Pablo Neruda, pseudonym of Neftalí Reyes, is one of the greatest and most controversial poets of present-day Spanish America; hence it is very fitting to make known in English translation his Odas elementales (1954, 1956, 1957). In them, as in his other poems with social connotations, Neruda has a message for the masses; he writes of human beings, the simple things of nature, and social institutions. Carlos Lozano’s translations are structured in short, irregular verses which retain the lightness and plasticity of the original. Fernando Alegría’s helpful introduction shows that Neruda’s poetry has undergone constant change.
Victor M. Valenzuela studies with acumen the literary production of four writers who occupied themselves with the social, economic, and political problems which emerged in Chile after the War of the Pacific (1879). Luis Orrego Luco was the first novelist to describe objectively the aristocracy of Santiago in its social decomposition. Through his works, human documents, he introduced the psychological novel. Emilio Rodríguez Mendoza, whose memoirs are intensely human and original, was an innovator in the journalistic field with his intimate sketches of the congress which created something of a scandal. Baldomero Lillo was the first author to describe authentically the miserable conditions in which the miners lived; he also wrote works characterized by humor, imagination, and local manners. Federico Gana was the first author to give an esthetic category to the rustic who endures resignedly the adversities of fate.
