Ramón María del Valle-Inclán

Ramón María del Valle-Inclán
Photographed by Audouard around 1911
Born	Ramón José Simón Valle Peña (1866-10-28)October 28, 1866 Vilanova de Arousa, Pontevedra
Died	January 5, 1936(1936-01-05) (aged 69) Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña
Resting place	Boisaca Cemetery
Occupation	Writer
Spouse	Josefa María Ángela Blanco Tejerina
Children	six 1. María de la Concepción (1908) 2. Joaquín María Baltasar (1914–1914) 3. Carlos Luis Baltasar (1917–2006) 4. María de la Encarnación Beatriz Baltasar Mariquiña (1919–2003) 5. Jaime Baltasar Clemente (1922–1985) 6. Ana María Antonia Baltasar (1924)
Writing career
Language	Castilian (literary); Castilian and Galician (native)
Genres	Theatre, novel and poetry
Notable works	Divinas palabras Luces de bohemia Tirano Banderas
Notable awards	Finalist for the Fastenrath Prize (1931) [Prize not awarded]
Movements	Modernism Generation of '98
Director of the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome
In office March 10, 1933 – January 5, 1936
Preceded by	Miguel Blay
Succeeded by	Emilio Moya Lledó
General Curator of the National Artistic Treasure
In office September 2, 1931 – June 1932
Signature

Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (Villanueva de Arosa, Pontevedra, October 28, 1866 – Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña, January 5, 1936) was a Spanish playwright, poet and novelist who belonged to the literary current of modernismo. He is considered one of the key authors of 20th-century Spanish literature.

He was a Spanish novelist, poet and dramatic author, as well as a short-story writer, essayist and journalist. He excelled in all the genres he cultivated and was an early modernist who bitterly satirized the Spanish society of his time. He studied Law in Santiago de Compostela, but interrupted his studies to travel to Mexico, where he worked as a journalist for El Correo Español and El Universal. On his return to Madrid he led a literary life, adopting an image that seems to embody some of his characters. An actor of himself, he professed a genuine cult of literature, for which he sacrificed everything, leading a bohemian life about which many anecdotes circulated. He lost an arm during a fight. In 1916 he visited the French front of World War I, and in 1922 he traveled to Mexico again.

Biography

Valle-Inclán's biography has aroused the interest of various biographers, as well as researchers and literary critics; also of writers and men of letters, such as Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Melchor Fernández Almagro, Francisco Umbral and Manuel Alberca.

Pseudonym

As for his public and literary name, Ramón del Valle-Inclán is the one that appears in most of the publications of his works, as well as in the appointments to and removals from the institutional administrative posts he held during his life. The name «Ramón José Simón Valle Peña» appears only in the documents of his baptismal certificate and his marriage record. He signed as Ramón del Valle de la Peña only in his first contributions, written during his time as a university student in Santiago de Compostela, for Café con gotas. Semanario satírico ilustrado. The name Ramón María del Valle-Inclán is found in some editions of certain works from his modernist period, as well as in a text, likewise from his modernist period, that amounts to a peculiar «autobiography». Not only did he himself sometimes take this name during this literary period, but Rubén Darío likewise addressed him thus in the «Balada laudatoria que envía al Autor el Alto Poeta Rubén» (1912). On the other hand, both in the handwritten signature that appears on all his manuscripts and in the letterhead of the stationery he used, he wrote simply Valle-Inclán.

Birth

Valle-Inclán was born in an old house called «El Cantillo», located on San Mauro Street, in the Pontevedra town of Villanueva de Arosa, on the shore of the estuary and facing the island of Arosa, a village of fishermen and peasants. He was the second child of a family of Carlist roots, born to the sailor and amateur writer (journalist and poet) Ramón del Valle Bermúdez de Castro (1823–1890, a friend of Manuel Murguía —husband of Rosalía de Castro— and of Andrés Muruáis) and to Dolores de la Peña y Montenegro, both of hidalgo descent, owners of ancestral manor houses and old privileges, but come down in the world. Ramón was baptized three days after his birth in the church of San Cibrán de Cálago with three names: Ramón José Simón with the surnames Valle y Peña. He took his artistic name from the surname of one of his paternal ancestors, Francisco del Valle-Inclán (1736–1804). He was named Ramón in honor of his father, José because it was the name of the patron saint of the baptized child's godmother and maternal grandmother, and Simón because it was the saint of the day on which he was born. The baptism was not celebrated because the birth was difficult and the mother was left very weak. Two towns dispute his birthplace, Villanueva de Arosa and Puebla del Caramiñal. He claimed that he was born on a boat making the crossing between the two across the estuary. The dispute arises from the period that his mother (Dolores de la Peña) spent in August in Puebla del Caramiñal, in connection with the preparations prior to the birth. This stay of his mother's confused some biographers.

Education and literary beginnings

The family fortune inherited by his father was gradually squandered, which forced the family to lead a more modest life—not only modest, but somewhat difficult—but thanks to this Ramón came to know literature on a grand scale. It is very possible that Valle-Inclán and his siblings were raised as village gentlemen, for the village. In his childhood he had access to his father's good library, and he was assigned as tutor a cleric from Puebla del Deán (nicknamed bichuquino and named Carlos Pérez Noal) with whom he studied Latin grammar. At the age of nine he entered the Secondary Education Institute, first in Santiago and later in an institute in Pontevedra, until 1885. During this period he completed his bachillerato without the slightest interest on his part. At that time Jesús Muruáis exerted a great influence on him, being decisive in his later literary formation. He read Cervantes, Quevedo and the Viscount of Chateaubriand, as well as military works and works on Galician history. On April 29, 1885, he finished his secondary studies; he was nineteen years old. The whole family had moved a few years earlier to the provincial capital, where his father had managed to be appointed secretary of the Civil Government.

In September 1885, without conviction and following his father's direct imposition, he began studying Law at the University of Santiago de Compostela, with equally irregular results. Valle-Inclán had no preference for any degree, all of them being the same to him. From his first moments at the university he requested to take some subjects as an external examinee. Having little money, he gave private Latin lessons and frequented the cafés more than the classrooms, while also being a regular at the university library. He could be seen at the Ateneo Compostelano and frequenting literary venues. In those years he struck up friendships with those who would later become prominent figures in the world of Galician culture and politics. He also struck up a friendship with the Florentine Attilio Pontanari, from whom he would learn fencing and the rudiments of Italian. In 1888 he enrolled in Drawing and Figure Ornament at the School of Arts and Crafts. Valle-Inclán soon became one of the most popular students at the University.

During this period he published his first literary works in the magazine Café con gotas of Santiago de Compostela, and in 1889 his short story «A media noche» in the Barcelona magazine La Ilustración Ibérica, taking an active part, together with his brother Carlos, in the city's journalistic life. The visit of José Zorrilla to Santiago de Compostela to give a lecture at the university, which Valle-Inclán attended, made a deep impression on him, and he was seduced by the figure of the consecrated writer. It was in these years that his literary vocation began to take root in him.

On October 14, 1890, with the death of his father in Villanueva, and at the age of twenty-four, he was freed from his paternal obligation, abandoned the Law degree in which he had felt no interest, and returned to Pontevedra. He had already spent five years at the university in Santiago and had not got past the third year of the Law degree. He thought of going to Madrid and beginning a new life in that city. His father's inheritance had not been very large and was not enough for him to live on.

First stay in Madrid

After a hypothetical stay in Italy that has yet to be documented, he traveled to Madrid at the end of 1890. The political situation in Spain was bad, and in the public places of Madrid people shouted, put forward opposing ideas and demanded solutions. The first stay in Madrid accounted for two years of Valle-Inclán's life. In Madrid he frequented the numerous cafés of the Puerta del Sol, habitual places for tertulias, in which he took part expressively and made himself known (he was amusing with his accent and his particular ceceo). He was unyielding in his opinions. In these first visits to the cafés he gradually shaped his personality, his world, which would end up making him famous in the societies and tertulias of Madrid.

He contributed to newspapers such as El Globo, directed by his friend and important mentor Alfredo Vicenti, who published some of his articles and stories, and La Ilustración Ibérica, and he devoted a great deal of his free time to attending performances of the género chico. He was not yet publicly regarded as a writer; the journalistic contributions he made were to earn some money, as he had little enthusiasm for the journalistic trade. His attendance at the peñas and tertulias of the time began to become established, and he became famous in them for his wit. Despite his efforts he left the capital without achieving a stable livelihood; the decision seems to have been taken on the spur of the moment.

First transatlantic journey: Mexico

In 1892, after a brief stay in Pontevedra, Valle-Inclán embarked on March 12 on his first journey to America, specifically to Mexico. The Galician newspapers announced a journey motivated by his being chosen to direct a newspaper. The French ocean liner on which he made the voyage, named Le Havre, landed at Veracruz on April 8, and a few days later he was already lodged in the Mexican capital. During his Mexican stay he wrote for the newspapers El Correo Español, El Universal (his series of articles called cartas galicianas) and El veracruzano Independiente. His work was that of a mere translator into Castilian of Italian and French texts, despite having only slight knowledge of both languages. He spent a period of somewhat less than a year on Mexican soil, divided between the cities of Veracruz and Mexico City. At that time Porfirio Díaz was President of Mexico, and his power imposed severe censorship. Life from then on in American lands would be an adventure for Valle-Inclán; the Mexican political situation excited him, and this led him to be involved in certain incidents.

It seems that his stay in American lands was not without problems, since there is evidence that he took part in a near-duel with the editor of El Tiempo, and in a notorious fight in Veracruz. From this first journey to Mexico Ramón obtained his first experiences as a writer. During this period he met Sóstenes Rocha, who revealed to him the secrets of Mexican politics; Sóstenes was a figure who summed up the Mexican situation of the time. From this first stay in Mexico, Valle-Inclán sensed his destiny as a writer; he would begin the stories that would later be gathered in Femeninas. He finally left Mexico, having exhausted his stay of a little less than a year. From Mexican lands he went to Cuba, where he spent several weeks; he stayed some days at the now-demolished Santa Gertrudis (sugar) mill, in the province of Matanzas, lodged in the house of some friends: the González de Mendoza family, owners of that mill at the time. In the spring of 1893 he was back in Spain, where he lodged in Pontevedra. His physical appearance had been transformed; he wore a beard and long hair. Valle would return to Mexican lands on a second journey in 1921.

Back in Spain

On returning to Spain in 1893, he settled in Pontevedra, a place he chose in order to ease his nostalgia. It was here that he struck up a friendship with Jesús Muruáis, bibliographer and Latin teacher at the city's institute, in whose library he was able to read the most important European authors of the time (the Muruais Library: French and English works of literature and art of the 19th century). Valle-Inclán was a young writer just arrived from America, cultivating the image of a dandy; he appeared frequently at the Café Moderno of Pontevedra and displayed the peculiar dialectic that would later make him famous. It was during this period that the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio exerted a strong influence on him, and from him he took the formula of European decadentism. During this Pontevedra period Valle-Inclán also met the French poet René Ghil. During his stay in Pontevedra, which would last until 1895 (nearly three years), he published his first book, the 1894 collection of love stories entitled Femeninas (Seis historias amorosas). This first work saw the light with the support of his father's friend Manuel Murguía. Valle-Inclán now felt himself a writer; from this moment on he knew what his life would be devoted to.

It was at this time that Valle-Inclán began to cultivate his particular attire: a cape (at first a Mexican poncho), a chalina, a hat, white gaiters, and above all his long, characteristic beards, the «goat's beard» of which Rubén Darío speaks in a poem dedicated to the author. From Pontevedra he contributed to the magazine Blanco y Negro. It was in this Pontevedra stage that he already appeared under his name Ramón de Valle Inclán; that is how he named himself on the cover of his first book. With this stage concluded, there was little left for him to do in the provinces, and he headed to Madrid on what would be his second journey to the capital.

Second period in Madrid: the tertulias

Caricatured in Madrid Cómico (1897) by Cilla

In 1895 he settled in Madrid for the second time, this time as a civil servant of the State, in the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, earning 2,000 pesetas a year, a year before having another saber duel, in which he was wounded by his opponent, the writer Julio López del Castillo. According to Joaquín María del Valle-Inclán Alsina, this «sinecure» lasted him at least until 1899, and he did not even bother to publish, since he had no financial need to do so. He soon began attending various Madrid tertulias, leading the bohemian life of the time, in which he met many prominent figures of the period, such as Gómez Carrillo, Pío and Ricardo Baroja, Azorín, Jacinto Benavente, González Blanco, Villaespesa, Mariano Miguel de Val and Alejandro Sawa, among others. He attended the countless Madrid cafés of the time: the Fornos, the Suizo, the Café del Príncipe, the Café de Madrid, the Café de El Gato Negro, the terrace of the Café Gijón, Lhardy on the Carrera de San Jerónimo, and the Café Nuevo de la Montaña, on the Puerta del Sol. He had his own tertulia in the «sala de La Cacharrería» of the Ateneo de Madrid, and at the Café Granja El Henar. In them, with his lisping speech, he became famous for his ability to monopolize conversations, for destroying reputations, and for his lack of patience when it came to putting up with interruptions from listeners and interlocutors.

His attire became peculiar, and his beard grew long in what would be his habitual look. He lived on scant money bordering on penury, and his solitary coffee in the circles of the tertulias. In this second Madrid period he devoted himself body and soul to the bohemian life; he lived the era: he enjoyed it and suffered it. He lived the modernist literary bohemia with financial hardships that even forced him to go hungry. He lived in a tenement courtyard at Calle Calvo Asensio, 4, in the Argüelles neighborhood, then a suburb of Madrid, in a rented garret with two dark little rooms with a chair, a table and a bed as its only furniture.

From this early period in Madrid an anecdote is told in which Valle-Inclán, walking along the Madrid Carrera de San Jerónimo, met Miguel de Unamuno and Pío Baroja, the three of them hostile to one another as regards literary theories, none recognizing any merit in the others. Although Pío Baroja introduced Valle-Inclán and Miguel de Unamuno, they did not walk even eighty paces before ending up insulting each other, shouting at each other and finally separating before finishing their walk down the street. All three were representatives of the Generation of '98, and all three left the mark of their independence. In 1897 his second book was published, Epitalamio (Historias de amores), without much success among readers; the book sold poorly. During these years he took part as an actor in plays such as La comedia de las fieras, by Jacinto Benavente, and Los reyes en el destierro, an adaptation by Alejandro Sawa of a novel by Alphonse Daudet. During the Spanish–American War, sentimental affinities led Valle-Inclán to take the side of the Cuban aspirations for independence from Spain.

The loss of his arm and the meeting with Rubén Darío

On July 24, 1899, in an argument at the Café Nuevo de la Montaña, located on the ground floor of the Hotel París, at number 2 of the Puerta del Sol, the journalist Manuel Bueno Bengoechea inflicted a wound on one of his forearms that ended up becoming gangrenous, making its amputation necessary. Valle-Inclán and his friend Manuel Bueno were arguing about the legality of a duel that was to take place, given that one of the duelists was a minor. They came to blows, Valle-Inclán with a glass bottle and Manuel Bueno with a walking stick, and so unfortunate were the exchanges for Valle-Inclán that a cufflink was driven into his left wrist, resulting in a comminuted fracture of the bones of the left forearm. The wound became gangrenous and on August 12, 1899, the physician and surgeon Manuel Barragán y Bonet amputated that arm. Ramón Gómez de la Serna, who did not witness the scene, would later turn the episode into picturesque literary material. In a similar way Tomás Orts Ramos would record the event in a more journalistic version. This amputation put an end to his career as an actor.

According to accounts, Valle-Inclán's fortitude was such that during Dr. Barragán's operation he remained awake and fainted only once; it is known that near the end of the operation he told those present that he wished to smoke, and during the final moments he smoked a Havana cigar, sending great puffs of smoke up to the ceiling. Valle-Inclán was then thirty-three years old. From then on his image as a one-armed man became mythical. Some friends decided to organize a benefit and raise funds to buy him an orthopedic arm, premiering at the Teatro Lara, on December 19 of that year, 1899, his work Cenizas: Drama en tres actos, directed by Valle-Inclán himself. The next time he met Manuel Bueno he shook his hand. After the incident he went back to holding forth in the cafés, while at the same time the loss of his arm made him forget his aspirations to be a stage actor.

In the same fin-de-siècle period he contributed to various literary magazines, such as La Vida Literaria, directed by Benavente, Revista Nueva, directed by Luis Ruiz Contreras, Germinal, directed by Joaquín Dicenta, and Vida Nueva, directed by Eusebio Blasco. The year he lost his arm was the year he began his friendship with Rubén Darío, newly arrived in Madrid, whom he met when attending the literary tertulia of the Café de Madrid, which he led together with Jacinto Benavente.

Modernist writer and tertulia regular

In 1900 Valle-Inclán took part in a short-story competition sponsored by the newspaper El Liberal. Although he did not win the prize (the winner was the journalist José Nogales), his story Satanás was highly praised in a press article by Juan Valera, one of the members of the jury. It seems the jury did not want to risk awarding the prize to such an innovative story. In the following years he continued contributing to various publications, such as La Ilustración Artística, La Ilustración Española y Americana and La España Moderna. In Alma Española he published, in December 1903, a famous «autobiography». In Los Lunes del Imparcial he began publishing Sonata de otoño, in which his character the Marquis of Bradomín appears for the first time. He began to frequent the Nuevo Café de Levante, where for a decade almost all of Madrid's intellectual life would be concentrated. He translated Eça de Queirós.

The Sonatas: Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín, which the author announces as fragments of the autobiographical «Pleasant Memoirs» of his «noble uncle» the Marquis of Bradomín (a character inspired by the Carlist general Carlos Calderón), constitute the most outstanding example of modernist prose in Spanish literature. The first of them, Sonata de otoño (1902), he wrote during the three months of convalescence from an accidental shot in the foot from a pistol he owned. It was followed by Sonata de estío (1903), Sonata de primavera (1904) and Sonata de invierno (1905). In these narratives, which are independent of one another, he plays with correspondences between the titles of the annual seasonal cycle and the successive stages of the protagonist's life cycle, presenting Xavier, the Marquis of Bradomín, in four different settings and places, narrating four love stories that correspond, following the plot logic of the tetralogy —not the order of writing and publication—, to youth in Italy —spring—, early maturity in Mexico —summer—, full maturity in Galicia —autumn—, and old age in Navarre —winter—. The four sonatas began to sell well, and some of them were translated into other languages such as French. In the same year of 1905 Valle published a collection of stories under the title Jardín novelesco; Historias de almas en pena, de duendes y de ladrones. The following year he premiered at the Teatro de la Princesa a stage adaptation based on the protagonist of the Sonatas, El marqués de Bradomín: Coloquios románticos. Part of the cast was Josefa María Ángela Blanco Tejerina, to whom months earlier he had dedicated the Sonata de invierno in this way: «... For some sad and velvety eyes...», Valle's future wife, whom he would later marry, although very probably they may have begun living together earlier.

Around this time some members of the Generation of '98 were working in a coordinated way on various creative activities, and each of its members knew one another and exchanged ideas at their gatherings in the various cafés, such as the Nuevo Café de Levante, and café-concerts, such as the popular music-hall venue Central Kursaal, located on the Plaza del Carmen. There performed a young cuplé singer named Anita Delgado, with whom the Maharaja of Kapurthala fell in love, an event that was discussed in great detail in the cafés, newspapers and weeklies of the time, Valle-Inclán himself being one of the intermediaries in a story that ended in marriage.

In 1907 he published several books, such as Águilas de blasón (premiered the same year in Barcelona), Aromas de leyenda, Versos en loor de un santo ermitaño and El marqués de Bradomín. Coloquios románticos. In installments, in the newspaper El Mundo, he published Romance de Lobos. In 1908 he began publishing his series of novels «La guerra carlista»: Los cruzados de la causa, El resplandor de la hoguera and Gerifaltes de antaño. In 1909 he wrote Mi hermana Antonia, which narrates the revenge of the student Máximo Bretal, in love with Antonia and rejected by her mother. His sympathies for Carlism were not only literary: in 1910 his candidacy for deputy with the Jaimist party was counted on, but he did not end up standing.

On March 3, 1909, the writer Alejandro Sawa died in his home in Madrid, blind and in a wretched physical condition. Valle-Inclán, who years later would bring to life his alter ego Max Estrella in the work Luces de bohemia, greatly lamented his loss, and expressed this in a letter to Rubén Darío, which has been widely reproduced since it became known.

Marriage, theatrical tour of Hispanic America and settling in Galicia

José Ramón María del Valle-Inclán poses for the Chilean magazine Sucesos (1910).

Valle-Inclán married Josefina Blanco Tejerina on the morning of August 24, 1907, in the Madrid church of San Sebastián. He was forty and she was twenty-eight. After the wedding she gave up the theatrical profession, with the exception of a tour of Hispanic America. Their first daughter, María de la Concepción (1908), was soon born, out of a total of six children born over the following fifteen years. Valle-Inclán published Historias perversas; what would be his first work of poetry, Aromas de leyenda. Versos en loor de un santo ermitaño (1907); and began writing his series of plays Las farsas.

His wife Josefina Blanco returned to work as a stage actress in 1910, and the couple went on tour with the theater company of Francisco García Ortega. Valle-Inclán accompanied his wife as artistic director and had the opportunity to give some lectures on Spanish literature in the countries they visited on tour: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. In Buenos Aires he spoke of his experience with a drug, hashish or "Indian hemp":

I confess that I have taken it in abundance, without knowing its consequences, and on medical prescription... My individuality came to break down into two distinct ones. I began by seeing new conditions in things: how a disharmony was created and at other times a chimerical affinity... The most frightful thing about those hallucinations was the memory of all the dead people, who paraded through my memory like a film reel. And it was this phenomenon that decided me to give up hashish.

— 

Back in Spain, after six months of touring America he returned to Madrid, where the Carlists offered him a luncheon, and he sat at table with Vázquez de Mella, Manuel Bofarull, the Marquis of Cerralbo, and others. Valle-Inclán continued premiering plays: Voces de gesta, in 1911 (at the Teatro Novedades in Barcelona), and La marquesa Rosalinda. Farsa sentimental y grotesca, in 1912. Incidents were also added to the premieres; his play entitled El embrujado was rejected by the Teatro Español, directed by the writer Benito Pérez Galdós, and the incident ended in a tumultuous event that included a reading of the play at the Ateneo de Madrid. In his persistence in complaining he did not stop attending the café tertulias. With the money he obtained from the publication of his complete works by Sociedad General de Librería, Valle-Inclán set out with his family on a journey to Galicia with the aim of living in his native land together with his children. This stay in Galicia was frequently interrupted by trips to Madrid, the sculptor Sebastián Miranda lending him his house, where he stayed for long periods to attend to literary matters, such as the rehearsals and premiere of La marquesa Rosalinda. Farsa sentimental y grotesca (January 5, 1912), or the start of the publication of his Opera Omnia by the Rivadeneyra press, which began in 1913 with this play as the third volume, or later La Lámpara maravillosa. Ejercicios espirituales (1916), which he would place at the head of his «Opera Omnia» as its first volume. But in 1914 Julio Casares published Crítica profana, in which he denounced many and varied literary plagiarisms by Valle-Inclán. The latter, embarrassed, was slow to reply, but he did so:

If I made use of some pages of the Memoirs of the chevalier Casanova in my Sonata de primavera, it was to put the atmosphere of my work to the test. Because had I not achieved it, the interpretation would have been terribly out of tune. Shakespeare put into the mouth of Coriolanus speeches he took from historians of Antiquity, and the success of the tragedy is proven by the fact that, far from rejecting such borrowed texts, it demands them... The fate of Spanish intellectuals is identical to that of the gypsies: to live persecuted by the Civil Guard

Photograph of Ramón María del Valle-Inclán during his visit to Chile (1910).

In 1915 he wrote to the King requesting the rehabilitation of the titles of the Marquisate of Valle, the Viscountcy of Vieixin and the Lordship of Caramiñal. His requests were not granted. The years surrounding the publication of the Lámpara maravillosa. Ejercicios espirituales were especially hard for Valle-Inclán. His friend Rubén Darío made in 1914 what would be his definitive return journey to Nicaragua, where he died in 1916. Meanwhile, news of the incipient European war gradually surrounded him, and the conflict reached the streets of Madrid, dividing opinions. Valle-Inclán sided from the beginning with the Allied camp, heading a «Manifesto of Adherence to the Allied Nations». This situation led to his being invited during World War I by the French government to visit the war fronts in the Vosges, Alsace, Flanders and Verdun. Between April 27 and June 28, 1916, Valle-Inclán traveled as a correspondent for the newspaper El Imparcial, also writing letters in which he bore witness to and provided descriptions of what he was seeing during those two months. In Paris he associated with Spanish authors such as Pedro Salinas, Manuel Ciges Aparicio and Corpus Barga. The fruit of his visit to the front were the texts published in El Imparcial, Visión estelar de la medianoche, between October and December 1916, and En la luz del día, between January and February 1917.

Mariquiña de Valle-Inclán, portrayed by Juan de Echevarría, c. 1928.

In 1912 he settled in Cambados with his family, taken in by Doña Lucinda Fernández Soler in the Fefiñáns neighborhood, and spent one summer in the house on Carreira Street belonging to his friend José González Fraga. There the second of his children was born, Joaquín María Baltasar (May 1914, Cambados – September 1914, Cambados), who died tragically at four months of age, on September 29, as a result of an accident at the beach of Pombal, in Fefiñáns. This event led him to move in 1916 to Puebla del Caramiñal, where he began to farm the lands of the «pazo priorato de la Merced» that he had rented, with the aim of becoming a landowner of the Comarca del Salnés, an activity to which he devoted himself for a time without obtaining good results. There the third and fourth of his children were born, Carlos Luis Baltasar (1917, Puebla del Caramiñal) and María de la Encarnación Beatriz Baltasara 'Mariquiña' (September 5, 1919, Puebla del Caramiñal). He combined these tasks with his post in Madrid, for two academic years, in the chair of Aesthetics of the Fine Arts. In 1921, when possession of the pazo slipped from his hands, he moved to Villa Eugenia, located in the town center of Puebla del Caramiñal, living there until 1925, the place where the fifth and the sixth and last of his children were born, Jaime Baltasar Clemente (January 29, 1922, Puebla del Caramiñal) and Ana María Antonia Baltasara (August 1924, Puebla del Caramiñal). Owing to his connection with Carlism, in 1923 he was made a knight of the Order of the Proscribed Legitimacy by Jaime de Borbón y Borbón-Parma. In 1925 he returned with his family to Madrid for good.

The «esperpento» and El ruedo ibérico

In July 1916 the subject of Aesthetics of the Fine Arts was created at the Special School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving, with specific requirements for holding that teaching post, and he was appointed special professor of it, being confirmed in the post a year later as tenured full professor of that subject. In the same year of 1916 he published La lámpara maravillosa. Ejercicios espirituales, a meditation on the literary act in which he makes a synthesis of his ethics and aesthetics, strongly influenced by occultist, gnostic, esoteric, hermetic, alchemical and theosophical lore, with a Pythagorean and Neoplatonic background, from authors such as Mario Roso de Luna and Helena Blavatsky, dedicating it to Joaquín Argamasilla de la Cerda y Bayona.

Portrayed by Juan de Echevarría in 1922. Museum of Fine Arts of Álava.

In November 1919 he resigned the teaching post and the chair was abolished. Valle-Inclán's health began to fail and he was frequently confined to bed. He habitually associated with old Carlists. In 1920 he underwent surgery, with a consequent stay in a sanatorium. In 1920 Ramón used the word «esperpento» for the first time in relation to his work: «This modality consists of seeking the comic side in the tragic aspect of life», he would state in 1921. His way of dressing drew attention: «puppet-like» in the manner of his esperpentos, dressed in black and very thin, with a long beard, cursing everything.

In mid-September 1921 he made a new journey to Mexico, at the personal invitation of the President of the republic, Álvaro Obregón, and through the mediation of the writer Alfonso Reyes Ochoa, on the occasion of the celebration of the centenary of its independence. His reception was an event with enormous repercussions in which the whole country took part. During his stay in the Aztec capital he stayed at the Hotel Regis. This second journey to Mexico was full of cultural activities. On his way back he spent two weeks in Havana and another two in New York, reaching Galicia in the last days of the year. In 1922 he settled again in Madrid, once more taking part frenetically in the capital's tertulias: at La Granja del Henar, at the Café Regina, at the Café de El Gato Negro.

In 1920 he collaborated with the Teatro de la Escuela Nueva, directed by his friend Cipriano Rivas Cherif, which attempted the premiere of Farsa y licencia de la reina castiza, something prevented by the police. That same year, Rivas Cherif attempted to found the Teatro de los Amigos de Valle-Inclán, a frustrated project whose aim was to stage the European playwrights considered most advanced, and whose artistic direction was to be taken on by the writer himself. Some years later, in 1926, the two friends took an active part in the sessions of El Mirlo Blanco, the chamber theater that the Barojas had in the drawing room of their house, in the Madrid neighborhood of Argüelles, where the prologue and epilogue of Los cuernos de don Friolera and Ligazón were premiered. That same year the two founded El Cántaro Roto, with the aim of bringing the private experience of El Mirlo Blanco into the commercial sphere, programming at the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid works by Anatole France and Bernard Shaw, among others, in addition to their own, but it failed shortly after being created, owing to poor public success and little confidence on the part of the programmer.

At the end of 1926 he published what some consider his narrative masterpiece, the novel Tirano Banderas, in which the imprint of his still recent journey to revolutionary Mexico is evident. In 1927 he began publishing an ambitious narrative project, El ruedo ibérico, which, in a manner similar to the Episodios nacionales of Benito Pérez Galdós, aimed to narrate the history of Spain from the reign of his detested Isabel II up to the author's own time and the colonial loss with the war of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He only managed to write three novels of this project: La corte de los milagros (1927), Viva mi dueño (1928) and Baza de espadas (1932).

El ruedo ibérico is a reflection on the virtues and miseries of the theme of revolution in connection with the revolution of September 1868 in Spain, although the characters who come off best in the review of all the social classes are the revolutionary Fernández Vallín and the anarchist Fermín Salvochea.

From 1924 he showed his opposition to the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, shouted in the cafés and did not hesitate to make himself heard. On some occasions he was arrested in the street for complaints against the regime. Valle-Inclán was an uncomfortable civilian; despite this he struggled to improve his own financial situation and that of his family. In 1927 he took part in the creation of the Republican Alliance. In 1928 Valle-Inclán obtained the most important publishing contract of his life, with the Compañía Ibero-Americana de Publicaciones (CIAP), which offered him a sizable sum on account for the exploitation of his literary rights, payable in monthly installments. Having set up the family home in an apartment at Calle del General Oraá, 9, he began to write with a certain calm. He became aristocratic and more selective in his close circle of friends. In 1929 he was jailed for fifteen days in the Modelo Prison of Madrid for refusing to pay a fine imposed over some incidents that occurred at the Palacio de la Música at the premiere of El hijo del diablo, a play by Montaner. The bankruptcy of the CIAP in 1931 exhausted the money obtained and splendidly spent, at a time when the regime of Primo de Rivera was likewise living its final hours. The financial situation led the Valle-Inclán Blanco couple to consider marital separation.

The Republic: institutional posts and his last days

Statue in Bouzas, Vigo.

The social and political situation led him to abandon his artistic pursuits and support the Spanish Republic; he even stood for deputy for La Coruña on the lists of the Radical Republican Party of Alejandro Lerroux, although he was not elected. That same year, a week after the proclamation of the Republic and in an attempt to draw him to his ranks, the Carlist pretender Jaime de Borbón y Borbón-Parma (Jaime III) made him a knight of the Order of the Proscribed Legitimacy.

He was in his mid-sixties. His intention to go to Mexico in search of a better life for himself and his family being publicly known, Manuel Azaña, then still Minister of War, after sounding out the person concerned, made representations before the Council of Ministers so that a post would be created for him that would allow him to live with dignity. On September 2, 1931, the government of the Republic appointed him General Curator of the National Artistic Heritage, followed five months later by the direction of the Museum of Aranjuez, «entrusting him with turning into a Museum what was the Royal Site of Aranjuez», but a few months later, in June 1932, he resigned owing to disagreements with the Director General of Fine Arts regarding the management of the new Museum of Aranjuez and because he had not been informed of the preparation of the bill for the protection of the Artistic Heritage.

That same year of 1932 he entered the Fastenrath Prize for 1931, convened by the Royal Spanish Academy, which ended up being declared void. After the complete dissatisfaction with the verdict, diatribes were launched from the Ateneo de Madrid against the Royal Spanish Academy, as well as against all the academicians who voted, the decision being interpreted in political rather than strictly literary terms. In compensation for this verdict a public tribute of redress was held, in which a large part of the intellectuals and writers of the time took part.

On May 30, 1932, with the verdict of the 1931 Fastenrath Prize already known, Valle-Inclán was elected to the presidency of the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Ateneo of Madrid, succeeding Manuel Azaña in the post, and he settled with his family in the residence intended for that purpose, on Calle de Santa Catalina. He remained in the post for seven and a half months, being replaced on December 14 by Augusto Barcia Trelles. Valle-Inclán was already a prominent participant in the tertulias of the «sala de La Cacharrería», founding his own tertulia. During his presidency he introduced notable changes, and on his initiative the first Congress of the Association of Revolutionary Writers and Artists was organized at its headquarters in 1933. He was also a co-founder, on February 11, 1933, of the Association of Friends of the Soviet Union, actions undertaken as a clear reaction against the anti-socialist government policy of the time, which maintained a condemnatory tone with regard to the accounts of the achievements and problems of socialism in the USSR.

As for his family life, in the same year of 1932 his wife filed for divorce, and judicial proceedings began to obtain custody of the children and the compensatory claims, which Valle-Inclán considered very high. Since the eldest daughter was already married, Valle-Inclán would keep the care of the three middle children, still minors, while the youngest daughter would be in the custody of her mother.

Freed from the presidency of the Ateneo, and through the work deployed in an intense personal campaign for support, he managed to be appointed director of the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome on March 8, 1933, moving to Rome together with the three children of whom he had legal custody. With intermittent stays in Rome and long periods in Madrid, he would hold this post until his death, for although there were differences regarding the administration of the institution, with attempts at resignation on his part and as many attempts at removal on the part of the ministerial authorities, and even though he left the institution with his definitive return to Spain on November 3, 1934, his appointment was for three years under the regulations in force, his removal was never made official, and the next director was appointed at the end of the corresponding three-year period. On his return he felt ill, amid a picturesque lack of the most elementary means of subsistence. On November 16 he attended the performance of his play Divinas palabras at the Teatro Español. At the beginning of 1935 he was seen again walking the streets of Madrid, dispirited but in good humor and talking about his Roman project. On March 7, 1935, he withdrew to Santiago de Compostela, entering the sanatorium of his friend and doctor Manuel Villar Iglesias, where he received radiotherapy treatment. From time to time he slipped out of the clinic and strolled about the city, sitting at the «Café del Derby» with groups of young people, most of them Galicianists. He was elected to form part of the presidency of the «First International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture», although he was unable to attend the congress held in June 1935 in Paris. The national situation continued to worsen; the Madrid newspaper Ahora published on October 2, 1935, what would be his last article: «Mi rebelión en Barcelona (Nota literaria)», on the work of the same title by Manuel Azaña.

On the initiative of Victoriano García Martí, a public subscription was opened in Galicia to give Valle-Inclán a pazo in October, at the age of sixty-nine. The idea of such a gift came too late, since on January 5, 1936, the eve of the feast of the Epiphany, after refusing religious assistance, Valle-Inclán died. The bulletin to the press said that he died «as a consequence of a rapid coma, after a serious illness of the urinary bladder complicated by malignancy». He was buried the following day in the Boisaca cemetery, in a civil ceremony and in a humble coffin without death notices. This was as he had arranged days before his death, when he specified: «I want at my side neither a discreet priest, nor a humble friar, nor a know-it-all Jesuit». The sculptor Francisco Asorey made the death mask of his face and the painter Juan Luis drew him lying in state. Manuel Azaña wrote the day after the burial: «He would have wanted to be, not the man of today, but the man of the day after tomorrow». From that moment a countless number of posthumous events began.

On Valle-Inclán's death, his former wife and the mother of his children, who was living in Barcelona, obtained a compensatory pension from the Ministry of Public Instruction of the Popular Front Government for the education of their children.

Literary activity

Valle-Inclán's literary activity began with the publication of a few short texts in Santiago de Compostela. Little by little he would extend his work to various genres of narrative, from the short story and the chronicle to the novel, and to theater as well as lyric poetry.

All his work has been in the public domain since January 1, 2018. Until that date it was Valle-Inclán's various heirs who held the rights to exploit and publish his work. The rights to his work were divided among the sons and daughters who survived him and then among their heirs.

Narrative

Portrayed in 1922 by Juan de Echevarría. Museo Reina Sofía.

His narrative output began within modernismo. Within this aesthetic Valle-Inclán started with Femeninas and Epitalamio, collections of subtle, sensual and highly musical stories. Later he would produce a whole monument of modernismo: the Sonatas —Sonata de otoño (1902), Sonata de estío (1903), Sonata de primavera (1904) and Sonata de invierno (1905)—. It took three years for the four sonatas to come out. It was with them that he began a career as a writer. In them he relates, in autobiographical form, the love affairs of the Marquis of Bradomín (a nineteenth-century Don Juan, cynical and sensual). In these stories Valle-Inclán represents a sensitive nostalgia typical of the disciples of Rubén Darío (the father of modernismo, who brought it from Hispanic America to Spain).

Also worth highlighting is one of the best and most important works in all of Hispanic modernist prose: Flor de santidad. This work, without shunning the musical and colorful forms of modernismo, focuses a little more on the popular traditions and Galician legends with which Valle became familiar in his childhood.

Because of the amount of text in direct speech (dialogue), some of Valle-Inclán's narrative works, such as the cycle of the Comedias bárbaras, could be considered dramatic. On reviewing them and understanding the difficulty —or impossibility— of staging them, they have been included among his novels.

Another strand of Valle-Inclán's novelistic work is embodied in the Relatos de la Guerra Carlista (1909), where he offers a new treatment of this subject, scraping away the epic sensationalism dominant in the author's earlier works and adopting a more sober, heartfelt and emotional style.

In the series of novels El ruedo ibérico he mocks the court of Isabel II and already displays the critical and grotesque orientation that predominates in his last creations.

Tirano Banderas. Novela de tierra caliente (1926) narrates the fall of the South American dictator Santos Banderas, a despotic and cruel character who holds on to power through terror and oppression. It is an exceptional description of South American society and one of the first examples of the so-called «dictator novel».

These novels mark a change in Valle-Inclán's aesthetic stance, moving somewhat closer to the concerns and criticisms characteristic of the Generation of '98.

Nevertheless, it is important to mention the formal stance that Valle-Inclán adopted in these changes. He did not reveal himself entirely as an artist of the '98, but rather absorbed the criticisms and concerns of this group and blended them into his own style.

Poetry

Valle-Inclán's poetic work is gathered in the trilogy Claves líricas (1930), made up of Aromas de leyenda. Versos en loor a un santo ermitaño, El pasajero and La pipa de kif.

Aromas de leyenda. Versos en loor a un santo ermitaño (1907) shows the influence of modernismo. It consists of fourteen poems in varied meters. In them he recreates various aspects of his native Galicia: descriptions of the landscape, daily labors, miracle-working, superstition, etc. It also falls within the modernist aesthetic.

El pasajero (1920) develops transcendent themes in thirty-three compositions: death, pain, life, passion, eternity, etc.

With La pipa de kif (1919), Valle-Inclán opens his poems to the grotesque, to the esperpento. This work has been defined as a collection of tragic-humorous vignettes.

Theater

With regard to theater and the performing arts, Valle-Inclán was an actor, adapter, translator, set designer, stage director, theatrical producer and, above all, a playwright. He wrote numerous plays and from his literary beginnings showed an attraction to the world of the stage. Valle-Inclán's theater is usually divided into five periods:

1. The modernist cycle. To it belong works such as El marqués de Bradomín (1906) and El yermo de las almas (1908).
2. The mythical cycle. Starting from his native Galicia, Valle-Inclán creates a mythical and timeless world. Irrationality, violence, lust, greed and death govern the destinies of the protagonists. To this period belong the trilogy Comedias bárbaras and Divinas palabras (1920).
3. The cycle of farce. This is a group of comedies collected in a volume entitled Tablado de marionetas para educación de príncipes (1909, 1912, 1920). These works present a continuous contrast between the sentimental and the grotesque, and their characters, fairground puppets, herald the arrival of the esperpento.
4. The esperpento cycle. It is formed by Luces de bohemia (1920 and 1924) and the volume entitled Martes de Carnaval (1930). The esperpento, more than a literary genre, is a new way of seeing the world, since it deforms and distorts reality in order to present us with the real image hidden behind it. To do so it uses parody, humanizes objects and animals and animalizes or objectifies humans. Presented in this way, the characters lack humanity and appear as puppets.
5. The final cycle. In this last stage Valle-Inclán takes his earlier dramatic proposals to their extreme: the presence of the irrational and instinctive, dehumanized, schematized and puppet-like characters, and the distorting technique of the esperpento. His works are collected in Retablo de la avaricia, la lujuria y la muerte.

Valle-Inclán, like Miguel de Unamuno and Azorín, directly confronted the prevailing commercial theater. These three authors show clear opposition to the realist, costumbrista and bourgeois theater that was so successful on the stage, whose leading exponents at the time were Jacinto Benavente and the Álvarez Quintero brothers, as José de Echegaray had been before, although each of them would try out a particular technique.

Translations

He made numerous translations. From Portuguese: La reliquia, El crimen del Padre Amaro and El primo Basilio, by Eça de Queiroz. From French: La condesa de Romaní, by Alejandro Dumas, and Las chicas del amigo Lefèvre, by Paul Alexis. And from Italian: Flor de pasión, by Matilde Serao.

Literary works

Where two dates are given, they refer first to the publication of the work in the periodical press and then in book form.
The list also gives the titles of works he had planned but never wrote, or of which only fragments (manuscript or published) are known.

Essay

• La lámpara maravillosa. Ejercicios espirituales. (1916).

Theater

• Cenizas. Drama en tres actos (1899).
• El marqués de Bradomín. Coloquios románticos (premiere, 1906; edition, 1907).

[Based on the narrative series Sonatas: Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín]

Comedias bárbaras series (1906-1922):

• Águila de blasón. Comedia bárbara dividida en cinco jornadas (premiere, 1907; edition 1906, 1907).
• Romance de lobos. Comedia bárbara dividida en tres jornadas (1908).
• Cara de Plata. Comedia bárbara (1922).

• El yermo de las almas (1908) [readaptation of Cenizas. Drama en tres actos].
• Farsa infantil de la cabeza del dragón (premiere: 1910, edition 1909, 1914).
• Cuento de abril. Escenas rimadas en una manera extravagante (1910).
• Farsa y licencia de la Reina Castiza (1st edition 1910).
• Voces de gesta. Tragedia pastoril (1911).
• El embrujado. Tragedia de tierras de Salnes (premiere, 1912; edition, 1913).
• La marquesa Rosalinda. Farsa sentimental y grotesca (premiere, 1912; edition, 1913).
• Divinas palabras. Tragicomedia de aldea (1919).
• Farsa italiana de la enamorada del rey (1920).
• Farsa y licencia de la Reina Castiza (2nd edition 1920, definitive; premiere 1931).
• Luces de bohemia. Esperpento (España. Semanario, 1920) [12 scenes].
• Luces de bohemia. Esperpento (2nd expanded edition 1924, definitive; premiere 1970) [15 scenes].
• Los cuernos de don Friolera. Esperpento (1921, 1925; partial premiere 1926).
• ¿Para cuándo son las reclamaciones diplomáticas? (1922).
• La rosa de papel. Novela macabra (1924).
• La cabeza del Bautista. Novela macabra (1924).
• Tablado de marionetas para educación de príncipes (1926).

Includes:

Farsa y licencia de la Reina Castiza.

Farsa italiana de la enamorada del rey.

Farsa infantil de la cabeza del dragón.

• El terno del difunto (1926), retitled Las galas del difunto (1930).
• Ligazón. Auto para siluetas (1926).
• La hija del capitán. Esperpento (1927).
• Sacrilegio. Auto para siluetas (1927).
• Retablo de la avaricia, la lujuria y la muerte (1927).

Includes:

Ligazón. Auto para siluetas.

La rosa de papel.

La cabeza del Bautista.

El embrujado.

Sacrilegio. Auto para siluetas.

• Martes de Carnaval. Esperpentos (1930).

Includes:

Las galas del difunto (El terno del difunto).

Los cuernos de don Friolera. Esperpento.

La hija del capitán. Esperpento.

Novel

• La cara de Dios. Based on the celebrated drama by Don Carlos Arniches (1900).

Sonatas: Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín series (1902-1905):

• Sonata de otoño. Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín (1902).
• Sonata de estío. Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín (1903).
• Sonata de primavera. Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín (1904).
• Sonata de invierno. Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín (1905).

• Flor de santidad (1904).

La guerra carlista series (1908-1909) [unfinished]:

• Los cruzados de la Causa. La guerra carlista (1908).
• El resplandor de la hoguera. Vol. II. La guerra carlista (1909).
• Gerifaltes de antaño. Vol. III. La guerra carlista (1909).
• Las banderas del rey [planned].
• La guerra en las montañas [planned].

• En la luz del día (El Imparcial, 1917).
• Cartel de Ferias. Cromos isabelinos (1925).
• Zacarías el cruzado (1926).
• Agüero nigromántico (1926).
• Tirano Banderas. Novela de tierra caliente (1926).
• Ecos de Asmodeo (1926).
• Estampas isabelinas. La rosa de oro (1927).
• Fin de un revolucionario. Aleluyas de la Gloriosa (1928).

El ruedo ibérico. Los amenes de un reinado (1st Series):

• La corte de los milagros (1927).

Aires nacionales (El Sol, 1931; incorporated into La corte de los milagros).

• ¡Viva mi dueño! (1928).
• Baza de espadas. Vísperas septembrinas (El Sol, 1932, incomplete; 1958)

El ruedo ibérico. Aleluyas de la Gloriosa (2nd Series):

• España con honra [planned].
• Trono en ferias [planned].
• Fueros y cantones [planned].

El ruedo ibérico. La Restauración borbónica (3rd Series):

• Los salones alfonsinos [planned].
• Dios, Patria y Rey [planned].
• Los campos de Cuba [planned].

• El trueno dorado (1936, fragment; posthumous).

Lyric poetry

• Aromas de Leyenda. Versos en loor a un Santo Ermitaño (1907).
• La pipa de kif (1919).
• El pasajero. Claves líricas (1920).
• Claves líricas (1930) [definitive edition; collects all his poetry].

Stories, short novels and gallant tales

• Babel (1888).
• A media noche (1889).
• El mendigo (1891).
• El Gran Obstáculo (1892).
• Femeninas. Seis historias amorosas (1895) [6 stories].

Includes:

• La condesa de Cela [1893].
• Tula Varona [1893].
• Octavia Santino [1892].
• La Niña Chole [1893].
• La Generala [1892].
• Rosarito [1894].

• Epitalamio (Historia de amores) (1897).
• Corte de amor. Florilegio de honestas y nobles damas (1st edition 1903) [4 stories].

• Rosita.
• Eulalia.
• Augusta.
• Beatriz.

• Jardín umbrío (1st edition 1903).

Includes (among others):

• Malpocado.
• El Miedo.
• Tragedia de ensueño.
• El rey de la máscara.
• Un cabecilla.

• Jardín novelesco. Historias de santos, de almas en pena, de duendes y de ladrones (1905) [9 stories].

Includes:

La adoración de los Reyes al Niño Jesús. La misa de San Electus. Un ejemplo.

Del misterio. A media noche. Comedia de ensueño.

Nochebuena. Geórgicas. Una breve Oración.

• Un bautizo (1906).
• Historias perversas (1907).
• Corte de amor (1908).
• Jardín novelesco. Historias de santos, de almas en pena, de duendes y ladrones (1908).

Includes (among others):

• Fue Satanás.
• La hueste.
• Égloga.
• Hierbas olorosas.

• Una tertulia de antaño (1909) [Carlist theme].
• La Corte de Estella (1910) [Carlist theme].
• Cofre de sándalo (1909).

Includes (among others):

• Mi hermana Antonia (1909, 1913).

• Historias de amor (1909).

Includes eight (among others):

• Drama vulgar (1908).

• Las mieles del rosal (1910) [anthology].
• Augusta (1913)
• Beatriz (1913)
• Mi hermana Antonia (1913)
• Corte de Amor (2nd edition 1914).
• Jardín umbrío (2nd edition 1914) [16 stories].

Includes (among others):

• Juan Quinto.
• Mi bisabuelo.
• Rosarito.
• Milón de la Arnoya.

• Jardín umbrío (3rd edition 1920) [17 stories; definitive version].

Includes:

Juan Quinto. La adoración de los Reyes. El miedo. Tragedia de ensueño. Beatriz. Un cabecilla. La misa de San Electus. El rey de la máscara.

Mi hermana Antonia.

Del misterio. A media noche. Mi bisabuelo. Rosarito. Comedia de ensueño. Milón de la Arnoya. Un ejemplo. Nochebuena y Oración.

• Corte de Amor (3rd edition 1922) [5 stories; definitive version]

Includes:

• Rosita.
• Eulalia.
• Augusta.
• La condesa de Cela.
• La generala.

• Flores de almendro (1936) [posthumous compilation].

War chronicles

• La medianoche. Visión estelar de un momento de guerra (El Imparcial, Oct.–Dec. 1916; 1917).
• Un día de guerra. Visión estelar. Segunda parte: En la luz del día (El Imparcial, Jan.–Feb. 1917).

Series of newspaper articles

• Various contributions to Café con gotas. Semanario satírico ilustrado (1886-1890)
• Paul y Angulo y los asesinos de Prim. Series of contributions to Ahora (1935).

Unpublished and recently published texts

Most belong to the "Archivo Valle-Inclán Alsina", created with the legacy of Carlos Luis Valle Inclán Blanco and Mercedes Alsina Gómez-Ulla.
The recently edited texts were published in 2008 in a single volume edited by Javier Valle-Inclán Alsina.

• La muerte bailando (2008 edition)
• Sevilla… (2008 edition)
• Bradomín expone un juicio (2008 edition)
• La Marquesa Carolina y Bradomín (2008 edition)
• El Beato Estrellín. Tragedia sacramental [dramatic work]
• Las mujeres de Sálvora [dramatic work]
• El Rey ciego
• Caminos y destinos
• Auto de Don Juan
• El Nigromante
• Terremoto
• El Soldado de África
• El Yerno de Gálvez
• [Cuaderno de Francia] [notebook]
• [Cuaderno de Navarra] [notebook]

Adaptations and works inspired by Valle-Inclán

Music

Before her death, the singer Cecilia left unpublished several songs inspired by the work of Valle-Inclán, among them "Doña Estefaldina"; most of them are collected in the compilation album Canciones inéditas.

Opera

• La cabeza del dragón. Ópera cómica en tres actos divididos en seis escenas (1939, premiere: Barcelona, 1960).

Based on Farsa infantil de la cabeza del dragón.

Libretto: Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Music: Ricard Lamote de Grignon i Ribas.

• Blutbund. Oper 1 Ak. (1974; premiere: Hamburg, 1977).

Based on Ligazón. Auto para siluetas.

Libretto: Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Walter Boehlich (trans.). Music: Hans-Jürgen von Bosse.

• Ligazón (1982, premiere: Cuenca, 1982).

Based on Ligazón. Auto para siluetas.

Libretto: Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Music: José Luis Turina.

• Divinas palabras (1992, premiere: Madrid, 1997).

Based on Divinas palabras. Tragicomedia de aldea.

Libretto: Francisco Nieva. Music: Antón García Abril.

• Sonata de primavera (2000; La Plata, Argentina, 2004).

Based on Sonata de primavera.

Libretto: Alejandro Fontenla. Music: Jorge Fontenla.

• La cabeza del Bautista (premiere: Barcelona, 2009).

Based on La cabeza del Bautista.

Libretto: Carlos Wagner. Music: Enric Palomar.

• Patto di sangue. Opera in two parts: Patto di sangue and La rosa di carta. (premiere: Florence, 2009).

Based on Ligazón. Auto para siluetas and on La rosa de papel.

Libretto: Sandro Cappelletto. Maria Luisa D'Amico (trans.). Music: Matteo D'Amico.

Film

• Sonatas (Mexico–Spain, 1959).

Based on the novel series Sonatas: Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín.

Adaptation: Juan Antonio Bardem, Juan de la Cebada and José Revueltas. Director: Juan Antonio Bardem.

• Flor de santidad (Spain, 1972).

Based on the novel Flor de santidad.

Adaptation: Pedro Carvajal and Adolfo Marsillach. Director: Adolfo Marsillach.

• Beatriz (Spain, 1976).

Based on the gallant tales Beatriz and Mi hermana Antonia.

Adaptation: Santiago Moncada and Gonzalo Suárez. Director: Gonzalo Suárez.

• Divinas palabras (Mexico, 1977).

Based on the play Divinas palabras. Tragicomedia de aldea.

Adaptation: Juan Ibáñez. Director: Juan Ibáñez.

• Luces de bohemia (Spain, 1985).

Based on the play Luces de Bohemia. Esperpento.

Adaptation: Mario Camus. Director: Miguel Ángel Díez.

• Divinas palabras (Spain, 1987).

Based on the play Divinas palabras. Tragicomedia de aldea.

Adaptation: José Luis García Sánchez and Enrique Llovet. Director: José Luis García Sánchez.

• Tirano Banderas (Spain–Cuba–Mexico, 1993).

Based on the novel Tirano Banderas. Novela de tierra caliente.

Adaptation: Rafael Azcona and Enrique Llovet. Director: José Luis García Sánchez.

Television

• La cabeza del Bautista (Spain: Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía, 1967).

Based on the play La cabeza del Bautista. Novela macabra.

Adaptation: Manuel Revuelta. Director: Manuel Revuelta.

• Comedias bárbaras (Spain: RTVE, 1968).

Based on the series of plays Comedias bárbaras.

Adaptation: Luis de Castresana. Director: Pascual Cervera.

• La infanzona de medinica (Spain: RTVE, 19?).

Based on "Clave IX: La infanzona de medinica" from the poetic work La pipa de kif.

Adaptation: José Luis Font Espina. Director: José Luis Font Espina.

• Águila de blasón (Spain: RTVE, 1974).

Based on the play Águila de blasón. Comedia bárbara.

Adaptation: José Manuel Fernández. Director: José Antonio Páramo.

• La marquesa Rosalinda (Spain: RTVE, 1981).

Based on the play La marquesa Rosalinda. Farsa sentimental y grotesca.

Director: Francisco Montolio.

• Sonata de estío (Spain: RTVE, 1982).

Based on the novel Sonata de estío. Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín.

Adaptation: Enrique Llovet. Director: Fernando Méndez-Leite.

• Sonata de primavera (Spain: RTVE, 1982).

Based on the novel Sonata de primavera. Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín.

Adaptation: Enrique Llovet. Director: Enrique Llovet.

• Martes de carnaval (Spain: RTVE, 2009).

Based on the series of theatrical esperpentos Martes de Carnaval. Esperpentos, which includes Los cuernos de don Friolera. Esperpento, Las galas del difunto and La hija del capitán. Esperpento.

Adaptation: Rafael Azcona and José Luis García Sánchez. Director: José Luis García Sánchez.

See also

• Spanish Modernista literature
• Generation of '98
• Esperpento
• Bohemia
• Spanish literary bohemia
• Teatro Valle-Inclán
• Marqués de Bradomín Prize
• Valle-Inclán Theater Awards
• La noche de Max Estrella
• Marquisate of Bradomín

Bibliography

• ALBA PEINADO, Carlos. "A la sombra de D. Ramón por el callejón de la crítica" in Valle-Inclán, R. del, Los cuernos de don Friolera, (Ed. Ángel Facio), Madrid: Teatro Español, 2008, pp. 11-36. ISBN 978-84-87744-43-3
• ALBA PEINADO, Carlos. "Valle-Inclán en el paradigma de la independencia teatral" in Fidel López Criado (coord.) Valle-Inclán: ensayos críticos sobre su obra y su trascendencia literaria, La Coruña: Hércules ediciones, 2008, pp. 89-98. ISBN 978-84-96314-79-5
• ALBERCA SERRANO, Manuel & GONZÁLEZ ÁLVAREZ, Cristóbal. Valle-Inclan. La fiebre del estilo. Madrid: Editorial Espasa Calpe S.A., 2002. ISBN 84-670-0315-4. ISBN 978-84-670-0315-4.
• COMESAÑA PAZ, Alfredo. "Tinta, Tierra y Tradición. Ramón María del Valle-Inclán y el carlismo". Madrid: Reino de Cordelia, 2021. ISBN 978-84-18141-63-8
• DOMÉNECH YVORRA, Ricardo (ed.). Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Madrid: Taurus Ediciones, 1988. ISBN 84-306-2187-3. ISBN 978-84-306-2187-3.
• FERNÁNDEZ ALMAGRO, Melchor. Vida y literatura de Valle-Inclán. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1943.
• FERNÁNDEZ ALMAGRO, Melchor. Vida y literatura de Valle-Inclán. 2nd ed. Madrid: Taurus, 1966.
• FERNÁNDEZ ALMAGRO, Melchor. Vida y literatura de Valle-Inclán. Pamplona: Urgoiti Editores S.L., 2007. ISBN 978-84-935290-0-0.
• GÓMEZ DE LA SERNA, Ramón. Don Ramón María del Valle-Inclán. Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe, 1944.
• GONZÁLEZ MARTEL, Juan Manuel. «Leal da Câmara y Valle-Inclán. Un testimonio epistolar sobre sendos lances de honor en 1899». In: Madrygal. Revista de Estudios Gallegos, 2009, no. 12, pp. 25-36. ISSN 1138-9664. eISSN 1988-3285.
• HORMIGÓN BLÁNQUEZ, Juan Antonio. Valle-Inclán. Biografía cronológica y epistolario, 3 vols. Madrid: Publicaciones de la Asociación de Directores de Escena de España, 2006-2007. ISBN 84-95576-52-X. ISBN 978-84-95576-52-1.

· Biografía cronológica (1866-1919), vol. 1, pt. 1, 2006. ISBN 84-95576-59-7. ISBN 978-84-95576-59-0.

· Biografía cronológica (1920-1936), vol. 1, pt. 2, 2007. ISBN 978-84-95576-60-6.

· Epistolario de Valle-Inclán, vol. 2, 2006. ISBN 84-95576-53-8. ISBN 978-84-95576-53-8.

• MADRID, Francisco. La vida altiva de Valle-Inclán. Buenos Aires: Editorial Poseidón, 1943.
• OLIVA OLIVARES, César. El fondo del vaso. Imágenes de don Ramón M. del Valle Inclán. València: Universitat de València, 2003. ISBN 84-370-5834-1. ISBN 978-84-370-5834-4.
• PEREIRO OTERO, José Manuel. La escritura modernista de Valle-Inclán: Orgía de colores. Madrid: Editorial Verbum S.L., 2008. ISBN 978-84-7962-418-7.
• PEDRAZA JIMÉNEZ, Felipe Blas & RODRÍGUEZ CÁCERES, Milagros. Manual de literatura española. VIII. Generación de fin de siglo: Introducción, líricos y dramaturgos. Tafalla: Cénlit Ediciones, 2001. ISBN 84-85511-17-4. ISBN 978-84-85511-17-4.
• REIGOSA, Carlos G.; VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Javier DEL & MONLEÓN BENNACER, José. La muerte de Valle-Inclán. El último esperpento. Madrid: Ézaro Ediciones, 2008. ISBN 978-84-935134-9-8.
• RUBIA BARCIA, José. A Bibliography and Iconography of Valle Inclán (1866-1936). Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1960.

Bibliographic review with corrections:

DEVOTO, Daniel. «J. Rubia Barcia, A Bibliography and iconography of Valle Inclán (1866-1936)». In: Bulletin Hispanique. Annales de la Faculté des Lettres de Bourdeaux, Jan.–Jun. 1963, vol. 65, nos. 1-2, pp. 176-178. ISSN 0007-4640. eISSN 1775-3821.

• RUBIO JIMÉNEZ, Jesús & GAMALLO DEAÑO, Antonio Ángel. Ramón del Valle-Inclán y Josefina Blanco. El pedestal de los sueños. Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2011. ISBN 978-84-15-27428-5.
• RUIZ SALVADOR, Antonio. Ateneo, dictadura y república. Valencia: Fernando Torres Editor, 1976, pp. 152-153. ISBN 84-7366-069-2. ISBN 978-84-7366-069-3.
• SALCEDO MENDOZA, José Enrique, Valle-Inclán y la filosofía de los druidas, Devenir, Juan Pastor editor, Madrid, 2010, 132 pages, 978-84-92877-06-5,
• SALPER, Roberta L. «Valle-Inclán y su mundo: ideología y forma narrativa». In: Teoría Literaria, 1988. ISSN 0921-2523. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi B.V., 1988. ISBN 90-5183-027-0. ISBN 978-90-5183-027-9.

·Valle-Inclán y la filosofía de los druidas (in español).

• SERRANO ALONSO, Javier & DE JUAN BOLUFER, Amparo. Bibliografía General de Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Santiago de Compostela: Servizo de Publicacións e Intercambio Científico. Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 1995. ISBN 84-8121-280-6. ISBN 978-84-8121-280-8.
• SERRANO ALONSO, Javier; DE JUAN BOLUFER, Amparo & VALLE-INCLÁN, Ramón DEL. Valle-Inclán dibujado | Valle-Inclán debuxado: caricaturas y retratos del escritor. Lugo: Cátedra Valle-Inclán; Concellería de Cultura e Turismo, 2008. ISBN 84-935780-9-6. ISBN 978-84-935780-9-1.
• UMBRAL, Francisco. Valle-Inclán. Madrid: Unión Editorial S.A., 1968. ISBN 84-7209-003-5. ISBN 978-84-7209-003-3.
• UMBRAL, Francisco. Valle-Inclán. Los botines blancos de piqué. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta S.A., 1998. ISBN 84-08-02172-9. ISBN 978-84-08-02172-8.
• VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Joaquín DEL. Ramón del Valle-Inclán y la imprenta. (Una introducción). Editorial Biblioteca Nueva S.L., 2006. ISBN 84-9742-569-3. ISBN 978-84-9742-569-8.
• VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Joaquín DEL & VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Javier DEL (ed.). Ramón María del Valle-Inclán. Entrevistas, conferencias y cartas. Valencia: Pre-Textos, 1994. ISBN 84-8191-018-X. ISBN 978-84-8191-018-6.
• VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Joaquín DEL & VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Javier DEL (ed.). Bibliografía de don Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (1888-1936). Valencia: Editorial Pre-Textos, 1995. ISBN 84-8191-060-0. ISBN 978-84-8191-060-5.
• VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Joaquín DEL & VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Javier DEL (ed.). Exposición don Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (1866-1898). Santiago de Compostela, del 10 de noviembre de 1998 al 10 de enero de 1999, 4 vols. Santiago de Compostela: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Servicio de Publicaciones e Intercambio Científico, 1998. ISBN 84-8121-714-X. ISBN 978-84-8121-714-8.

· Gente de letras. Algunos antepasados de don Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Los años mozos (1885-1892), vol. 1. ISBN 84-8121-715-8. ISBN 978-84-8121-715-5.

· Los primeros años en Madrid (1895-1900). Los viajes, América y Francia, vol. 2. ISBN 84-8121-716-6. ISBN 978-84-8121-716-2.

· Las artes del libro. Opiniones de don Ramón sobre el teatro, vol. 3. ISBN 84-8121-717-4. ISBN 978-84-8121-717-9.

· Catálogo general de la exposición, vol. 4. ISBN 84-8121-718-2. ISBN 978-84-8121-718-6.

• VALLE-INCLÁN, Ramón DEL. Valle-Inclán inédito. VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Joaquín DEL (ed.). Madrid: Editorial Espasa Calpe S.A., 2008. ISBN 978-84-670-2728-0.
• VALLE-INCLÁN ALSINA, Joaquín DEL. «El mito autoinventado». In: «La Cultura del XIX al XX en España». Fundación Zuloaga.

External links

• Ramón María del Valle-Inclán in the Polymath Virtual Library (Fundación Ignacio Larramendi), record POLI20090015135.
• Works by Valle-Inclán at Project Gutenberg.
• MUÑOZ CÁLIZ, Berta: Valle-Inclán y la censura de representaciones durante el franquismo; in Don Galán. Revista de Investigación Teatral, 1. 2011.
  • Reproduction.
    • See "Censorship" and "Francoist censorship".
    • Berta Muñoz Cáliz: member of the Centro de Documentación Teatral.

Specialized Valle-Inclán portals

• Cátedra Valle Inclán at the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.
• Cátedra de Extensión Cultural Valle-Inclán. Grupo de Investigación Valle-Inclán da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (GIVIUS), 1994-.

Specialized and general portals with a Valle-Inclán section

• La Cultura del XIX al XX en España. Madrid: Fundación Zuloaga, 2011.
• PÉREZ ROSADO, Miguel. «El teatro de Valle-Inclán». Archived 2010-12-24 at the Wayback Machine In: Historia de la Literatura hispánica. [n.p.]: SpanishArts.com, [n.d.].
• PÉREZ ROSADO, Miguel. «La prosa de Valle-Inclán». In: Historia de la Literatura hispánica. [n.p.]: SpanishArts.com, [n.d.].

Specialized portals on the Silver Age

• Portal Edad de Plata. Madrid: Residencia de Estudiantes. CSIC, 2001-.

Valle-Inclán foundations and associations

Asociación Amigos de Valle-Inclán-Revista Cuadrante. Vilanova de Arousa.

• Taller d'Investigacions Valleinclanianes. Bellaterra (Barcelona), 1991-.

Valle-Inclán museums and house museums

https://www.museosdeescritores.com/casa-museo-ramon-del-valle-inclan/

• Casa Museo Valle-Inclán. Vilanova de Arousa (Pontevedra), 1999-.

ACAMFE information sheet.

Portals of institutions linked to Valle-Inclán

• Presidentes del Ateneo de Madrid. Madrid: Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid.

Valle-Inclán periodicals

• Anuario Valle-Inclán. GIVIUS, 2001-. Tables of contents 2001-2010.
• El Pasajero. Revista de Estudios sobre Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Sant Cugat del Vallès: Associació d'Idees; Taller d'Investigacions Valleinclanianes, 2000-. ISSN 1576-1320.
• Cuadrante. Revista cultural da Asociación de Amigos de Valle-Inclán. Vilanova de Arousa (Pontevedra): Asociación Amigos de Valle-Inclán, 2000-. ISSN 1698-3971.
• Bradomín. Revista de Estudios sobre Ramón del Valle-Inclán e o seu Tempo. Vilanova de Arousa (Pontevedra): Fundación Valle-Inclán, 2005-. Table of contents no. 1, Jan. 2005.

Valle-Inclán tributes and news in the press

• El Cultural, January 20–26, 2012, «Desmontando a Valle».

repository 1. Archived 2022-05-22 at the Wayback Machine

repository 2.

Portals and personal pages of Valle-Inclán scholars

• LIMA, Robert. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University.

Personal tributes and educational portals on Valle-Inclán

• GONZÁLEZ-SERNA SÁNCHEZ, José María. Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (grotesco personaje). San José de la Rinconada (Seville): IES Carmen Laffón, [n.d.].
• TALLER D'INVESTIGACIONS VALLEINCLANIANES. «Valle-Inclán para estudiantes». In: El Pasajero. Revista de Estudios sobre Ramón del Valle-Inclán, [n.d.].

Works and adaptations

• Martes de carnaval (Spain: RTVE, 2009).

Adaptation: Rafael Azcona and José Luis García Sánchez. Director: José Luis García Sánchez.

Episode 1: Los cuernos de don Friolera.

Episode 2: Las galas del difunto.

Episode 3: La hija del capitán.

Documentaries and docudramas

• De tertulia con Valle-Inclán (Spain: Sociedad Estatal de Acción Cultural, 2011).

Screenplay: Silvio Martínez. Director: José Luis García Sánchez.