EXEMPLARY NOVELS. Second only in importance to 'Don Quixote' among the fictions of Cervantes are his tales, published in 1613 as (Novelas Exemplares' or 'Exemplary Novels.' Although the preface spoke of 13 stories, but 12 were first included, the 13th having evidently been withdrawn at the last moment. This was not printed until 1814, when Agustin Garcia Arrieta found it in manu script among other matters of entertainment prepared from 1606 to 1610 for the delectation of an archbishop of Seville. Published at first in expurgated form, 'La Tia fingida,' or (The Pretended Aunt,' it was soon presented in full, and now forms part of all modern editions of the 'Novelas Exemplares.' The 13 stories were written at various times, one as early as 1605, since it is referred to in the first part of
Quixote.' Cervantes, who had spent six years in Italy, sought to com pete with Boccaccio in tale-telling, although ex pressly distinguishing his productions from the novelle of the (Decameron) as being moral and instructive. Unlike his contemporaries, Cer vantes drew less upon Italian sources than upon his own invention. He endeavored to reflect life as he had seen it and to avoid the sensa tionalism of Bandello and Cinthio. Such sen sationalism appears only in
Fuerza de la sangre,' where, however, he carefully reconciles the ravished heroine to her lover. The exotic adventures so common in early fiction are re duced in this collection. Although an unreal London is shown in (La Espanola Inglesa,) the heroine is a Spanish girl carried off by the English in their sack of Cadiz; and, although the island of Cyprus is the scene in (El Amante liberal,' the story contains recollections of Cer vantes' own experience among the Moham medans of Algiers. If the setting of
Inn life is smartly shown in