LA BODEGA (THE FRUIT OF THE VINE). By Vicente Blasco
Ibanez. (Fisher Unwin. 7s. 6d. net.)
There is in the work of Ibanez a large humanity which probably explains his popularity. For one usually finds that whether .a popular book is a work of genius (the public does occasionally patronize genius) or a work of no artistic value, it has this quality of human charity. Ibanez stands between these extremes. His work is very good, but, at any rate when read in translation, it is not genius. But in its gift of sympathy for all sorts and conditions of men, though possibly in nothing else, it is kin to that of Dickens. Listen to this (necessarily shortened) dream of the rustic bride-to-be :— " They would arise at brealc of day, . . . she to prepare breakfast and tidy the house. He would mount his horse. Not a button would be missing in his jacket, his Shirt would always be as white as snow, as well ironed as any owned by a Jerez gentleman. And when he would return she would be at the gate waiting for him, with flowers in her hair and an apron so white that it would blind him. The stew would perfume the whole house. They would sleep in the holy tranquillity of those who make good use of their day, and do not feel the remorse of having wronged anyone."
Very homely and naive, may be, but it is exactly what a coinitry girl would think. It is true to life as are the descrip- tions of the poor people who keep cattle and horses in the Spanish hills, of the vine-dressers and the rest of the agri- cultural population. One may never have been to Spain, yet one, knows that they are ,true to life, for beneath the surface humanity is the same in nearly all parts of the world. And though in writing of grand folk Ibanez is often super- ficial, he does manage to get very near to the peasant heart. -
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