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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
For purposes of discussion it is convenient to divide the literary productions of Pereda into two classes; from 1859 until about 1876 he was occupied chiefly with short sketches known as cuadros de costumbres; from 1877 until the virtual close of his career as an author, in 1895 his attention was centered upon novels. Long sketches that approach the dignity of novels appeared before 1877, and Pereda never ceased entirely the composition of short pieces. The distinction just made, however, is roughly true.
1 The leading facts in the life of José María de Pereda may be summarized as follows: Born in Polanco in 1833, he received his early education in the neighboring city of Santander; he spent two years in Madrid (1852–1854) in order to study for the artillery branch of the army; giving up his idea of a military career, he returned to Santander to devote himself to literature; he was elected deputy to the Cortes in 1871, but, disappointed in politics, he returned to his home in 1872 and built a house in Polanco, where the remainder of his life was spent; an easy competence enabled him to write how and when he pleased; in 1897 he was elected a member of the Spanish Academy; his death occurred in 1906.
2 The word novel is used in a general sense; many of Pereda's masterpieces do not conform to a strict definition of the term.
3 The cuadros de costumbres are published in four collections: Escenas montañesas, Tipos y paisajes, Esbozos y rasguños, and Tipos trashumantes; the last mentioned volume contains also the Bocetos al temple, which are rather long sketches or stories.
4 For instance, in the preface to the first edition of the Escenas montañesas Antonio de Trueba had praised Pereda highly, but had suggested that he was perhaps unduly pessimistic in delineation of character and in choice of scene. These remarks are omitted from later editions of the Escenas montañesas, because several changes were made in the grouping of the sketches which removed the applicability of some of Trueba's observations.
5 From the preface to Tipos y paisajes,
6 Ibid.
7 Especially, of course, in Tipos trashumantes.
8 Written in 1880.
9 This is particularly true of the masterly character sketch Blasones y talegas.
10 El Sabor de la tierruca, Sotileza, and La Puchera.
11 Cf. Emilia Pardo Bazán, La Cuestión palpitante, p. 268.
12 Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo, José María de Pereda in Estudios de crítica literaria, vol. v, pp. 414–417; this study is also prefixed to the first volume of Pereda's Obras completas. As a fellow townsman and friend of Pereda, Menéndez y Pelayo was peculiarly interested in the success of his works. He was well acquainted with Pedro Sánchez and other hooks before their publication.
13 Op. cit., pp. 382 ff.
14 See preface to Don Gonzalo González de la Gonzalera.
15 Preface to Escenas montañesas.
16 Menéndez y Pelayo—Pereda—Pérez Gtaldós, Discursos leídos ante la Real Academia Española en las recepciones públicas del 7 y 21 de febrero de 1897.
17 Speech of Pérez Galdós, op. cit., pp. 166 ff.
18 Cf. the first of the Escenas montañesas: Santander antaño y hogaño (1859).
19 Cf. Emilia Pardo Bazán, Los Resquemores de Pereda in her Obras completas, vol. vi, Polémicas y estudios literarios.
20 Speech of Pérez Galdós, op. cit., pp. 184–187. Galdós describes Pereda by a sentence imitated from Quevedo: Érase un hombre pegado a un sistema nervioso.
21 E. Pardo Bazán, Obros completas, vol. vi, pp. 25–65.
22 Los Resquemores de Pereda, already mentioned.
23 Tendencies toward unnecessary argument in Peñas arriba have been mentioned.
24 Cf. R. E. Bassett, Introduction to edition of Pedro Sánchez, pp. xxxv-xl.