Three big Spanish Naturalist writers and their books
Emilia Pardo Bazán.The best writer of Spanish
Naturalism scandalised with her third novel,La tribuna
(1883), a groundbreaking insight into life in a Galician
tobacco factory.Los pazos de Ulloa(1886) was her
finest work, a depressing but brilliant profile of
aristocratic decay against a rich, expertly coloured
Galician backdrop. She also wrote short stories and
essays, many taking a swipe at other authors.Leopoldo Alas y Ureña. Better known by the
pseudonym Clarín, he was a Realist who felt the gentle
pull of Naturalism. He found fame in his own day as a
critic, but posterity usually aligns him with the novel
La Regenta(1884), charting a woman’s demise at the
hands of small town spite, often compared with
Flaubert’sMadame Bovary.Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. Valencia provided a setting
for Ibáñez’ edgy earliest and best novels. He wrote
furiously, imbibing the bitter, often downtrodden
characters with his own vigorous awareness of social
injustice, best seen inLa barraca(1898) andCaños y
Barro(1902). InLos cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis(1916)
he wrote popularly on how the First World War was
affecting society. An inveterate traveller, he later fled
Spain for France when the Falangist Primo de Rivera
took power.82- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
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7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Bazán smokes
out the truth
Bazán spent two months
in a tobacco factory
researching forLa tribuna,
the first Spanish novel to
pick through the lives of
the contemporary working
class. Recognised as a
champion of women’s
rights, Bazán was created
Condesa (countess) in
later life on the back of
her writing success,
despite ongoing attacks
from conservatives who
deemed her work
immoral.