Category Archives: Reference

“(1889-1959) Mexican essayist and poet. One of the young Mexican intellectuals who formed the circle known as the Ateneo de la Juventud, Reyes left his homeland soon after receiving his law degree in 1913. He lived in Spain until 1924 and subsequently served as a Mexican diplomat in France, Argentina, and Brazil. He returned permanently to Mexico in 1939.

Often considered the finest prose stylist of Spanish since Rodo, Reyes was an authority on the literature of Spain’s golden age. He eschewed pedantry, and his work is remarkable for its subtlety, grace, and insight. His best-known work is probably Vision de Anahuac, 1519 (1917), a depiction of Aztec civilization just before the Spanish Conquest. His collections of essays include Capitulos de literature espanola (1939; 1945), Pasado immediate y otros ensayos (1941), Ultima Tule (1942), and Tentativas y orientaciones (1944). He also wrote El deslinde (1944), an introduction to literary theory; Letras de la Nueva Espana (1948), on the culture of colonial Mexico; and La X en la frente (1952), an interpretation of Mexico. Ifigenia cruel (1924) is a dramatic poem based on the classical legend. Collections of his essays in English translation are Mexico in a Nutshell (1964; tr by C. Ramsdell) and The Position of America (1971; tr by H. de Onis).”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

“(1875-1961) Argentine novelist. Larreta was a romantic who wrote with great technical precision. He recreated the Spain of Philip II in La Gloria de don Ramiro (1908; tr The Glory of Don Ramiro, 1924). His dark and lyrical stories are remarkable for images which assault the reader’s senses with colors, sounds, and smells. Other well-known works are two gaucho novels, Zogoibi (1926) and En la pampas (1955), and El Gerardo (1956), a two-part novel set in the Alhambra and Argentina, respectively, shortly after the Spanish civil war.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

the name of which I won’t try to recall, there lived, not long ago, one of those gentlemen, who usually keep a lance upon a rack, an old shield, a lean horse, and a greyhound for coursing.”

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Don Quixote pt I ch. I (1605)

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

“(1884-1963) Chilean novelist and short-story writer. After wandering throughout Latin America and working at a variety of jobs, Barrios settled in Santiago, where he served in the 1920s as minister of education and director of the national library. His mastery of the psychological tale is especially evident in his portrayal of hypersensitive personalities. Such is the ten-year-old protagonist of the novelette El nino que enloquecio de amor (1915), who falls in love with one of his mother’s friends. The hero of Un perdido (1917) is an overwrought weakling who, unable to cope with reality, finds refuge in alcohol. Barrios’s best work is probably El hermano asno (1922; tr Brother Ass, 1942), which deals with the inner conflicts of Brother Lazaro and Brother Rufino, two Franciscan monks. Gran senor y rajadiablos (1948) follows Jose Pedro Valverde, one of literature’s most strongly drawn characters, through a life centered mostly on a large fundo (ranch). Barrios’s last novel, Los hombres del hombre (1950), is a lyrical story of sexual jealousy and insecurity in family life.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.