New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-19
Is Blasco Ibanez Author OF the Famous "Horsemen"

protest against and tempt into new diff
hcultes this time it was the methods en-
ployed by Spain to quell Cuban insurrec-
tons.
Ibanez, ever a lover of liberty, placed
himself at the head of peoples demonstra-
tion, and as result was soon headed for
Italy, once again fleeing monarchcal re-
sentiment. Three months later he returned
only again to cultivate the intimacy of pri-
son walls. In 1894, when he was released
from his latest imprisonment, his literary
career, properly speaking, began.
From the fact that so many of his books
are the manifestation of his own multiple
personality we may explain many of their
characteristics. In the first place, for ex-
ample, he is himself so virile that he is
not always successful in painting women
His men, like himself are for the most
part creatures of a dominating purpose;
when that purpose dominates the author
as well his leading figures become types
rather than characters. And it is worth
while noticing that this is often the case
in our author. On the other hand, it has
not been sufficiently noticed that his sec
ondary characters-that is, those who do not
serve as the vehicle of ideas, but rather as
foils to the protagonsts-are often better
drawn than the chief figures, perhaps be-
cause the author gives them less thought as
carriers of ideas and more attention as
living creatures.
If Blasco Ibanez's men are vrile person
ages with a touch of the d6e fixe, his
women are too often but lay figures. Such
creatures as Dona Sol in "Sangre Arena"
or Freya in Mare Nostrum," surely never
existed outside book. They are what we
call to-day vampires, and of the first water;
TO be sure Freya, a German spy work
ing in the interests Of the Fatherland's
U-boat programme, has at least reason
for her activities as a siren; but Dona Sol
is simply perverse for the sake of her own
caprices, and also, we suspect, because the
powerful anti-bull fight novel in which she
appeared needed something in the nature of
q love interest. That the Spaniard can
draw convincing and living women, how
ever may be seen from his most successful
psychological novel, LA Maja Desnuda,"
founded upon Goya's painting of the same
name. On the whole, however, it is true
that in his non-regional novels he creates
types rather than characters both female
and male. Yet so absorbing is the action
that he upfolds, so coorful and significant
the background, so contemporary and in
teresting the problem he attacks, that one
is drawn willy nilly into the tale. Indeed
as an artist in backgrounds and in descrp-
ton Blasco Ibanez is rarely equalled; here
he Is the master who sees beyond the ex-
terror into the inner significance; here he
does more than describe, he interprets;
here he achieves more than success in in
teresting the reader for he carries you
into the very swirl Of the action itself; you
pant with his swordsman in the bloody
arena you fairly drown with Ulises in his
beloved sea; you are yourself French SOL
der at the Marine. This gift of impartinC
actually to his scenes is but another evil
dence of the Spaniard's dynamic person
atty; he lives his actions so thoroughly
that we live them with him; his Gift Of
second sight gives US to see beyond arenas
Of blood ard sand into national character.
beyond village struggle into the vexed
problem of land and labor.