Some one will naturally ask: "Why did not the editor select Galdós' best
play, _El abuelo_, for publication?" I should like to reply to this
question in advance. _El abuelo_, with all its beauties, has certain
features which make it slightly undesirable for use by classes of
American students in High Schools and the elementary years of College.
First, one of its beauties is itself a drawback for this particular
purpose; namely, the rather vague and abstract moral it conveys. Then,
the main-spring of the plot, like that of _Electra_, lies in a dubious
obscurity to which it is not necessary to direct the attention of young
people. _Mariucha_, on the other hand, presents clean-cut, open problems
of daily life, and they are also problems which any American can readily
understand, not local Spanish anachronisms. I chose _Mariucha_ believing
it to be the best fitted for general class use among all the dramas of
Galdós; and I hope that Spanish teachers may not find me wrong.
The Introduction is confined to a discussion of Galdós as a dramatic
author, since a study of his entire work or of his influence on his
generation would be quite out of place.
To my friend and colleague Professor Erasmo Buceta I am deeply grateful
for generous and suggestive help; and I am indebted to Doña María
Pérez-Galdós de Verde for information which gives the Bibliography an
accuracy it could not otherwise have had.