“ The emotional imagination of the writer expressed itself anew in the charming story Riverita (1886) , one of whose attractive characters develops into the heroine of Maximina (1887) ; and from Maximina, in its turn, is taken the novice who figures as a professed nun among the personages of La Hermana San Sulpicio (1889) , in which the love-passages between Zeferino Sanjurjo and Gloria Bermúdez are set off with elaborate, romantic descriptions of Seville. ”

“ El Señorito Octavio, which shows an uncommon power of observation, and the promise of better things to come. In Marta y María (1883) , a portrayal of the struggle between religious vocation and earthly passion, somewhat in the manner of Valera, Palacio Valdes achieved a very popular triumph which placed him in the first rank of contemporary Spanish novelists. El Idilio de un enfermo (1884) , a most interesting fragment of autobiography, has scarcely met with the recognition which it deserves: perhaps because the pathos of the story is too unadorned. ”