The Complete Works of Ramón del Valle-Inclán: A Comprehensive Guide
Ramón del Valle-Inclán: A Literary Overview
Rejection of Traditional Realism
Ramón del Valle-Inclán’s entire body of work is marked by a distinct rejection of traditional realism.
Conception of the Novel
Valle-Inclán began his narrative career in modernism, embracing an aristocratic conception that defended anti-bourgeois aesthetics. He championed fictional expression through fables and legends, introducing innovative techniques that culminated in the creation of the esperpento genre.
Major Novels
Sonatas
Written in the form of memoirs, the Sonatas represent an allegory of human life. The Marquis de Bradomín, a self-proclaimed “ugly, Catholic, and sentimental” Don Juan, serves as the connecting thread through the four novels: Sonata of Spring, Sonata of Summer, Sonata of Autumn, and Sonata of Winter. Carnal love, including themes of homosexuality and incest, is a dominant theme, alongside death and religion. Two archetypal female images emerge: the femme fatale, with her devilish beauty and cynicism, and the fragile woman with delicate sensuality.
The Carlist War
This trilogy, comprising The Crusaders of the Cause, The Glow of the Fire, and The Grandees of Old, presents a divided Spain facing the liberal tradition. The novels posit liberalism as the source of evil and propose a Carlist model of society—patriarchal and archaic. The characters represent different social sectors: the clergy, linked to Carlism; the rural aristocracy, embodied in Don Juan Manuel de Montenegro; and the common people, acting instinctively, ignorant of the motivations of each side.
Tyrant Banderas
An experiment in the historical novel genre, Tyrant Banderas narrates the fall of the dictator Santos Banderas. Set during All Saints’ Day in an imaginary Mexican city, the novel utilizes grotesque techniques, distorting characters and actions. The dictator, while inspiring fear, is also an object of ridicule, depicted as an element of Mexican festivity. The treatment of time is characterized by reduction and simultaneity, anticipating some of the directions of the new Latin American narrative.
The Iberian Ruggedness
This series of novels aimed to cover the period from the end of Isabella II’s reign to the Cuban War. Valle-Inclán planned three trilogies but completed only two novels: The Court of Miracles and Long Live My Own. Conceived as a single novel about Spanish sensibility, it sought to unmask perspectivism.
Theater
Early Dramatic Works
Valle-Inclán’s early dramatic works applied modernist and symbolist elements, incorporating characters with realistic language and ironically treated attitudes. The Marquis de Bradomín and The Wilderness of Souls dramatize the 19th-century theme of adultery.
The Marquis of Bradomín
This work employs technical procedures and ridicule, featuring multiple settings.
The Wilderness of Souls
This play focuses on the protagonist’s mood, highlighting hypersensitivity and the triumph of sentiments while critiquing religion and bourgeois society.
Galician Dramas
These works share themes, characters, atmosphere, and a mythical, timeless Galician setting. They depict an archaic society with conflicts centered on lust, pride, cruelty, despotism, sin, superstition, and magic.
Barbarian Comedy
Characters embody basic human impulses, driven by obscure reasons.
Divine Words
This play converges a distorted world of freaks and decadent style, centering on Laureaniño the Fool, whose relatives exploit him for profit.
Farces
Valle-Inclán wrote four farces, the last three collected in Table of Puppets for the Education of Princes. They feature show business characters, costumes, and theater within the theater, breaking the stage reality effect.
The Marchioness Rosalinda
Considered one of his most modern works, it criticizes Spain, mocking institutions and customs, employing cinematographic techniques.
The Head of the Dragon
With a fairy-tale atmosphere, it alludes to Spain’s poor economic situation, criticizing the monarchy, courtiers, and military, parodying modernist literature.
The King’s Love
This play contrasts the sentimental and the grotesque.
The Queen Castiza
A satire of Isabella II’s reign, focusing on palace life.
The Scarecrow
This play consistently deforms reality in cartoon form. Humans acquire doll-like and animalistic characteristics, the world blends reality and nightmare, and Achille’s speech is employed.
Luces de Bohemia
Divided into fifteen scenes, the action spans from dusk to the following night, unfolding in multiple locations. Characters resemble puppets, and Valle-Inclán uses quotations beyond parody. Historical events are grotesquely portrayed.
Bohemian Lights:
This esperpento follows Max Estrella, a blind poet, through a nightmarish vision of Madrid. It satirizes Spanish society and the plight of the artist.
Mardi Gras
This trilogy—Don Friolera’s Horns, The Trappings of the Dead, and The Captain’s Daughter—criticizes the Spanish army.