Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/476

* SPANISH LITEKATTJBE. 412 SPANISH LITERATURE. a drama of the Ciolden Age. The Cuban poetess Gcrtrudis Gomez de Avellaneda (1816-73), who spent nio.st of her life in Spain and there became famous, had alliliations with the romantic school. Her lyrics owe no small amount of their inspira- tion to Chateaubriand, Lamartine, and Hugo; her novels reflect the methods of Dumas the Elder and George Sand. Sentimentalism appears in two well-known dramas, the Trovador of Antonio Garcia Gutierrez (1813-84), on which Verdi's opera is founded, and the Amantes de Teruel of Juan Eugenic Hartzenbusch (180G- 80), a play which gave new life to an old Spanish story of true love that did not run smoothly. The passing of the romantic movement be- comes evident after the beginning of the fifth decade of the centur.y. The fertile playwright Manuel Breton de los' Herreros (1796-1873) had temporary connections with it, but he gained his repute mainly as a writer of lively dramas of manners, although in his masterpiece, the comedy entitled Escticla del matrinionio (1852), he paved the way for the coming psychological drama of Ayala and Tamayo y Baus. Adelardo Lopez de Ayala (1828-79) gives us, in his mercilessly so- ciological play El tanto por ciento (1861), a de- tailed analysis of the modern greed for wealth that has stifled the nobler instincts of man and made him capable of the basest treachery; and in his Consuelo (1878) he makes another power- ful attack upon the positivism and the lack of idealism in our modern life. The psychological development is also obvious in the work of Manuel Tamayo y Baus (1829-98). In Lo posi- tiro (1862) he treats the positivism of the mod- ern world with no less severity than does Ayala, and in his chief play, Un drama nuevo (1867), he portrays the slowly growing and finally all-pervading power of marital Jealousy. The particular glory of the second half of the nineteenth century in Spain has been the rise and growth of a new novelistie literature. To the development of this a considerable impetus was given by the essay on manners, which had already been handled with skill by Larra in the first half of the centurv. and was now taken up by Estebanez (17991867), and by Ramon de Mesonero Romanos ( 1803-82), who has left lis ex- cellent descriptions of life in older Madrid. These essayists on manners prepared the way for the tale of manners and the novel of manners (novela de costumhres). The former was culti- vated, though with no brillianev, by Antonio de Trueba (1821-89) ; the latter was written, in a way to attract attention and applause, by Cecilia Bohl von Faber de Arrom ( 1797-1877), familiar still by her nom de guerre Fernan Caballero. A thoroughly delightful figure appeared in the person of the short-lived story-teller and poet Gustavo Adolfo Bccquer (1836-70). . All his work is permeated by the highly subjective qualities that are more common in Northern Europe. His tales are all of a legendary cast and are every- where actuated by the instinct of mj^stery. Pedro Antonio de Alarcon (1833-91) is most felicitous in the composition of the short tale of manners or adventure of the type ; he is less suc- cessful in the more ambitious novel, although the less lengthy among the novels, particularly the flomhrero de Ires picos and the Capitin Veneno, continue to delight and amuse their readers. An incomparably greater artist is Juan Valera y Alcalii Galiano (born in 1824), whom a pro- tracted career in the diplomatic service of his country has made one of the most cosmopolitan and cultured of moderns. In his novels Valera difi'ers from the majority of his contemporaries in that he consciously tends toward idealism, whereas the.y seek rather to render the living fact. The novel of manners has been raised to a higher level than ever before by Jose Maria de Pereda (born 1834), who, in his chief works, has portrayed life on the mountains and at the seaside in a way hardly to be excelled for detail and charm of description. The Don flonzalo (lon- ziilez de la Gonzalera and the Soiileza show Pereda in the fullness of his power; where lie leaves the scenes of rustic life and ventures into the city and the fashionable whirl, as in the Pedro SAnehez, he is still a master novelist, but he treads on uncertain ground. The work of Benito P^rez Galdos (born 1845) from first to last has been marked by tendencies frankly revo- lutionary. One of the most admirable and im- portant divisions of his labors has been the com- position of the collection of novels forming the Episodios nacionales. but it is by his psycholog- ical novels that Galdos has attracted most atten- tion abroad. At least two other novelists of the first rank must be mentioned here, Armando Palacio Valdes (born 1853) and the remarkable woman Emilia Pardo BazSn (born 1851). Both' have had tendencies toward a naturalism not unlike that which has so pro- foundly affected the French novel of the second half of the nineteenth century. In the recent period we meet with only two poefs of importance, Ramon de Campoamor y Campoosorio (1817-1901), who will continue to be pleasantly remembered for his philosophical and humoristic Doloras and a few descriptive poems; and Nrtfiez de Arce, the virile author of the Gritos del combate. The latter has had disciples both at home and in Spanish America, but none of them have displayed superior talent. Criticism has flourished, principally through efforts of Marcelino Menfndez y Pelayo (born in 1856), who in his Historia de las ideas est<^ticas en Espai'ia (1884-91) has raised a noble monu- ment to the glory of his country. BiBLioGBAPHT. The best collection of the Spani.sh classics is Rivadeneyra's Biblioteca de autores espanoles (71 vols., Madrid. 1846-80), embracing texts of Spanish masterpieces from the earliest times down to the opening of the nineteenth century; note also Coleccidn de escri- tores eastellanos (106 vols., ib., 1882-96) ; Ochoa, Coleccidn de los mejores autores espanoles (60 vols., Paris, 1837-60) ; and Coleccidn de autores espanoles (48 vols., Leipzig, 1860-86). For the history, consult: Baist, "Die spanische Littera- tur," in Grober's Gi'undriss rfec romanisclien Phi- loloqie ( Strassbiirg, 1894-97) : Ticknor, History of ffpanish Literature (4th ed.. Boston, 1871) ; Fitzmaurice-Kelly, -4 Uistort/ of Spanish Litera- ture (New York. 1898); Bouterwek. Oeschichte der spanisclien Poesie nnd Beredsamkeit (Gottin- gen, 1804), continued by Brinckmeier, Die Na- tionallitteratur der Kpanier seit Anfang des 10. Jahrhnnderts (ib., 1850) ; Lenicke, Bandbuch der spanischen Litteratur (Leipzig, 1856) ; Klein, Gesehifhtc des. spnnischrn Dramas (ib., 1871- 75) ; Schack, Geschichte der dramatischen Lit- teratur und Kunst in Spanien (Berlin. 1846;