Valle-Inclan, a Galician, was a central figure in the renaissance of Spanish literature early in this century, though his fame has not travelled to English-speaking lands. These two novelas are seen through the eyes of his fictional Marquis of Bradomin, a kind of Don Juan figure who seems to move and exist in a nebulously defined 18th-century setting. The titles have little relevance and are merely a typical period flourish, but the writing, while sometimes dated and extravagant, has genuine imaginative vitality and Valle-Inclan's mingling of fantasy and historicity is curiously like the wave of recent novels which traverse the same ground. Erotic tension, violence, cultured irony and High Camp make him in some ways a forerunner of Borges. B.F.