PEREDA, ph-ra'nft. Jost MAMA DE (1834—). A Spanish novelist, born in the Province of San tander. He was trained to become a civil engi neer, but, being a man of means, he devoted himself to literature, after the publication of his of sketches of manners, the Escenas mQutnfiexas (1804). In his chief works l'ereda gives pictures of mountaineer and sea side life that can hardly be surpassed for detail and charm of description. The Eseenas fahesas (consult the second series of them, en titled Tipos y paisajes, 1871) were long left unnoticed by the general public, yet some of the sketches in the volume, and especially that en titled La let-a. are among his best works. There came next the Ensayos dramoticos, versified dia lognes containing studies of manners, and the volume of sketches. Roeetos al temple (1876). The collection Tipos (1877) ex hibits various common types of the Province of Santander. El buey suelto (1877), an aceonnt of the life of an egotistical rake, is interesting as first showing in a marked way the author's inclination to adopt some of the methods of nat uralism in the novel. In Don Gonzalo Gonza
lez dr la Gonzalera ( 1878) the author sets forth the grotesque character of an electioneering cam paign in Spain. In the Pedro Sanchez. (1884) he portrays the Spanish capital as it was in 1854, and makes us follow his hero through a career of political intrigue and ugly married life. The Sotileza (18851 is often deemed his masterpiece, and it is certainly a masterly de scription of life at the seaside and among the fishing folk. l'ereda's later works include: La Montalrez (1888) ; La puchera (1889); Nubes de esti° (18911; .41 primer ruelo (1891); Pachin Gonzalez (2d ed. 1896). Consult the of Menendez y Pelayo, prefacing the first volume of the Obras completes of Pereda (Madrid, 1887 et seq.).