Jose Maria Eca de Queiros (1845-1900) was a Portuguese author in the realist style, whose work has been translated into 20 languages. The Count of Abranhos was published posthumously, and this is the first time it has been translated into English. Alipio Severo Abranhos, born to poor parents in a small town in the north of Portugal, goes off to spend his boyhood and adolescence with an aunt whose material well-being constitutes, for him, the lap of luxury. And he likes and becomes accustomed to luxury. As he follows a course of study for his bacharel at the University of Coimbra, certain negative character traits come to the fore, and upon completion of his degree he leaves behind a pregnant maid to take up residence in Lisbon. In the capital, he calculates-as a young man with neither position, nor fortune, nor social standing-how to get ahead in life. And the path is through marriage to a young woman of social status and promise of a sizable dowry, both of which can facilitate his rise in politics and government. Alipio's weapons, his means, are various modes of hypocrisy-social hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy, filial hypocrisy, and political hypocrisy, with dishonesty, cowardice, and a farcical duel thrown in for good measure. Eca, like all accomplished novelists, does not tell us what Alipio becomes, rather he lets us see what he becomes, for with his unerring sense of satire, of character portrayal, and plot movement he lets the Count of Abranhos, with his steps and missteps, inform us himself of what he becomes. And with his actions, Alipio Severo Abranhos emerges as the personification, the very epitome, of the grim state of politics in nineteenth-century Portugal, a state engendered by the dogged pursuit of power. And through the obsequious eyes of Alipio's biographer and the sycophantic hangers-on who wish to glory in his orbit, readers have a clear picture of the "great" man-a type who exhibits universal characteristics not confined to Eca de Queiros's native country, nor to his time.

Don Alvaro, or the Force of Fate by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas (1791-1865), premiered in 1835 in Madrid and changed the Spanish stage forever after. It was the benchmark Romantic play of early nineteenth-century Spain. In this English edition designed for either classroom use or performance, Robert Fedorchek presents a readable translation faithful to the tone and spirit of the original. Joyce Tolliver enhances the book with a rich introduction highlighting the work's lasting significance.
The play tells of the torrid love of the mysterious Don Alvaro and the lovely Doqa Leonor, and how fate intervenes, by way of Alvaro's role in the accidental death of Leonor's father, to bring about the extermination of Leonor's family at the hands of the man who loves her to distraction.
Although chronologically not the first Spanish Romantic drama, Don Alvaro is generally considered the true exponent of the freedom of expression that Romanticism brought to the theater. It does away with all the Neoclassical rules: it exceeds twenty-four hours; the action takes place in two countries; it mixes high and low; prose alternates with verse; and the characters express, melodramatically and passionately, their innermost feelings. It is also generally considered the first play in the best trilogy, along with Antonio Garcma Gutiirrez's El trovador (The troubadour, 1836) and Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch's Los amantes de Teruel (The lovers of Teruel, 1837).
Robert M. Fedorchek is Professor of Spanish at Fairfield University. He has translated into English numerous works, among them Stories of Enchantment from Nineteenth-Century Spain, Juan Valera's Doqa Luz, and Concha Castroviejo's The Gardenwith Seven Gates. Joyce Tolliver is Associate Professor of Spanish and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has published widely on nineteenth-century Spanish literature.

Juanita La Larga (1896), the third of Juan Valera's eponymous novels with a female protagonist, unfolds in a small town in nineteenth-century Spain and tells the story of a young girl's romance with a wealthy widower many years her senior. In addition to their substantial difference in years and class, the lovers must contend with the indignation of his imperious married daughter, the public rebuke of a churchman, and the strictures of society. As the novel opens, readers are introduced to Juanita in the exuberance of youth. We witness her maturation into a young woman and along the way we watch as she learns to deal with humiliation, anger, jealousy, and a pride that makes for bittersweet moments. Juanita reveals a cunning personality that is complemented by a dogged determination and an iron will; once she realizes what she wants in life neither the fear of reprisal nor the prospect of ostracism deters her. Other well-conceived, well-delineated characters are Juana, Juanita's mother and village do-it-all; Dona Ines, the haughty, sanctimonious daughter of the widower Don Paco who falls head over heels in love with Juanita and wants to marry her; Don Alvaro Roldan, Dona Ines's dissolute husband; and Don Policarpo, the town druggist. This charming work appears here for the first time in English and is elegantly translated by Robert M. Fedorchek. ""Juanita la Larga"" gives Valera an opportunity to describe, in loving detail, life in an Andalusian hamlet: its social levels, political intrigues, religious observances, rustic amenities, and hearty fare. But above all it offers a vibrant picture of Juanita, a worthy sister to other Valera heroines like Pepita of ""Pepita Jimenez"" (1874) and Luz of ""Dona Luz"" (1879).

Juan Valera's ""The Illusions of Doctor Faustino"" (Las ilusiones del doctor Faustino) came out in 1875, one year after the resounding success of his ""Pepita Jimenez"". One of the author's contemporaries, the critic Manuel de la Revilla, considered it among the most important novels of his time and compared it to Flaubert's ""L'Education"" sentimentale on account of the negative influence of Romanticism on the protagonist's character and life.Don Faustino Lopez de Mendoza, scion of an illustrious but impoverished family of the highest nobility, believes himself destined for great accomplishments in the literary world, sees himself as a poet of the first rank, and immerses himself in grand, if not grandiose, illusions.While living in a provincial Andalusian town and dreaming of triumphing in Madrid's artistic circles, Faustino embarks on a discovery of love, anguishes over his impecunious state, and engages in endless self-analysis. Love - or, at all events, a monetarily advantageous marriage - seems to go hand in glove with turning his illusions and dreams into triumphs and realities.He falls for Costanza and is rejected by her; he falls for Maria and she eludes him; he thinks he falls for Rosita then callously scorns her after meeting up again with Maria, who flees from him after a night of lovemaking. Reduced to financial ruin by a revengeful Rosita, Faustino betakes himself to the Spanish capital. Many years later all three women, as well as his daughter Irene (by Maria), converge in Madrid, and how he extricates himself from each relationship and meets his sad end constitutes the denouement of this searching novel that depicts the deleterious effects of the Romantic malaise that swept through western Europe in the early part of the nineteenth century.

This collection of fourteen stories and one minidrama features children protagonists, talking birds, and extraordinary occurrences. Like the tales of Charles Perrault and the brothers Grimm, they speak to fantasies and fears that are our constant companions in life, which means that although they are peopled with children protagonists, they are not for children alone. The introduction provides background on Concha Castroviejo and considers her production of juvenile literature in mid twentieth-century Spain and in relation to authors like Elizabeth Mulder and Maria Luisa Gefaell; it then takes up themes in the book and discusses them. The Spanish author Concha Castroviejo (1910-95) was born in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela. After studies at the university there and in France, she fled to Mexico with her husband following the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and did not return to Spain until 1950. She published two novels: Those Who Went Away (Los que se fueron, 1957) and Eve of Hate (Vispera del odio, 1959), both with the Spanish Civil War as background; two children's books: The Garden with Seven Gates (El jardin de las siete puertas, 1961) and Lina's Days (Los dias de Lina, 1971); and short fiction, literary criticism, and journalism in La Estafeta Literaria, Insula, Q. P., La hoja del Lunes, and Informaciones. Her writings received a number of literary prizes and her works have been translated into French, Slovak, and English.

The great nineteenth-century Portuguese author Jose Maria Eca de Queiros (1845-1900) has long been known for his novels, especially The Crime of Father Amaro (1880) and The Maias (1888). However, he also wrote short stories, and a number of them, having stood the test of time, are now regarded as masterpieces. Although there is no question that Eca owes the lion's share of his reputation to his long fiction, the tales in this collection tell us that we are reading the work of a writer in full control of both genres. The eleven selections range widely in theme and length and, except for "The Catastrophe"(which was published posthumously), are arranged in order of the year of publication. "The Falling Snow" and "Master Devil" contain elements of both the fantastic and realistic, a number of which call to mind Edgar Allan Poe, a writer whom Eca read and greatly admired. The power of love becomes the obsession of love in "The Peculiarities of a Blonde Girl" and "Jose Matias," two of the stories that stand at the pinnacle of Eca's reputation as a short story writer. "Civilization" will speak to nostalgia for a rustic life, while "Perfection" searches, through Ulysses and a special goddess, into a different kind of life, one without blemish. Other tales explore the nature of sacrifice ("The Wet Nurse"), greed and betrayal ("The Treasure"), jealousy and vengeance ("The Dead Man"), and faith in a young rabbi named Jesus ("The Gentle Miracle"). No one knows why Eca withheld publication of "The Catastrophe," but this powerful story engages us with its naked intensity, its aroused passion, and its blunt honesty, for it amounts to a ringing endorsement of the exalted meaning of patriotism.