Emilia Pardo Bazán and de la Rúa Figueroa (1851-1921) was a Spanish writer who belonged to the nobility and aristocracy of the 19th century. He stood out for being a novelist, journalist, essayist, poet and playwright. In addition, she also did a good job as a literary critic, editor, translator and professor. She was one of the first feminists of her time.
The writer was part of the philosophical current of Naturalism, which considered nature as the origin of everything real. On the other hand, within her work to defend the position of women of the time, she asserted her right to be educated and instructed, and not only relegated to housework..
The passion that Emilia had for reading since she was little, led her to write from a very young age. In the new years he had already written his first verses. In his teens, at the age of fifteen, he wrote A 20th Century Marriage. From then on his literary production did not stop.
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Emilia Pardo Bazán was born on September 16, 1851 in La Coruña. He came from a family of high social and economic class. His parents were the Count and politician José María Pardo Bazán y Mosquera, and Amalia María de la Rúa Figueroa y Somoza. Being an only child allowed her to have a good education.
Emilia's father had a significant influence on her ideas and tastes for reading. From an early age he began to read the great classics such as Don Quijote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, The Iliad Homer, and the Bible. In his father's library he found a paradise to learn and imagine.
Pardo Bazán was a regular reader of books related to history and the wars for independence and freedom. He read all the texts that he found on the French Revolution, in the same way he delighted with Plutarco and his Parallel lives, and with The conquest of Mexico by Antonio Solís.
While studying in Madrid at a French institution, he soaked up the works of authors such as Jean Racine and La Fontaine. It was in his childhood that he had already had contact with the French writer Victor Hugo. He strongly opposed receiving the education of the girls and young people of his time.
Leaving aside the conventional education that existed for women, teaching music and housework, she received private classes from prominent teachers. He learned English, French and German. In addition, he studied and learned several subjects, especially in the area of humanities.
The time in which Emilia grew up was difficult for the educational and academic development of women. Such a situation prevented the young woman from entering the university. However, he decided to continue learning about social and scientific advances through the books and friendships his parents had..
At the age of 25, in 1876, his first writing came out Critical Study of the Works of Father Feijoo, who was a religious and essayist whom Emilia had empathy and admiration for. Later he published a collection of poems dedicated to his first son, which is why he called it James.
In 1879, he published what was considered his first novel: Pascual López, Autobiography of a Medical Student. The work was developed within the guidelines of Romanticism and Realism. It was published in the then renowned Spanish Magazine.
The nobleman José Quiroga y Pérez Deza became Emilia's husband when she was barely sixteen years old. He was a law student, and he was also three years older than her. As a result of the marriage, three children were born: Jaime, Blanca and Carmen.
Although from the beginning the young couple supported each other to achieve their goals, as the years went by they grew apart due to the constant intellectual activities of the writer..
Pardo Bazán refused to put aside the writing, although her husband had asked her to. For a long time he went to Italy, and then there was no longer room to keep the couple relationship firm. So they both decided to end it with a friendly separation and on good terms..
From an early age Emilia showed herself to be different. His concerns about education and training were different from those that Spanish society dictated for the time.
The education she received and the trips she made allowed her to educate herself in such a way that she knew that women could be and give more than what she was limited to.
Throughout her life she fought for the rights of women; his interest made it clear both in his writings and in social action. He believed that a new society was fair, where the female gender could be educated and perform the same jobs as men, with equal benefits..
Emilia Pardo Bazán was always in the limelight. He did it both with his literary, academic and intellectual activity, as well as being an activist for women's rights. After their separation, she had a love affair with fellow Spanish writer Benito Pérez Galdós.
Scholars claim that the infatuation lasted more than twenty years. It was the letters that were written that attested to the romance, after being published in 1970. The novelist died in Madrid on May 12, 1921.
Emilia Pardo Bazán's work was extensive. The writer had the ability to write novels, narrative, essays, critiques, travel books, lectures, speeches, as well as lyrical, theater, and journalistic material. His style was detailed in the description, and with deep psychological aspects.
The following are some of the most important works of the author, within each genre.
The Tribune (1883), Bucolic (1885), The Young Lady (1885), Mother nature (1887), Homesickness (1889), Insolation (1889), Memoirs of a Bachelor (1896), Vampire (1901), Gods (1919) and The Serpe (1920).
The Legend of the Pastoriza (1887), Tales of the Earth (1888), Tales of Marineda (1892), Love stories (1898), Sacred Profane Tales (1899), A Ripper of Old (1900), Tales of the Fatherland (1902) and Tragic Tales (1912).
Critical Study of the Works of Father Feijoo (1876), The Burning Question (1883), Of my land (1888), New Critical Theater (1891-1892), Modern French Literature (1910-1911) and finally, The Future of Literature after the War (1917).
My Pilgrimage (1887), Through Picturesque Spain (1895), For Catholic Europe (1902) and Notes of a trip from Spain to Geneva, out of 1873.
The Wedding Dress (1899), Luck (1904), Truth (1906), The Metal Calf, Y Youth.
Some of the most recognized works of the Spanish author are described below..
This novel is considered the first of a social and naturalistic nature made in Spain. The writer based the argument on the life of a woman who works in a factory, and at the same time describes the air that is breathed inside the workplace.
The author made clear the strength of women in the face of various situations that arise in life. In the case of the protagonist, fighting against employers for labor rights, in addition to the abandonment by a man who leaves her alone with a son, for whom she has to fight.
This time it is a short novel, in which Pardo Bazán expresses the capacity that women can have to improve themselves, and at the same time the fear of facing the changes of a society that is constantly evolving..
Dolores and Concha are two sisters united by blood, but separated by their desires and beliefs. Dolores, after her love affair, lives in sadness and with hatred towards men. However, Concha strives to achieve social status through theater..
With this work Pardo Bazán managed to explain the objectivity and at the same time the realism typical of the naturalist current. In addition, it reflected its alignment with positivism as the method that takes for granted that scientific knowledge is the most genuine.
It is the story of the young priest Julián, who travels to the town of the town that gives the title to the letter to provide his services to the Marquis Don Pedro Moscoso. Once in the place the clergyman realizes that nothing is as they paint it, but a complete disaster.
With this writing, the author expressed her knowledge of nature, botany and the traditions of the peoples, especially of her land, Galicia. The novel is highly descriptive, and the lyrical content is broader than in his other works.
On Mother nature, Perucho and Manolita are the main characters. They are brothers on the father's side and are involved in an attraction that is forbidden by the blood bond, but that ends in the incestuous act of excessive passion.
Fragment:
"The law of nature,
Isolated, alone, invoke her
beasts: we invoke
another higher. That's what we are for
men, sons of God and
redeemed by him ".
At first they were a series of articles that the writer published in Spanish media about the works of the Frenchman Émile Zola, later grouped into a single work and published in 1883. Because of this work, Emilia was besieged.
It consisted in making known the new ideas of modernism in a Spain that was not yet ready. Besides that Naturalism, under the precepts that the work was written, was considered obscene and vulgar, and at the same time lacking in elegance and sobriety..
With the publication of this novel, Pardo Bazán focused on the development of the psychology of the characters, and that is how he moved away from the characteristics of Naturalism to which he had accustomed his audience. Their argument takes place within the ups and downs of a love relationship.
Sunstroke is the story of a widowed woman who decided to have a relationship with a man a few years younger than her. The writer took the opportunity to make maximum use of the feminism that she defended so much, as well as the debate over the morality of the society of her time.
The narration of the story begins in the middle of the events of the same. Although physically the protagonist Asís Taboada suffers a heatstroke after attending the fairs, it is more a reflection of the pain she feels for being seduced by Diego Pacheco.
In the case of this short novel, the author again made a critique of society, and of people who seek to obtain things for their convenience. This time he argued about marriages that were carried out without the couple loving each other, but only to solve economic problems and social conflicts..
The main characters are the wealthy and sick old man Fortunato Gayoso and the young fifteen-year-old Inés. The husband regains health through the girl's youth, while she deteriorates. Although it is a fiction, it reflects the vitality and energy that is lost when you are not comfortable with someone.
Emilia Pardo Bazán left an indelible mark. His literary work and his constant work in search of a dignified treatment for women marked a before and after in society. Their passage through history paved the way for women to continue claiming their value and rights.
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