THE SPANISH NOVELISTS
FORM one work of a series of specimens of the tales of various Eu- ropean countries. As long as there is a greater demand for fiction than the imagination of our countrymen can supply, it is right to seek the deficiency from other sources. There is also a chance of excellence in the productions that have been popular many cen- turies in their native soil ; and at least there is every chance of introducing a variety into the literature of the day. In this last light chiefly, and as a contribution to literary history, are we mainly inclined to look upon this publication as possessing value. The tales themselves seem to us generally worthless, unless when illustrative of Spanish character; which was tolerably well known before; • TheY are full of improbabilities, have a wretched moral, and seem to be neither in manners nor sentiments adapted to any period since the existence of the world. The best of these pro- ductions—such as Lazarillo de Tonnes, the Visions of Queued°, and Paul the Sharper—were familiar to the English reader : of the other tales, we had a quite sufficient specimen in the episodes of Don Quixote, which have been often deservedly praised, and which are perhaps too highly estimated. There are several stories in this collection of a similar character, but none to equal them.
The biographical and critical notices prefixed to the different se- lections from the authors, are agreeable morsels of literary bio- graphy, and do the translator credit. The translation, generally speaking, we believe to be faithful, but it is certainly not spirited. In the Visions of Queued°, for instance, we greatly prefer the old translation of Sir ROGER L'ElilTRANGE.
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