I cannot accept Costa as a modern
European, intellectually. He was a figure for the Cortes of Cadiz,
solemn, pompous, becollared and rhetorical. He was one of those actors
who abound in southern countries, who are laid to rest in their graves
without ever having had the least idea that their entire lives have been
nothing but stage spectacles.
REVOLUTIONISTS
Whether politicians or authors, the Spanish revolutionists always smack
to my mind of the property room, and especially is this true of the
authors. Zozaya, Morote and Dicenta have passed for many years now as
terrible men, both destructive and great innovators. But how ridiculous!
Zozaya, like Dicenta, has never done anything but manipulate the
commonplace, failing to impart either lightness or novelty to it, as
have Valera and Anatole France, succeeding only on the other hand in
making it more plumbeous and indigestible.
Speaking of Luis Morote, against whom I urge nothing as a man, he has
always been a bugbear to me, the personification of dullness, of
vulgarity, of everything that lacks interest and charm. I can conceive
nothing lower than an article by Morote.
"What talent that man has! What a revolutionary personality!" they used
to say in Valencia, and once the janitor at the Club added: "To think I
knew that man when he was only this high!" And he held out his hand
about a metre above the ground.
Pages:
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171