New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-01-02
SPAIN.
TRAVELLERS AND HISTORIANS IN THE
PENINSULA.

IN \ sPAN smb BY Ean' & GfaoI
Eishty-nine Illustrations. Octave PIP XVI 81
The Macmillan Company.
SPAIN IN THE NINETEENTM CENTURY, EN- IN BY BY
Al Chicago: A. G. McCurg G. Co.
WITH A pEssIMTsT IN SPAIN. BY Mary F.
Nixon. octave, pp 3Go. Chicago: A. c. Nc
ACROSS THE COUNTRY OF THE LITTLE
KING Trip Through Spain Spa , By Wil sTer bs
Co.
The books enumerated above are scheduled III
the order of their respective merits. On the
theory Of placing duty before pleasure, we may
discuss first those members Of the group which
are least worth discussion Mr.. Lent. for ex-
ample. has made fairly accurate II haruly
original or inspiring book about the faInilar
monuments Of Spain. and. writing as tourist,
he may prove conpanionabe for tourists New
ertheless we find him superficial and COM
monpace writer his book entirely conven-
tional and unmportant production. Miss Nixon
| is a little better with Pessimist In Spain" is
at least a vivaclous, readable book, conceived in
a vein OF somewhat tenuous humor but worked
out along spirited and therefore pleasing lines.
The only serious fault we have to find with 1t ID
that like Mr.. Lent's volume, it deals with ex-
actly the things that everybody has seen before
and that a great many travellers have already
described Books like this. indeed. lend a GER
| tain terror to the comparatively recent opening
of comfort ia BILE passenger traffic along the south
ern route from America to the Mediterranean.
~ everv tourist who stops over at Gibraltar.
rushes into Morocco for a day and returns to
explore Spain while waiting for the next steamer
| to carry him on to Genoa Is TO write book
on his fortnight's travels there will be sorrow
among readers. But happily there are other
writer's on Spanish subjects. Mrs. Latimer In
her Spain in the Nineteenth Century" gives a
STRAIGHTFORWARD and useful account Of the po-
litical development Of the country from the
Napoeonic era to the present time. Finally.
| Mr. Gadow's volume on Northern Spain 10 an
| unqualified boon.
From writer's like Mr. Lent and Miss Nixon
| VIC obtain amusing Impressions OF the surface
| of things. From Mrs. Latimer and Mr.. GadoW
we get the truth The only points OF contact
| between the four are those at which one Is
asked to feel the eternal charm Of Spain. the
poetry the romance OF the peninsula. the mis-
| take that the superficial writer's make, how
| ever is in their assumption that the romantic
side OF Spain is exclusively the spectacular SIDE.
The falsty Of this idea is well exposed by MI
Gadow in his pictures of life in the northern
provinces where the general temper u the
| people is really characteristic Of all Spain Mrs.
Latimer goes further and carries us point by
| point through the historical development Of the
last hundred years. The true source Of the ro-
mantle glamour envelopng Spanish history, an
Gent or modern. is not the splendor of Spanish
Court episodes. the theatrical flavor SO often
| impaired 20 the life of the common people
by their manners and amusemcntS. but the
primitive, childlike character Of the typical
Spaniard. We note the readers smile OF in
credulity at this. Certainly it seems trife
paradoxical TO call the cruellest Of modern races
childlike. But no other epithet will so accu-
rately describe the Spanish simplicity, the Span