PALACIO VALDES, pa-Iii'th6-5 Anma.Noo 11853-1. A Spanish novelist, horn at Entrcalgo, in Asturias. He passed much of hi; youth at AvWs, on the coast. After a prelimi nary training at Oviedo, he went to Aladrid to ile\ ote himself to the study of jurisprudence and political economy. He became a prominent mem ber of the Ateneo, and was made editor of the periodical La Rerista Europea when but twenty two years old. After directing it for three years, he withdrew to give himself up to the composi tion of novels. The first of them. El seiiorilo Orlario I1~81). illustrates his fondness for sim plicity of plot, and marks him from the start as one who excels in the psychological analysis of the inner man as in the description of the aspects of outer nature. llis second novel, Marta y Maria (1553). is by many deemed to be his masterpiece. It deals with the contrast between a life of active, human love and one of virginal and mystie contemplation. In his later novels Vald6s inclines toward naturalism. The more re cent works—all of great interest and most of them. like the Marla y Maria. now translated into English—are: El idilio de on cnfertno; Jose, a charming seaside idyll: Agues fuertes, a collec tion of tales; Birerita, and its sequel, ilazitnina, the latter containing many autobiographical ele ments; El coarto poder; L11 hermana Son Sul pirio ; La espuma ; La fe; El ',mesh-ante; El oriyen del pensaminnlo; Los 2I1 a jos de Cadiz; La aleyria del rapitan Ribot. The author's ideas
with regard to the art of fiction are expressed in essays prefixed to the editions of the Herman° San Solpieio and the 31ajos de Cadiz. Other works of a critical nature are: Los oradores del A tenco; Los norelistas espafioles; .Yorro viaje al Par vas° ; and. produced in collaboration with Alas, La literature en 1851. Consult: Blanco-Garcia, Lo literatura espaiiola en el siglo XIX., second part (Madrid, ISO]) ; Howells, in Haryfr's Magazine (New York. April, 1886, and Novem ber, 1886) : Baxter, "A Great Modern Spaniard." in The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, .April, 1900) ; Davidson. in the introduction to his edition of the Jose (Boston. 1900).