Reseña del libro "Trece Cuentos del Romanticismo Español"
The Spanish romantic short story is the great unknown of one of the most intriguing Spanish literary trends. Though being the forerunner to the brilliant Spanish short story period (Becquer, Valera, Alarcon, etc.), it has stood widely ignored. Evil and benevolent kings, disgraced lovers, noble heroes and damned villains, Jews, sorcerers, loyal servants, ghosts, magnanimous and malevolent Moors, rude countrymen and noble peasants, noble middle aged knights that fall for languid damsels or for graceful passionate young women of dark skin and darker eyes, and knights that act as utmost Spanish chivalry examples. Medieval castles, dark woods, villages of the Mancha, Galicia, Andalousie and Aragon. The Prado with its chariots and strollers parade. All the above can be found in the Spanish romantic short stories, of which these thirteen are a great sample of this most multiform and varied trend of the first half of the nineteenth Century. Throughout this anthology prof. Borja Rodriguez Gutierrez answers some basic questions: what constitutes a short story? What does romantic mean? When and how was the Spanish romanticism movement? Where there romantic short stories written in Spain? The analysis of these questions lead to the unearthing of thousands of stories waiting in the remote and less consulted rows of revision libraries.
