PREFACE

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THERE was a time—not long ago—when Spanish fiction was scantily though honourably represented in English-speaking countries by Pepita yimenez. It is now nearly omnipresent owing to the novels of Blasco Ibanez. In either case, the English reader could hardly be expected to form a clear idea of Spanish letters from the knowledge of one single type of mind, be it fastidiously aristocratic as that of Don Juan Valera, or exuberantly popular as that of the vigorous author of The Four Horsemen of the 4pocalypse.

The essays collected in this volume aim at a wider and more comprehensive view of the field of Spanish contemporary literature. In harmony with one of the most typical features of the Spanish character as here analysed, this study has been cast in the form of literary portraits of living authors. These include most of the prominent figures of the group known in Spain as the 1898 generation. Students of Spanish letters will, however, miss a few familiar names belonging to this group, such as Ramiro de Maeztu, a mind sadly dispersed, though by no means lost, in journalistic work, and Ortega y Gasset, whose bent is too philosophical for our present purpose. These omissions are compensated for by the inclusion of two men from outside the 1898 group—Perez de Ayala and Gabriel MirO.

An introduction has been found necessary, not only 27.5