The Joy of Captain Ribot
THE JOY OF CAPTAIN RIBOT
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION FROM THE
ORIGINAL OF
A. PALACIO VALDÉS
BY
MINNA CAROLINE SMITH
NEW YORK
BRENTANO'S
1900
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY
BRENTANOS.
| Chapter: I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII. |
Introduction
"We Americans are apt to think because we have banged the Spanishwar-ships to pieces that we are superior to the Spaniards, but here inthe field where there is always peace they shine our masters. If we haveany novelists to compare with theirs at their best, I should be puzzledto think of them, and I should like to have some one else try"—wroteWilliam Dean Howells in Literature.
When a work by one of the world's masters of fiction has called forth aremark like the foregoing from a leading man of letters in America, itwould be a misfortune if the public to whom the remark is addressedmight not enjoy the privilege of acquaintance with that work. And it wasthis most charming novel by Señor Armando Palacio Valdés, "La Alegriadel Capitán Ribot," that prompted Mr. Howells to write those words. Anyreader must be hard to please who would not take the keenest delight ina story presented with a touch so delicate. The scene is laid inValencia, one of the earth's famous garden spots, where the touch of theclassic hand, laid upon the spot ages ago yet lingers. It is a storydominated by the purest joy, as its serene Mediterranean landscape isdominated by the purest sunshine.
Every novelist of character must have some purpose in mind in a givenwork, and the purpose of Señor Valdés in this is of no slight import. Ithappens that, from an unclean quality that distinguishes the fiction ofa certain nation, the minds of many lands have been infected. For thealmost universal aim of its authors has seemed to be so pervasively tocolor their pictures of life with one particular kind of sin as to givethe impression that it is a main factor of modern civilization, inste