This edition of one of the best known of modern Spanishnovels has been prepared for the use of college classes inSpanish that have already mastered the elements of Spanishgrammar, but have not yet had much practice in reading. Theeditor has found by actual experience that it is safe to undertakethe story in three or four months from the time whenthe study of the language is begun, that is, in the secondhalf of the first year's work in the subject. As the book isnot a long one, it should be possible to read it entire beforethe close of the year. Indeed, with an earnest class, even lesstime than this will be found to suffice.
The novel is printed exactly (save correction of printer'serrors) as it appears in the eighth Spanish edition (Madrid,1896). At the same time, great pains have been taken tomake the orthography and accentuation conform in all respectsto the standard of the last edition of the Spanish Academy'sDictionary. The Notes are considerably fuller than is customaryin college editions of modern works in foreign languages.This has been made necessary in part by the dreadful insufficiencyof the existing Spanish-English dictionaries, and in partby the editor's desire to afford the student some aid in dealingwith grammatical peculiarities not fully discussed in the moreavailable text-books. As a further help to grammatical study,numerous references have been inserted to Ramsey's Text-Bookof Modern Spanish (New York, 1894) and to Knapp's Grammarof the Modern Spanish Language (Boston, 1891).
A.R.M.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
March, 1897
In the new impression of this book the accentuation has beenconformed to the new (fourteenth) edition of the Academy'sDictionary, a small number of misprints have been corrected, anda vocabulary has been added.
As is stated in the above preface, a considerable part of thenotes in the first impression were intended as a partial substitutefor a vocabulary. Obviously, the insertion of the vocabulary madesuch notes mainly superfluous; hence in the present edition suchnotes as seemed to be mere duplication of the vocabulary areomitted. At the same time it was inevitable that in the work ofcompiling the vocabulary some additional occasions for makingnotes were found, and new light was obtained on some placeswhere notes already stood. The result is that the notes in thepresent impression, though shorter than before, contain (apartfrom vocabulary matter) more information, and it is hoped thatthey will at least maintain the reputation which this edition ofDoña Perfecta has gained.
Besides the references to the grammars of Ramsey and Knapp,references to Coester's Spanish Grammar (Boston, 1912) arenow given.
The two literary genres in which Spaniards have mostexcelled are the drama and the novel. Indeed, outside ofthese two forms, it may be said that no Spaniard has won aliterary success of the first order. Thus, in the past six centuriesthere have been many Spanish poets of real worth; andyet in the list of the world's supreme poets no Spanish nameappears. Among the world's great philosophers Spain has norepresentative, though she has had thinkers of genuine power.She has had no moralist, or historian, or political writer, orscientist of the highest rank. Even