Page:Library of the World's Best Literature vol 19.djvu/523

 Flight from the Nest), 1890; ^Nubes de Estio^ (Summer Clouds), 1890; ^Pefias Arriba^ (The Upper Peaks), 1894. There have also appeared three other volumes of miscellany, in the style of the * Scenes in Montana': namely, ^Tipos y Paisajes* (Typical Figures and Landscapes), 1870; ^Bocetos al Temple* (Sketches in Distemper), 1873; and * Esbozos y Rasgunos * (Scrawls and Scratches), 1880. ^Sotileza* is particularly the idyl of the sea; ^El Sabor de la Tierruca* that of the rustic folk of the shore; others again, like ^La Puchera,* are amphibious, dealing in an almost equal measure with both. Around the central figure of the fisher-girl in the first, and the young village squire in the second, are grouped a multitude of very real and living types; and yet, owing to a certain rhythmic, poetic feeling in the treatment, there is something of the eclogue about them,—a quality that recalls Theocritus, 'Evangeline,^ and Mistral's ^Mireio.* <Tal Palo Tal Astilla* has something of the religious problem, like Gald6s's * Gloria,* and is less realistic than the others. ^El Buey Suelto* defends the institution of marriage and the family against certain dangerous subversive tendencies. * Pedro Sanchez,* again, deals with political evils, in a tone of serene melancholy, which however is pessimistic rather about institutions than human nature itself. In ^La Montalvez,* for once, he abandons his mountain province, and treats with his usual ability—for he touches nothing that he does not adorn—of the society at Madrid; though society not of a pleasing cast.

Pereda's style is a treasury of forcible, idiomatic language; he is a master of dialogue, and excels in representing the racy talk of the lower orders of people. He has taken a long step towards realizing the ideal of many writers of our own day,—that of uniting the language of daily life with that of literary expression. He is genuinely humorous; and this humor, a legitimate continuation of the tradition of humor so long established in Spain, makes him everywhere entertaining, and keeps him, in spite of his idealizing proclivities, both from imposing upon us unreal Arcadias and from sinking into any hopeless depression of spirits.