The biographical matter of this introduction is taken from two short
lives of Alarcón, one by José Calvo y Teruel, prefixed to the 1870
edition of _Poesías serias y humorísticas_; and the other by Mariano
Catalina, written after Alarcón's death (1905) and published with volume
I (_Cuentos Amatorios_) of the _Novelas Cortas_.
Of serious critical matter concerning Alarcón, I have seen, besides what
is in the usual histories of Spanish Literature, [p. xvi] only the
essay on _El Sombrero de tres picos_ by Luis Alfonso, prefixed to the
book, in the _Colección de Escritores Castellanos_, and what is given by
Padre Francisco Blanco García, in his _Literatura Española en el Siglo
XIX_, 2d edition, Madrid, 1903, vol. II, pp. 452-467. Both seem
unscientific, and not useful, though both have very good will; and Luis
Alfonso's essay has a certain value as an historical document.