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Excerpt from Contemporary Spanish Dramatists: Plays by Pérez Galdos, Linares Rivas, Marquina, Zamacois, Dicenta and the Alvarez Quinteros The interest awakened in America during the past few years in the drama has led to the publication of many trans lations from the various European languages. Many ex cellent collections, as well as numerous individual plays, have appeared in English translation. The American public has been learning to read plays, an art hitherto neglected in this country, and the works of Hauptmann and Sudermann, Brieux and Rostand, Maeterlinck and d'annunzio, and many of lesser note, have become well known even to those unfamiliar with the languages of the originals. One country alone has been practically ignored in the compilation of these collections from contemporary dramatists. With a few exceptions, the drama of Spain of today is unavailable to those who do not read Spanish. Of her recent dramatists only Echegaray has been translated to any extent, and he can scarcely be considered contemporary. No collection of modern Spanish plays exists. A volume, Plays by Bena vente, recently translated by Mr. J. G. Underhill, and a few isolated plays are all that have been published in book form. Several others have appeared in dramatic and literary maga zines. Of the plays contained in this volume, only Elec tra has been previously translated. This is included here as probably the best and most typical of Galdés' dramatic works. There are in print no translations of any of the works of Mar uina, Linares Rivas, Dicenta or Zamacois. The peculiarlqpanish atmosphere of the theatrical produc tions of that country may have inuenced translators to believe that they would not appeal to the American reader. It is this very atmosphere peculiar to the Peninsula that has inspired the present volume, with the hope of aiding in a better understanding of the life and spirit of Spain. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rar