Note to Edition of 1909.—A vocabulary has been added in response to a considerable demand. Miss Alice P. F. Hubbard, of the University of Texas, kindly undertook the making of this vocabulary, from which I was prevented by pressure of other work. I have, however, revised the MS. and read the proof, and can heartily commend Miss Hubbard's work to users of this book. Text and notes have also been revised and a few errors eliminated.
Since the appearance of the first edition Señor Valdés has produced two excellent novels: La Aldea Perdida, and Tristán, o el Pesimismo, and a series of his Obras Completas is now in course of publication. The list of studies on this author has also increased, and for additional bibliography I take the liberty of referring to the scholarly edition of La Alegría del Capitán Ribot by Messrs. Morrison and Churchman (D. C. Heath & Co.).
F. J. A. D.
University of Toronto.
INTRODUCTION[ [A]
Armando Palacio Valdés was born on the 4th of October, 1853, at the village of Entralgo, in the mountains of Asturias, where his parents possessed a country-house and surrounding estate. His mother belonged to an old family of landed gentry. His father, a lawyer by profession, was in temperament emotional, and endowed with much imagination and an extraordinary talent for story-telling; these qualities rendered his society so agreeable that he attracted the sympathies of all who approached him. Sr. Valdés has said of his father, with characteristic modesty: "If I possessed but the half of his imagination and narrative talent I do not doubt that I should be a good novelist."
Most of the members of his mother's family resided in Avilés (a maritime town of Asturias, described in Marta y María under the name of Nieva), and between this town and Entralgo the Valdés alternated their residence, passing the winter in the former and the summer in the latter. Thus early the future novelist learned to know the life of sea-faring folk and also that of country people and farmers.
At the age of twelve he began his secondary education at Oviedo, where he was under the care of a paternal uncle. This city, the capital of Asturias, is described in El Maestrante under the name of Lancia. Although entering fully into the pleasures of school life he was a faithful student, and soon acquired a taste for both science and literature, aided in no small degree by the stimulus of other eager youths whose acquaintance he made. His friends, however, considered at this time that he was better endowed for the former.
At seventeen he went to Madrid to begin the study of law, to which he devoted himself with great enthusiasm. His sole ambition now was to become a professor of political economy. He was admitted to membership in the famous literary and scientific club El Ateneo, studying deeply in its library and taking an active part in its labors. Before the end of his law course he was elected first secretary of the section of moral and political science of that association.