectics of book reviews.
