6   PREFACE

as a background for these figures, but also in order that they might be seen in relation to the spirit of the country and of Europe in general. An essay on GaldOs and a note on Don Francisco Giner have been added to this introduction in view of the prominent role which the great novelist and his contemporary played in the formation of the present generation. A third article on Menendez y Pelayo would have been inserted here had not the author felt unable to cope with the task of drawing a sketch, however slight, of so powerful and so widely developed an intellect.

The essays are published in the order in which they were written. It remains to be said that most of them have seen the light in diverse reviews. The second part of the introductory essay, in the London Mercury ; the essay on GaldOs in the Contemporary Review; that on Unamuno, as an introduction to the admirable translation of The Tragic Sense of Life which we owe to the pen of Mr. Crawford Flitch, and for the publication of which Messrs. Macmillan deserve the thanks of all English lovers of Spanish literature ; the essay on Baroja appeared in French in La Revue de Geneve; and those on Valle InclAn and on Azorin and Mir6 in Hermes, the brilliant review of which Bilbao was proud until a recent date and which we hope will see the light again.

S. DE M.

CONTENTS

ki PIO BAROJA .   .   III
RAMON MAR f A DEL VALLE INCL AN . 128

AZORIN. GABRIEL MIRO .   .   • 148