VALLE-INCLÁN: BIOGRAPHY AND COMPLETE WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright who was part of the literary movement known as Modernismo. This current was characterized by the change of paradigms as a consequence of the creativity of the artists, as well as by innovation in aesthetics and language.

Valle-Inclán, whose birth name was Ramón José Simón Valle Peña, stood out in all the genres that he developed during the 20th century. The way he wrote his last works brought him closer to the work carried out by the Generation of 98. This writer was characterized by being precise and clear.

Valle-Inclán. Source: Pau Audouard Deglaire

The playwright was always linked to the theater and his literary capacity allowed him to show life from humor and caricature. Two forms are recognized in the Valle-Inclán style: the first related to Modernism and the second to the “grotesque” technique created by him.

Biography

Valle-Inclán was born on October 28, 1866 in the town of Villanueva de Arosa. He was the son of the sailor Ramón del Valle Bermúdez de Castro and Dolores de la Peña y Montenegro. Although the family owned some properties, they led a modest life.

First years of formation

Little Valle-Inclán, just like his brothers, was educated in the best way. He had contact with literature through his father's library and received training from the teacher Carlos Pérez Noal, with whom he learned everything about Latin grammar.

Some time later, when he was nine years old, he entered the Institute of Second Education in Santiago de Compostela.

He attended high school in the city of Pontevedra and apathy kept him away from good grades. At that time he met the writer Jesús Muruáis, who was a great literary influence for him.

University and literature

He completed high school at the age of nineteen and entered the University of Santiago de Compostela to study law, more than by his own desire, to please his father. It was usual to see him visit literary places and libraries.

In 1888 he decided to study drawing. At that time, he began to write his works in the magazine Café with drops and later published the story A media noche in the weekly La Ilustracion Ibérica. Valle-Inclán actively participated in the journalistic activity of the city of Santiago.

The writer's father died while he was still in college. Despite his sadness, he felt liberated and dropped out of law studies; he never felt any interest and did not advance in the career.

Then he made the decision to go live in the capital of the country, Madrid, to start his true passion.

Stay in Madrid and Mexico

Valle-Inclán went to Madrid in 1890. The playwright's first two years in the capital were not entirely easy: his father's inheritance was not enough and his work did not give him a living.

However, he took the opportunity to start making a name for himself by frequenting the cafes and social gatherings that took place in the city.

His teacher and also friend, the journalist Alfredo Vicenti, gave him the opportunity to work for the newspaper El Globo; However, he did not earn the necessary money to pay for his living, so he decided to leave Madrid without being a recognized writer yet.

In 1892 he made the decision to go to Mexico; it was his first trip to America. In the Aztec country he wrote for the newspapers El Universal, El Veracruzano Independiente and El Correo español. His stay coincided with the government of Porfirio Díaz, who censured his work.

The year he was in Mexico was full of emotions and incidents due to the political situation in the country. It was then that he was motivated to make writing his job; from there the narratives that gave rise to the work Femeninas were born.

From Pontevedra to Madrid

In 1893 he returned to Spain and spent time in Pontevedra, where he met up with old friends. Valle-Inclán was a new man, refined in clothing and with a more elaborate way of expressing himself. At that time he published the work that made him feel like a writer: Femeninas, in 1894.

Valle-Inclán cartoon published in Madrid Cómico. Source: Ramón Cilla

In 1895 he returned to Madrid to preside over a position in the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts. Between one cafe and another he was able to make friends with prominent personalities in literature; Azorín, Jacinto Benavente and Pío Baroja stand out, among many others.

That second stage in Madrid was framed in his life as a bohemian. With his peculiar dress, long beard and penniless, he lived without apparent concern. He did not abandon the literary activity and in 1897 he published his second book, entitled Epitalamio.

Without arm and with Rubén Darío

On July 24, 1899, he had an argument with his friend, the journalist Manuel Bueno Bengoechea, about the legal nature of a duel that was going to take place. This disagreement caused a wound on his left wrist; his forearm became infected and had to be amputated to guarantee his life.

On December 19 of that same year he premiered the play Ashes. With the profits he made, his friends proposed to him to buy a prosthesis. He maintained friendship with the attacker and continued to carry out his activities; however, he abandoned the idea of ​​being an actor.

During that same period he met and became a good friend of the Nicaraguan writer Rubén Darío, with whom he shared the ideas of Modernism. The friendship originated when the poet traveled to the Spanish capital and frequented the gatherings of the Café de Madrid.

General aspects of your life

The writer remained active in literary activity. While winning some contests, he continued to write. The Sonatas of the Marqués de Bradomín was considered the most exemplary prose work of Spanish Modernism literature.

Valle-Inclán also made a marital life. Already in his late thirties, he married the Spanish actress Josefina Blanco Tejerina, who was twelve years younger.

The couple had six children. Together with his family he traveled America as artistic director of his wife. Despite these efforts, the writer's publications were frequent; for example, in 1912 he premiered the play La Marquesa Rosalinda.

Valle-Inclán spent time living in Galicia, where her second son died after an accident on the beach. The child was 4 months old.

The grotesque of Valle-Inclán

The grotesque was a term used by the writer from 1920. With this word he conceptualized the elements and characteristics of his work, which he defined as the search for the comic, the funny and the satirical in life events.

His own physical appearance and way of dressing made reference to this definition. It was the period in which he was dressed in black, with a long beard that made him look thinner than he already was. Thus he maintained the bohemian aspects that characterized him for much of his existence.

Death

Sculpture in honor of Valle-Inclán in Bouzas. Source: HombreDHojalata, from Wikimedia Commons

Some years before his death, the writer received several awards for his literary work and was also appointed to hold some positions in institutions and organizations. It was around this time that his wife filed for divorce.

Ramón José Simón Valle Peña died on January 5, 1936 in the city of Santiago de Compostela. His death was caused by typhus and a bladder disease. The burial was simple and without the presence of any religious, as he had requested.

Complete works

Valle-Inclán's works ran through various literary genres: theater, poetry, novel, translations, narrative, and newspaper articles. Some were developed within Modernism, and others within what he called grotesque.

Theater

The work was torn between the earthly and the spiritual. It dealt with the forbidden love between two young people named Pedro Pondal and Octavia Santino; the woman was married.

The Marquis of Bradomín

This work by Valle-Inclán was premiered on January 25, 1906 at the Teatro de la Princesa. The theater piece was inspired by the life of the Spanish soldier Carlos Calderón y Vasco. It developed the story of a conquering and seductive man of the high social elites.

The Marchioness Rosalinda

It's a kind of art comedy; that is to say, of the popular theater that was born in Italy in the middle of the 16th century. It was premiered at the Teatro de la Princesa, in Madrid, on March 5, 1912. It is about a marquise conquered by a harlequin; in the story the jealous husband locks up his wife.

The haunted

This play was published in the magazine El mundo on November 25, 1912 and in 1931 it began to be represented on stage. It has a large number of characters, nineteen in total, and is set in Galicia.

It tells the story of Rosa, known as La galana, who made a claim to Don Pedro since her son, already dead, is the father of the child she is waiting for. Therefore, she wanted him to be recognized as part of that family.

Bohemian lights

This fifteen-scene play was the beginning of the Valle-Inclán grotesque cycle. It began to be published in the weekly Spain in 1920.

It tells of the miserable life of Max Estrella, a forgotten Andalusian poet. At the same time, it was a criticism of society for putting its valuable people into oblivion.

The horns of Don Friolera

This play belonged to the cycle of the absurd work of Valle-Inclán. It tells the story of Doña Loreta, who was unfaithful to her husband, Friolera, with the town barber. Upon finding out, the victim planned revenge against the traitors.

Tyrant flags

It also belonged to the grotesque cycle. It tells the story of the dictator Santos Banderas after the fall of his government.

The author describes the despotic behavior of the ruler. The language used gave it great value and this work was recognized as one of the hundred best novels of the 20th century.

The captain's daughter

The work was published in Buenos Aires, in the pages of the newspaper La Nation, on March 20, 1927. In that same year, it was released in Spain in La novela Mundial, specifically on July 28. This Valle-Inclán theater piece has been represented countless times.

The captain's daughter tells the story of Sini, who was forced to maintain a sentimental relationship with the general in order for her father, Captain Sinibaldo Pérez, to have more professional growth. Then the golfante appears, who falls in love with the young woman and turns the story upside down.

The Iberian ring

They are a group of novels by Valle-Inclán developed in three parts. The court of miracles, Long live my owner and Baza de espadas are the titles of the three cycles. They deal with the history of Spain and the form of the reign of Isabel II. The tone used is sarcastic and burlesque.

References

1. Fernández, J. (2018). Ramón María del Valle Inclán. Spain: Hispanoteca. Recovered from: hispanoteca.eu
2. Ramón María del Valle Inclán. (2018). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org
3. Manrique, W. (2016). The two faces of Valle Inclán. Spain: The Country. Recovered from: elpais.com
4. Tamaro, E. (2004-218). Ramón del Valle-Inclán. (N / a): Biographies and Lives: The Online Biographical Encyclopedia. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com
5. Santos, M. (2018). Introduction to the life and work of Valle-Inclán. Spain: Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Recovered from: cervantesvirtual.com.