The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-30
TWo NoueLS by Vicente Blosco Ibanez

~ ERTAINLY the good old sum- lV mer time" is conductive to reading, among the many other nice things that we find time to do at this season of the year.
 Nothing is more enjoyable during the long summer days than a good book at least speaking now from my view point of the subject, for adore books books of all kinds and descriptions good. bad and indifferent-the bad and indifferent ones just to figure out how they are ever published-if for nothing else.
 If you read "The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse" that stirring, vivid, story of the war written by the Span iard. Vicente Balsco Ibanez. then I'm sure you must have been sufficiently interested to want to read books from his pen at least, that's the way I feel about it and I have had the chance re- gently to enjoy two of his novels "Sangre Arena" ("Biood and Sand') and La Bodega" ("The Fruit of the Vine")
 Of "Blood and Sand" it may be said. en passant. that this was the first of his novels to bring the great Spaniard world wide recognition, although, The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse" is better known in America than any of his other novels.
 panorama of Spanish life, the nov els of Ibanez come in review before us touching upon the various phases of life in that exotic cline "The Cabin showing the rural life; "The Shadow of the Cathedral" the ecclesiastical life; "The Dead Command a. glimpse of the fn +l.n ,tr,r l i,,s o,d Sand" a colorful dramatic picture of the national sport of Spain-the bull fight"
 Taking a renowned "tereo" for the leading character Blood and Sand" deals with every phase of the bull fight ing sport in Spain, from the breeding of the bulls and the early training of the "matador" to the horrible and bloody scenes enacted behind the arena out of the sight of the spectators; and the book closes with the cry of the mob after the accident demanding that the "corrida"-(the bull fighD-go on.
 'It was the roaring of the wild beast the true and only one."
 The career of Juan Gallardo the hero Is wonderfully told starting with him as ragged half starved little urchin through the times when he tramped off to "corridas" and "capeas' held in the distant villages.
 Through his career as popular "matador" on on the story goes--thrill- ing, dashing. dramatic-like all of Ibanez's novels-with vari-colored, changing Kaleidoscope scenes for its background
 Women do not usually play an inn portant part in the novels of Ibanez but in "Blood and Sand" he presents a very striking feminine character in the person of Dona Sol, beautiful capri cious, craving novelty and adventure, yet always the aristocrat to her finger tips--she is brilliantly drawn figure. She becomes the "matadors" mistress, yet never permits him to address her | by the familiar "tu"-but always has her own way, amusing herself as she pleases-whether it be with "Torreo" or l King"
 "Blood and Sand" is a passionate pro- | test against legalized (and in way) | 'nationalized" form of cruelty but it is more; for if the igarb is Spanish-the | emotions it covers, are by no means
 restricted to or narrowed down to one l nation
 No more real human simple -natured hero has been drawn by any writer thar Juan Gallardo whose living depended
 upon the applause of the changeablt
 exacting mob and the very need O. | Ln1S applluSe SellL nltrl lo HIS uShli amid "Blood and Sand" of the arena.
 "The Fruit of the Vine" although
 written sixteen years ago could never
 have appeared on the literary horizon in America at a mere apropos time thar the present--for it deals with a ques tion which is being hotly discussed | throughout the United lumn: upon columns being written about it. volumes being printed every where
 arousing the greatest discussion ant feeling among statesmen and laymer
 alike
 It is needless to say that the subjec is drink" and in "The Fruit of the