The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-28
STAINS LITERARY IMPULSE
AS ENCOURAGING CASTILTAE
 MOVEMENT

Especially Since the Spanish-Ameri-
 can War-Perez GaIdos and His Re-
 markabIe Industry-The Recent Dra-
 mas of Eehegaray.
 (An outline in English. translated from a lecture delivered in Spanish be- fore La seciedad Espanola of Harvard, by Professor James Geddes, jr., Ph. D., of Boston University. Professor Geddes will give his Cambridge address, with readings from representative authors. before La Sociedad Espanola de la Uni versidad de Yale tomorrow evening. Friday, at s o'clock in Byers Hall, cor ner of, College and Grove streets.
 After the lecture. there will be re- ception to Professor and Mrs. Geddes; and to MT. Wallace Gillpatrick. of the Mexican Herald. who translated Mar ta of the Lowlands" (Tierra Baja by Guimera), from the Spanish. Mir. Gill; patrick will render several Spanish and Mexican songs, with guitar accompani- ment
 All ladies and gentlemen interested in Spanish are invited to be presently
 I am to speak of the Spanish litera- ture of the last five or six years, .and especially of the period since the Span- ish-American war. When we talk of contemporary literature. it becomes ne- cessary to recall the names of authors whose work is attracting the attention of the literary world. It is almost im- possible to speak of the literature of the United States without mention of How els, Henry James and Miss Wilkins. And so, perforce, to speak of Spanish literature is to name such men as Vale ra, Pereda, Galdos and Valdes.
 But taking the word Literature" in its widest sense, it is evident that these eminent authors, whether the Spanish or the American, do not make the sole contribution to it-although, certainly, they contribute the part which has most interest for the general reader; the part which we call in Spanish 'bel- las letras." The other branches helping to form the mass of material called ''Iiterature'' are various and important. Iii modern times almost every human interest and concern is spread abroad by means of the printing press, and the resulting material falls naturally into three general divisions; first, scientific; second, historical and third. literary.
 Of works more or less scientific in character, little need be said-although mention should be made of an impor- tant linguistic work by Menendez Pidal --..El Manuel Elemental de Gramatica Historica Espanola.' Much greater has : sf1x.~ fnY+ years past, in the direction of historical works-a general division which has its own subdivisions. First, there are many volumes pertaining to the general history of Spain. Second, there are the works relating to Spains lost colonies. And, third the so-called provincial history The Spaniards take particular pleasure in local history.-both as a stimulus to patriotism and as satis- faction of personal pride. And fourth division consists of the study of literary history, the reprinting of old works, and the publication of unedited papers, in all Of which there has been extensive activity. And besides these various fields, mention should be made of a somewhat extensive literature which had it's orgin in the Spanish American war--a misfortune which served to di rect general attention among the Span iards toward their social and political problems, and especially to questions of education.
 We come now to the principal part of Spanish literature, the "bellas letras"- the stories and novels, the drama and the poetry. A resume of Spanish activ- ity in these directions in the last seven years must include many well-lxnown names Within this period Valera has published his "Genio y Figura" ("What s Bred in the Bone'') and 'Morsamor" the latter novel of not very popu- lar character, but well written. He has also published in book form, "Garuda 0 la Ciguena Blanca" Emilia Pardo Ba- gan has published several volumes of stories. Valdes has given us La Ale gria del Capitan Ribot," recently pub lished; a pleasant story, like others by the same noted author, and very agree able reading. It has been received with great favor by the Spanish public. The last work of Valdes is poem published last year, ''Aldea Perdida" (''The Lost Village'), descriptive Of ancient cus- toms. La Regenta" C'The Queen Re- gent'') the well-known novel of LeopoI- do Alas, is now being reprinted the Spanish critics consider it one of the best written works of the nineteenth century Vicente Blasco has written a very good novel on Valentian customs, "Entre Naranjas' (''Among the Or anges''), and he is now reported at work on other stories of a similar nature
 But the one writer whose fame ex- ceeds all others, to-day as for some time past, is Perez Galdos. Of his twenty eight novels in thirty-nine volumes, the two stories, "Misericordia" and "El Abuelo,' were published in 1S97 Mis- ericor1ia' treats a social question-that .-of mendicancy-which is very wide spread, unhappily, both in Spain and in Portugal, "El Abuelo" treats the ques- tion of heredity Of his forty his- torical novels, published in series of ten, all of the third series were written be- tween the years 1883 and 1900. He is now writing the fourth series, of which the third volume, Los Duendes de la Camarilla,'' has already been published. The fourth, La Revolucion de Julio, , is now in press, and the indefatiga- ble author is now at work upon the fifth volume of the series, "O'Donnell" The general scheme of Galdos' work may be divided into three parts: first, the fis- torical; second the didactical in which