Martes de Carnaval: Las Galas del Difunto; Los Cuernos de Don Friolera; La Hija del Capitán.

by Ramón María del Valle-Inclán

Colección Austral 1337

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Ramón del Valle-Inclán was born into an impoverished aristocratic family in a rural village in Galicia, Spain. Obedient to his father’s wishes, he studied law in Compostela, but after his father’s death in 1889 he moved to Madrid to work as a journalist and critic. In 1892 Valle-Inclán traveled to Mexico, where he remained for more than a year. His first book of stories came out in Spain in 1895. A well-known figure in the cafés of Madrid, famous for his spindly frame, cutting wit, long hair, longer beard, black cape, and single arm (the other having been lost after a fight with a critic), Valle-Inclán was celebrated as the author of Sonatas: The Memoirs of the Marquis of Bradomín, which was published in 1904 and is considered the finest novel of Spanish modernismo, as well as for his extensive and important career in the theater, not only as a major twentieth-century playwright but also as a director and actor. He reported from the western front during World War I, and after the war he developed an unsettling new style that he dubbed esperpento—a Spanish word that means both a grotesque, frightening person and a piece of nonsense—and described as a search for “the comic side of the tragedy of life.” Partly inspired by his second visit to Mexico in 1920, when the country was in the throes of revolution, Tyrant Banderas is Valle-Inclán’s greatest novel and the essence of esperpento.

Reviews

[Gil Blas · Rating 3 out of 5]

La primera vez que oí lo de Don Friolera fue en la zona universitaria de Madrid, “vamos al Donfri”. Era un bareto que frecuentaban los universitarios, pues muchos hacían novillos y terminaban allí. Desde entonces me guardé este título.

El Don Friolera de Valle -Inclán es una obra dedicada a esa lastimera pero graciosa figura del cornudo. Esta tragedia tan entretenida de leer ya fue tratada por Quevedo con frecuencia, lo que conecta a Valle-Inclán con el siglo de oro.
Esta tragicomedia nos hace sentirnos mal por pasarlo bien.

Valle-Inclán crea siempre un lenguaje que embelesa. Es desde luego un artista, aunque esta obra sea menor.

[απέραντος · Rating 3 out of 5]

¡Las galas del difunto me ha gustado mucho! Los cuernos de don Friolera le bajan nota, para mi gusto.

[abril :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

mi favorita la segunda (es la única que entendí 100%)

[patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valle-Inclán eres todo para mí, pim pam pum

[Conchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy bien, me parece increíble como es capaz de convertirte en parte de esa sociedad grotesca que presenta el esperpento. Como es capaz de hacerte comprender su punto de vista, convirtiéndote en parte de él, de lo que critica; como te conviertes sin darte cuenta en un personaje esperpéntico también.