Mesonero Romanos, Ramón de

Born July 19, 1803, in Madrid; died there Apr. 30, 1882. Spanish writer. One of the greatest representatives of costumbrismo.

Mesonero Romanes was educated at the universities of Barcelona, Madrid, and Valladolid. Beginning in 1832, using the pen name “El Curioso Parlante” (the Curious Chatterer), he wrote essays on customs and manners, which later were included in Madrid Panorama (vols. 1–3, 1835–38), Scenes of Madrid (vols. 1–4, 1842), and Types, Groups, and Sketches (1862). Mesonero Romanes wrote numerous essays portraying social types and scenes from the everyday life of the capital. He was sympathetic to the urban poor and he commented bitterly on the decline of patriarchal customs.

In 1836, Mesonero Romanes founded, and until 1842 edited, the magazine El Semanario Pintoresco Espanol (The Picturesque Spanish Weekly). Of interest are his Reminiscences of a Septuagenarian(1880) and descriptions of the Spanish capital in Madrid Guidebook (1831) and Old Madrid (1861).