Valle Inclán, Ramón del, 1866-1936, Spanish writer, a member of the
Generation of '98. Valle Inclán was deeply influenced by foreign literary trends, especially by
modernismo. An eccentric who cultivated bizarre legends about himself, he published a collection of sensational, erotic tales,
Femeninas (1895). He used himself as the model for the old libertine hero of his
Sonatas (1902-5, tr.
The Pleasant Memoirs of the Marquis de Bradomín, 1924). His symbolist aesthetic is expressed in his poetic works such as
Aromas de leyenda (1907). Among his plays are
Águila de blasón [eagle of honor] (1907), in prose, and
La Marquesa Rosalinda (1913) in verse. In his later works he satirized Spanish life in grotesque caricatures that he called
esperpentos. Reminiscent of the nightmare etchings of Goya, these include
Luces de Bohemia (1920).
See studies by R. Lima (1972) and J. Lyon (1983).
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