ABSTRACT
The position of Armando Palacio Valdes with regard to the contemporary literature of his country is as yet undecided. His Hermana San Sulpicio is a work of great merit, thoroughly Spanish in tone, well executed, and containing some very clever character-drawing. Don Jose Zorrilla became, after the death of Espronceda, the chief representative of the Romantic school of poetry in Spain. When Zorrilla’s reputation as a poet was at its height, it happened that a speculative firm of booksellers at Barcelona bought up some of the worn plates of Dore’s illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. Zorrilla accepted from this firm a commission to write poems on national subjects to suit the illustrations, and thus give the purchasers an opportunity of making use of their bargain. Of contemporary Spanish poets Nunez de Arce is probably the one who gives proof of the most genuine inspiration. Nunez de Arce is a man of action as well as a poet.
