The Spanish Novelist
Date
1920
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Bradbury, Agnes & Co.
Abstract
IN the following series of national I1m"els, connected with. The secondary class of prose fiction so abounding in Spanish literature, it has been the humble endeavour of the translator, upon a similar plan with the Italian and the German specimens, to convey to the English reader some idea of its rise and progress, as well as of the peculiar manners, customs, and modes of thinking at different periods, as exhibited in this form of composition. In the novel and the drama, Spain is allowed to hold a distinguished rank in the literature of modern nations j in the former, sufficient justice has not been done her j the writers of other countries have taken their plots, and even entire stories, without acknowledgment. LE SAGE, SCARRON, and many others, by thus appropriating and adapting to the prevailing taste, their neighbour's inventions, ha\'e given rise to a keen controversy upon the "subject; one into which I should be extremely sorry 10 carry the reader, even the least way, to partake of its tediousness, its bitterness, and its heaviness. As little will it be necessary, in a work of specimens, to examine into the nature and extent of the various classes and branches of the Spanish novel; it is enough that the Editor has been desirous to render justice to some of the earliest and best models of the language-to bring before the public a version of the production productions to which both the writers and the readers of some of the most attractive and popular novels circulated throughout Europe have been so largely indebted. In this point of view, however, it would have been presumption in the Editor, after the mastery advocates they have recently boasted, to pretend to rescue from unmerited neglect, the names and works, or pay a fitting tribute to the inventive powers. Of the Spanish Novelists. In other countries, especially among the Germans and the French, their just claims have been admitted; in the present instance, all that the translator can assume, in his humbler task, is the merit of having long read, and carefully compared, the smaller class of novels, such as "ere conceived best adapted to give the English reader a taste for the original, as well as for mere popular amusement. In regard to the selections, no less than to the biographical materials, and other points, the translator feels bound to express here his obligations to his lamented friend, Mr. Mendibil, late
Professor of Spanish Literature in the King's College j a gentleman whose eloquence and learning, whose enthusiasm for the honour and freedom of his country, were equalled only by his high worth, and the urbanity of his disposition.
Description
Heritage
Keywords
Spanish, Novelist