Ramón Mª del Valle-Inclán


Category: Writer
Birth Date: 28th October 1866 († 5th January 1936)
Birth Place: Vilanova de Arousa (Pontevedra)
 Curriculum

He studied Secondary Education in Pontevedra and Law in Santiago. After his father?s death he went to Madrid and got in touch with the literary circles of the city. Then he travelled to Mexico and Cuba. In 1935, he returned to Spain and spent the last months of his life interned in a sanatorium in Santiago.

 Work & Activities

His narrative production began in the late 19th century with stories in journalistic publications. In 1903, he gathered four stories in Corte de amor and wrote the tales Jardín umbrío. The stories of Feminas and some others are published in the volume titled Historias Perversas (1907). In all these works Valle-Inclán describes the landscapes and the rural life in Galicia. The publication of the tetralogy Sonatas during the period 1902-1905 (Sonata de otoño (1902), Sonata de estío (1903), Sonata de primavera (1904) y Sonata de invierno (1905)) confirmed his great success as a novelist. In 1904, he also published Flor de Santidad and in 1908 and 1909 he published the trilogy La guerra carlista about the events of the last Civil War. This trilogy consists of the books Las cruzadas de la causa (1908), El resplandor de la hoguera and Gerifaltes de antaño (1909). In 1912 and 1913 he published his work La lámpara maravillosa in the newspaper El Imparcial. His degrading vision of reality is shown in his last novels such as Tirano Banderas (1926). Valle-Inclán tried to wirte a novel about Spanish history from 1868 until Alfonso XII?s death in a cycle titled El Ruedo Ibérico. From this cycle only the first trilogy Los amenes de un reinado is preserved. This trilogy consists of the volumes La corte de los milagros (1927), Viva mi dueño (1928) and Baza de espadas (1932). As far as poetry is concerned, he wrote Aromas de leyendas (1907), La pipa de Kif (1919) and El Pasajero (1920). His dramatic work started with the play El Marqués de Bradomín (1906), El yermo de las almas (1908), Cuento de abril (1910), Voves de gesta (1912) and La cabeza del dragón (1914). He also published La marquesa Rosalinda (1913), El embrujado (1913), Farsa y Licencia de la Reina Castiza. A bit later he changed his technique showing the tragic sense of Spanish life and deforming reality by means of a technique called "esperpento". That?s why he deformed his characters from the physical and psychological point of view. This grotesque technique is reflected in the following theatre plays: Luces de Bohemia, Martes de Carnaval, (a trilogy that consists of the volumes Los Cuernos de Don Friolera, Las galas del difunto and La hija del capitán) and the cycle Retablo de la avaricia, La lujuria y La muerte (1927), that compiles the works Ligazón, La rosa de papel, La cabeza del Bautista, El embrujado and Sacrilegio.