458 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1899. 



logical topics are dealt with in Hampa (An- 

 tropologia picaresca), a psychological study of 

 Spanish criminals and gypsies, by R. Salillas; 

 Urena's Critical History of the Legal Literature 

 of Spain (the "first systematic attempt at a his- 

 tory of legal ideas in Spain ") ; Bibliografia espa- 

 fiola contemporanea del Derecho y de la Politica, 

 1881-'96; F. Perez del Toro's Compendio de His- 

 toria general del Desarrollo del Comercio y de la 

 Industria : Giner's valuable Teoria de la Persona 

 social; Posada's Feminismo (on the woman 

 movement. " brilliantly but sparsely represented 

 in Spain ") : and R. Becerro de Bengoa's La En- 

 seuanza en el Siglo XX. Bustos has a monograph 

 on the Part played by the University of Sala- 

 manca in the Gregorian Correction of the Calen- 

 dar. Miguel S. Oliver, a noted Mallorcan author, 

 has republished periodical articles on La Cuestion 

 regional (a much-debated topic). The Critical 

 Works of Samaniego have been collected by 

 Apraiz for the Biblioteca Vascongada. Linguistic 

 studies are Fabra's Contribution to the Grammar 

 of Catalan and A. de Castro's Libro de Galicis- 

 mos. Bibliography, always well cultivated, in- 

 cludes, besides works noted elsewhere, Mugica's 

 Index to the Documents in the Archives of the 

 Ayuntamiento of San Sebastian and Sorrarain's 

 Catalogue of Euskaran Works. Noteworthy ex- 

 amples of literary criticism are Lianas Aguila- 

 niedo's valuable study Alma moderna; C. Soler's 

 Quien fue D. Francisco de Quevedo: Estudio 

 psicologico; Segismunda, by Funes (historian of 

 the Spanish drama) ; the journalist Alfredo Calde- 

 ron's De mis Campanas (interesting and thought- 

 ful); J. Garcia- Al-Deguer's La Prosa castellana; 

 and G. Serrano's Goethe: Ensayos criticos (ap- 

 preciative). 



In contrast to the long list of historical works 

 stands the comparatively short one of belles- 

 lettres, which, says a native writer, are "posi- 

 tively in a state of decay." Public indifference 

 tends to limit production. Yet the critical peri- 

 odicals of Spain have good things to say of a 

 number of novels, notably De Onate a la Granja, 

 Luchana, and Mendizabal, all in the Episodios 

 nacionales, by B. Perez Galdos; jSolo!, El Pajaro 

 en la Xieve, and La Alegria del Capitan Ribot 

 (sympathetic, ideal), by Palacio Valdes; J. Va- 

 lera's Morsamor: Peregrinaciones heroicas y 

 Lances de Amor y Fortuna de Miguel de Zuheros 

 y Tiburcio de Simahonda ("beautiful diction," 

 metaphysical tendencies, and psychological inter- 

 est; knowledge and fantasy combined); E. Gu- 

 tierrez-Gamero's El ilustre Manguindoy (political 

 satire; interesting and dramatic action; person- 

 ages human and natural) ; the well-known Cata- 

 lan novelist Oiler's La Bogeria (able study of 

 insanity; weak narrative); Jose" M. Matheu's 

 Carmela rediviva (meritorious in parts; as a 

 whole, somewhat artificial and forced) ; Luis 

 Taboada's not very remarkable La Viuda de Cha- 

 parro; and Ricardo Macias Picavea's La Tierra 

 de Campos. Two young novelists of promise have 

 died, Ochoa and Ganivet. The latter, who left 

 unfinished Los Trabajos del infatigable Creador 

 lio Cid (showing decided talent despite extrava- 

 gance and disproportion), wrote some suggestive 

 Cartas Finlandesas, and contributed to a Book 

 of Granada, the joint product of several young 

 writers of Granada. Among the latter is Lopez, 

 author of Tnsteza Andaluza (much feeling) 

 Poetry of fine inspiration, or at least of true 

 promise, is found in Vicente Medina's Aires Mur- 

 cianos (promising; popular sentiments; a melan- 

 oly note); J G. Goyena's very good Batalla 

 Flores; and Sofia Casanova's Fugaces (1898- 

 modest, sincere; eminently subjective). Older 



writers are represented by the Llibre de la Mort, 

 by the late Aguilo, the learned Catalan; the bril- 

 liant Manuel Reina's The Garden of Poets; and 

 Vaam onde's patriotic After the Disaster. Count 

 de Cedillo offers a translation of the Canigo of 

 Verdaguer, and there are unpublished works and 

 collections, such as Libro de los Cantares y Can- 

 ciones primaverales and Libro de los Recuerdos, 

 by Trueba, deceased, and the curious Coplas del 

 Peregrine de Puey Mongon, edited in the Collec- 

 tion of Arabic . Studies by Pano. Of the drama 

 there is little to say. Translations, such as Bena- 

 vente's adaptation of Twelfth Night, or the ren- 

 dering by Catalan poets of Goethe's Iphigenia, 

 the Prometheus and Persse of JEschylus, and 

 Hamlet are well done. The works of the late 

 Tumayo y Baus (Vols. I-III) are being issued. 

 Of new original work there is little, and even less 

 that is successful. The best includes Benavente's 

 La Comida de las Fieras (good in technique) ; Sin 

 Rumbo (psychological), by F. Villegas; Ganivet's 

 mystical El Escultor de su Alma; two plays by 

 Catalonians, Gual's Blancaflor and Foc-Follet, by 

 Iglesias, both showing beautiful passages but 

 feeble construction; and Los Caballos, one-act 

 comedy, by Selles (allegorical; elegant form; 

 satire on anarchy; evidently not a good acting 

 play). There has been the usual number of come- 

 dies, one-act juyuetes comicos, zarzuelas, sainetes 

 liricos, etc., by J. Veyan Jackson, C. Diaz Valero, 

 J. Lopez Silva, F. Shaw, J. Vila Velasco, M. Figue- 

 rola Aldrofeu, and a dozen or two more. A 

 writer in Espana moderna (March, 1899, page 

 168) notes a tendency to adapt and translate for- 

 eign works, and the importation of cafe-concert 

 spectacles a la frangaise. These varietes threaten 

 to compete strongly with the genero cMco, and 

 to suppress even the very slight literary residue 

 which these latter offered. 



Sweden. Historical works of note or interest 

 include Ludvig Stavenow's comprehensive, popu- 

 lar view of Frihetstiden,dessEpoker ochKulturlif ; 

 Carl Trolle-Bonde's Anteckningar om Bondeslak- 

 ten: Riksradet Grefve Gustaf Bonde (a valuable 

 contribution to the memoir literature of the first 

 half of the eighteenth century) ; Pontus E. Fahl- 

 beck's Sveriges Adel: Statistisk Underspkning 

 ofver de a Riddarhuset introducerade Atterna 

 (1898); C. O. Nordensvan's Finska Kriget, 1808- 

 1809 (first complete, scholarly account of that 

 important period) ; K. P. Arnoldson's Nordens 

 Enhet och Kristian II; Baron de Bildt's valuable 

 Christine de Suede et le Cardinal Azzolino: Let- 

 tres inedites (Paris) ; O. Alin's Carl Johan och 

 Sveriges yttre Politik, 1810-'15; H. Jungstedt's 

 Kriget mellan Frankrike och Tyskland, 1870-71; 

 and C. Sundbeck's Det unga Germam'en: Kultur- 

 och Resebilder fran det moderna Tyskland. In 

 biography we have Signe Clerck (pictured with 

 warmth and sympathy), by Lennart Hennings; 

 O. Kuylenstierna's Soren Kierkegaard: Tankaren 

 och Sanningssokaren (1898); and C. A. Hedin's 

 Svante Hedin: Minnen fran hans enskilda och 

 offentliga Lif. August Hahr offers Nederlandsk 

 Konst: Studier och Skizzer (1898); Evert Wran- 

 gel, Estetiska Studier (1898) ; and Alfred Jensen, 

 Ryska Skaldeportratt: Kultur- och litteratur- 

 historiska Bilder fran Ryssland (1898). Much of 

 Karl A. Tavaststjerna's posthumous Efter Kvalls- 

 brisen: efterlamnade Skrifter pa Vers och Prosa 

 is the fruit of foreign impressions de voyage. Victor 

 Hugo Wickstrom's En modern Historia, i Dag- 

 boksform berattad af Gunhild has been called " a 

 little masterpiece " ; his Nar Jesus kom till Os- 

 tersund: Spegelbild af Stefanus Eremita is ad- 

 versely criticised as vaguely mystical and banal. 

 The fiction list includes good work, such as 



