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[Illustration: book cover]

Heinemann's International Library

Edited by Edmund Gosse

THE GRANDEE

ARMANDO PALACIO VALDES


THE GRANDEE

     *     *     *     *     *     *

_Heinemann's International Library._

Edited by EDMUND GOSSE.

_Crown 8vo, in paper covers, 2s. 6d., or cloth limp, 3s. 6d._


1. _IN GOD'S WAY._ From the Norwegian of
BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON

2. _PIERRE AND JEAN._ From the French of
GUY DE MAUPASSANT.

3. _THE CHIEF JUSTICE._ From the German
of KARL EMIL FRANZOS.

4. _WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT._
From the Russian of COUNT LYOF TOLSTOI.

5. _FANTASY._ From the Italian of MATILDE
SERAO.

6. _FROTH._ From the Spanish of DON ARMANDO
PALACIO VALDES.

7. _FOOTSTEPS OF FATE._ From the Dutch
of LOUIS COUPERUS.

8. _PEPITA JIMENEZ._ From the Spanish of
JUAN VALERA.

9. _THE COMMODORE'S DAUGHTERS._ From
the Norwegian of JONAS LIE.

10. _THE HERITAGE OF THE KURTS._ From
the Norwegian of BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON.

11. _LOU._ From the German of BARON VON
ROBERTS.

12. _DONA LUZ._ From the Spanish of JUAN
VALERA.

13. _THE JEW._ From the Polish of JOSEPH I.
KRASZEWSKI.

14. _UNDER THE YOKE._ From the Bulgarian
of IVAN VAZOFF.

15. _FAREWELL LOVE!_ From the Italian of
MATILDE SERAO.

16. _THE GRANDEE._ From the Spanish of DON
ARMANDO PALACIO VALDES.


_In preparation._

_A COMMON STORY._ From the Russian of
GONCHAROF.

_NIOBE._ From the Norwegian of JONAS LIE.

_Each Volume contains a specially written Introduction by the Editor._

LONDON: W. HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD ST., W.C.

     *     *     *     *     *     *

THE GRANDEE

A Novel

by

ARMANDO PALACIO VALDES

Translated from the Spanish by Rachel Challice






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London
William Heinemann
1894

[_All rights reserved_]




INTRODUCTION


According to the Spanish critics, the novel has flourished in Spain
during only two epochs--the golden age of Cervantes and the period in
which we are still living. That unbroken line of romance-writing which
has existed for so long a time in France and in England, is not to be
looked for in the Peninsula. The novel in Spain is a re-creation of our
own days; but it has made, since the middle of the nineteenth century,
two or three fresh starts. The first modern Spanish novelists were what
are called the _walter-scottistas_, although they were inspired as much
by George Sand as by the author of _Waverley_. These writers were of a
romantic order, and Fernan Caballero, whose earliest novel dates from
1849, was at their head. The Revolution of September, 1868, marked an
advance in Spanish fiction, and Valera came forward as the leader of a
more national and more healthily vitalised species of imaginative work.
The pure and exquisite style of Valera is, doubtless, only to be
appreciated by a Castilian. Something of its charm may be divined,
however, even in the English translation of his masterpiece, _Pepita
Jimenez_. The mystical and aristocratic genius of Valera appealed to a
small audience; he has confided to the world that when all were praising
but few were buying his books.

Far greater fecundity and a more directly successful appeal to the
public, were, somewhat later, the characteristics of Perez y Galdos,
whose vigorous novels, spoiled a little for a foreign reader by their
didactic diffuseness, are well-known in this country. In the hands of
Galdos, a further step was taken by Spanish fiction towards the
rejection of romantic optimism and the adoption of a modified realism.
In Pereda, so the Spanish critics tell us, a still more valiant champion
of naturalism was found, whose studies of local manners in the province
of Santander recall to mind the paintings of Teniers. About 1875 was the
date when the struggle commenced in good earnest between the schools of
romanticism and realism. In 1881 Galdos definitely joined the ranks of
the realists with his _La Desheredada_. An eminent Spanish writer,
Emilio Pardo Bazan, thus described the position some six years ago: "It
is true that the battle is not a noisy one, and excites no great warlike
ardour. The question is not taken up amongst us with the same heat as in
France, and this from several causes. In the first place, the idealists
with us do not walk in the clouds so much as they do in France, nor do
the realists load their palette so heavily. Neither school exaggerates
in order to distinguish itself from the other. Perhaps our public is
indifferent to literature, especially to printed literature, for what is
represented on the stage produces more impression."

This indifference of the Spanish reading public, which has led a living
novelist to declare that a person of good position in Madrid would
rather spend his money on fireworks or on oranges than on a book, has at
length been in a measure dissipated by a writer who is not merely
admired and distinguished, but positively popular, and who, without
sacrificing style, has conquered the unwilling Spanish public. This is
Armando Palacio Valdes, who was born on the 4th of October 1853, in a
hamlet in the mountains of Asturias, called Entralgo, where his family
possessed a country-house. The family spent only the summer there; the
remainder of the year they passed in Aviles, the maritime town which
Valdes describes under the name of Nieva in his novel _Marta y Maria_.
He began his education at Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. From this
city he went, in 1870, up to Madrid to study the law as a profession.
But even in the lawyer's office, his dream was to become a man of
letters. His ambition took the form of obtaining at some university a
chair of political economy, to which science he had, or fancied himself
to have, at that time a great proclivity.

Before terminating his legal studies, the young man published several
articles in the _Revista Europea_ on philosophical and religious
questions. These articles attracted the attention of the proprietor of
that review, and Valdes presently joined the staff. In 1874 he became
editor. He was at the head of the _Revista Europea_, at that time the
most important periodical in Spain from a scientific point of view, for
several years. During that time he published the main part of those
articles of literary criticism, particularly on contemporary poets and
novelists, which have since been collected in several volumes--_Los
Or